I

n his first 100-day program, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to make fighting court mafia a top priority.

Although the momentum has never been better than now, at a time when public trust in the judiciary system is at its lowest ebb, his plan has received a skeptical response as the President has appeared reluctant to take firm action to resolve the "Gecko vs. Crocodile" conflict.

In passing, Yudhoyono's agenda all sounds irresistibly good, but because the so-called "judiciary mafia" has been so prominent over the past few decades, its implementation is in doubt, to say the least.

Over the years, the police and judicial systems have been allegedly controlled by mafia who run the institutions like a free market where justice can be bought and sold. The corrupt officers, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and middlemen are out to fix prosecutions for money as was recently uncovered to the public.

The bandits conspire so cleverly that they leave no traces of evidence so that cases can never be built against them - that is until a few days ago when the Constitutional Court played for the public recordings of mafiosos plotting to incriminate Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

The recordings may be only one episode of a million other mammoth cases, but the set of conversations wiretapped by the KPK vividly showed how the mafia works as a team to bend the laws.

The central figure was Anggodo Widjojo, a Surabaya-based financier who has sought to save his fugitive older businessman brother, Anggoro, from the pursuit of the KPK, which was investigating Anggoro in a multi-billion rupiah corruption case that also allegedly implicated the former forestry minister M.S Kaban.

The historic revelations have triggered popular outrage and have seen people's trust in the judiciary system fall to rock bottom.

Now that all the law enforcement institutions have apparently been infected to the core by the corruption virus, where should the President begin his job to clean up the judiciary system?

Yudhoyono's preference to stay "neutral" in the Gecko vs. Crocodile (KPK vs. the National Police and the Attorney General's Office) battle is raising questions about his true stance on the antigraft campaign, which was responsible for creating his "Mr. Clean" image at home and abroad.

Interestingly, his name was among top officials mentioned in one of the recordings, but so far he is yet to take action beyond denying any knowledge of the plot to incriminate the KPK deputies.

His appeal to the public to file reports with him about mafia-like treatment they have experienced in their dealings with state institutions is not likely to become an effective start to the job and could put his future on the line.

Making the best of the current momentum, the President could begin with reforming the National Police and the AGO, two corrupt law-enforcing institutions, as the tales of the recent controversial tapes vividly proved.

So far, Susno Duadji - criminal investigation chief at the National Police - and Deputy Attorney General Abdul H Ritonga, who were mentioned in the recordings, have resigned although they still insist they are innocent.

Yudhoyono has also been under pressure to fire National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, and take the case to court as an initial move to reform the institutions.

Equally urgent is the need to rid the courts of mafiosos. It's public knowledge the so-called markus (legal case middlemen) also infest courts, openly offering service to strangers who take their disputes there. These brokers become the frontmen in the legal case "business" and are so powerful they can fix verdicts for money.

The KPK, which has drawn Yudhoyono and his administration praise from across the globe, needs to be empowered. Ever since its chief Antasari was arrested on murder charges early this year, followed by the prosecution of Bibit and Chandra, the KPK has been crippled - to the delight of big-time crooks.

Yudhoyono's firm action is very much awaited to break the Gecko vs. Crocodile impasse to get corruption eradication going again. His vow of neutrality in the bitter conflict has only worsened the situation and stalled law enforcement.

Does he really have the political will to free law enforcing institutions of these mafiosos, or did he make yet another sweet promise to make it seem as though he remains committed to fighting graft?