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Skin-deep law reform overly focused on economy
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was elected on the promise of reforming the legal system and ensuring a sense of security among citizens two years ago, eventually launched the long-awaited legal reform package last month
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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was elected on the promise of reforming the legal system and ensuring a sense of security among citizens two years ago, eventually launched the long-awaited legal reform package last month.
The “national legal system revitalization” package focuses on the eradication of illegal levies and bribery, combating smuggling, the acceleration of vehicle document processing, efficiency in stay permit issuance for foreigners and the relocation of prisoners.
Jokowi has delegated the job to a task force headed by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, a former Army general who has been implicated in past
human rights abuses.
Much emphasis has been placed on the eradication of illegal levies and bribery, corrupt practices rife in the government’s bureaucracy. The first salvo was fired on Oct. 11 when the police arrested Transportation Ministry employees who had allegedly accepted grease money from a businessman.
Then, last week, a middle-ranking police officer was caught red-handed extorting an entrepreneur who was seeking lenient treatment over his company’s alleged involvement in a multi-billion rupiah land acquisition project going awry.
Smuggling is being targeted as part of the government’s efforts to stop the stream of contraband such as narcotics and weapons for home-grown terror groups. The war on smuggling has been deemed ineffective due to overlapping regulations, unrealistic policies and lenient punishments for perpetrators.
A novelty is the government’s plan to build penitentiaries on outer islands and relocate drug and terror convicts there. This is expected to solve the problem of overcrowded prisons across the country and help develop far-flung regions.
Critics sneer at the reform as overly focused on the economy while hardly addressing human rights issues and fixing the outdated legal system. The policy does not provide a stronger legal basis for the resolution of past gross rights abuses, as people have persistently demanded.
Despite all the discrepancies, the reform is pushing government offices to combat corruption.
