A poor approach to institutional change, along with discriminative responses to certain cases, is slowing down bureaucratic reform within the Attorney General's Office (AGO), critics warn.

The Commission for Public Prosecution (KK) has said the AGO's reform agenda, which kicked off in July this year, was nothing more than a fantasy.

"The reform agenda within the AGO has only been a discourse. It has been very poor in its actual realization," Commission member Maria Ulfah Rombot said in Jakarta recently.

"Our investigations show there are still many cases where sanctioned prosecutors are being promoted to (higher) positions. So, where's that apparent reform spirit?" she said.

Lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) slammed the AGO for its poor outline of the reform agenda.

"The blueprint is very disappointing. I didn't see any radical changes in the proposal. It's just the same old story," Eva said Friday.

The proposal, she added, had failed to address changes in institutional culture, one of the main problems in the office.

"The plan doesn't show any efforts to improve its internal body which is overshadowed by briberies, extortions and non-service oriented officials.

"It did mention a code of ethics, but it's 'toothless' when compared to that of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)," said Eva, from the House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs.

The KPK reforms have been praised for outlining more effective and detailed plans for harsher punishments for its disgraced officials.

"KPK officials can monitor each other, while in the AGO, such a supervisory function is still under one division. This has proven to be not effective.

"The funny thing is, the AGO's proposal suggests holding Koran recital sessions to prevent corrupt behavior among its officials. What does that have to do with combating corruption and extortion?" Eva asked.

She also criticized the AGO's plan to scrap thousands of its structural posts in an attempt to be more effective.

"Don't expect too much from the plan. Efficiency derives from an improved institutional culture, which the AGO has failed to tackle in this approach."

The National Commission on Human Rights chairman Ifdhal Kasim said the restructuring should shift and focus on the AGO's main duties instead of only scrapping structural posts.

"The AGO has too many jobs to handle, and this hampers its main duties of investigating and prosecuting cases," he said.

He said the AGO had a "bloated" structure because it still handled preventive measures such as censorship and monitoring publication and groups deemed to be a threat to society.

"Such monitoring tasks were only suitable under an authoritarian regime like the New Order. Now that we are under a more democratic government, reform within the AGO should mean limiting its duties," Ifdhal said. Preventative measures such as maintaining security and public order, he added, should be given to the police.

"The culture at the AGO is still like the military's. The relationship among its officials is still based on hierarchies like ranks and uniforms, not their professional competency."

The AGO, Ifdhal said, had been the slowest institution to embrace a reform agenda compared to other government bodies. This could be seen from its slow response to cases of human rights abuses, which remain unresolved.

"All this time, the AGO has only focused on corruption cases. It always has formal excuses when responding to inaction on human rights violations cases."

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