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Supreme Court vows to combat judicial corruption. What?
Bribery is publicly perceived as one of the most effective methods to win a legal case in this country.
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Supreme Court justice named graft suspect (JP/T. Sutanto)
T
he Supreme Court is looking for a shortcut to regain the public trust by releasing the short movie The Justice of a Judge. The move comes against the backdrop of the arrest of two justices in connection with a bribery case.
Supreme Court Chief Justice HM Syarifuddin was quick to pledge to step up the fight against graft. Few people, however, are likely take Syarifuddin’s promise seriously because he was simply stating the obvious, some might even laugh at it. Public officials often parrot this line when their institutions are embroiled in a graft case but afterward it is business as usual.
In his year-end press conference on Jan. 3, Syarifuddin tried to convince the nation he would seek every path to ensure that the arrest of two justices and 12 court officials by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) would be the last to shroud the country’s foremost bastion of justice.
Syarifuddin believes the two justices were the only bad apples among the 50 serving justices. He also insisted the scandals would not affect the court’s performance.
“Although the arrest of two justices and some Supreme Court officials shocked us, I guarantee the court’s ability to settle cases won’t be affected at all,” said Syarifuddin.
Throughout 2022 the Supreme Court penalized 146 judges and ad hoc judges for breaking the code of ethics. As of December 2022, the court had settled a record 99.47 percent of 28,522 appeal motions, up from the previous year’s mark of 47.57 percent.
But you may be curious as to how many cases were settled with justice served, and how many were the results of bribery or outside intervention.
