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tough job now awaits M. Syarifuddin, who is about to start his new role as Supreme Court chief justice, with many saying that he needs to restore public faith in the country’s judicial system by imposing stern sanctions against judges who violate its code of ethics.

Syarifuddin, formerly the deputy chief justice for judicial affairs, won the majority vote during an election held in a plenary meeting attended by 48 justices on Monday, which was live-streamed on YouTube because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Syarifuddin replaces M. Hatta Ali, who is retiring at the end of this month.

Having served as chief justice at the country’s highest court for eight years, Hatta has faced criticism for his failure in improving the judges’ compliance with the code of ethics. In 2019, for example, the Judicial Commission recommended sanctions against 130 judges for allegedly violating the code of ethics, a staggering increase from 37 judges in 2018.

“We think that the new Supreme Court chief should ensure that all legal proceedings be more accountable. One way to achieve that is by forcing the judges to uphold their code of ethics,” Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) chair Asfinawati told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“Accountability is the most important key in the justice system, as it can provide fairer rulings. And eventually, the public will have more trust in the country’s judicial process.”

As a lawyer, Asfinawati said she had encountered unreliable legal processes countless times when providing legal aid for her clients.

She recalled a recent incident when her client suddenly received a phone call from a court clerk, who demanded that her client pay a sum of money if he wanted to win his coming trial.

Another example, Asfinawati said, was the disparity in the courts’ rulings or inconsistencies in how judges impose sentences on equally culpable defendants facing the same charges in different cases, without reasonable considerations.

Such inconsistencies raised questions on judges’ professionalism and impartiality, if not, created legal uncertainty, she said.

“Based on our experiences, we demand that the new Supreme Court chief arrange a mechanism to prevent such things from happening again in the future. If he wants to reform the judicial process, enforcing a code of ethics can be a good starting point,” Asfinawati said.

The Justice Monitoring Coalition (KPP), which comprises 14 activist groups, expressed the same concerns after finding that many judges were still susceptible to bribery and illegal levies.

They said at least eight judges in lower courts had been caught accepting bribes from 2017 to 2019 by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The Supreme Court’s illegal levy eradication task force (Saber Pungli), meanwhile, has imposed sanctions against two judges who accepted bribes from litigants in 2019.

The former Supreme Court secretary, Nurhadi, has also been entangled in a graft case being investigated by the KPK. He is now a suspect for allegedly accepting Rp 46 billion (US$3.2 million) in connection to three cases handled by the court between 2011 and 2016. Nurhadi remains at large.

“This is a major problem that the new Supreme Court chief should resolve immediately,” the coalition said in a statement. “The new chief justice should coordinate better with the KPK, otherwise illegal levies and bribery will continue to harm the current country’s justice system.”

Judicial Commission chairman Jaja Ahmad Jayus urged the new Supreme Court chief to improve internal monitoring to prevent judges from breaching their code of ethics.

He also hoped that Syarifuddin would coordinate better with the Judicial Commission, especially on following up the commission’s sanction recommendations for judges it found guilty of ethical violations.

The Supreme Court is notorious for ignoring the Judicial Commission’s recommendations. In 2019, for example, the commission recommended sanctions against 130 judges who were found to have violated the judges’ code of ethics, with punishments ranging from verbal reprimanding to dismissal from the bench, but the court only followed up on 10 of them.

“But I know Syarifuddin very well, so we think we can communicate better to overcome that issue,” Jaja told the Post.

Speaking after his election as chief justice, Syarifuddin promised to carry out significant reform at the court in order to create a fairer judicial process.

“What we do today should be better than yesterday, while tomorrow should be better than today,” he said.