Travesty of Justice

Posted by AsiaViews | Oct 9, 2017 | 0 |

The Jakarta Post

Oct 2, 2017

Cynics have long indulged in the thinking that corruption will continue to plague this country simply because the benefit of doing it outweighs its cost. After swindling billions from government projects, jailed corrupt officials can expect to walk out of prison and live the rest of their lives spending the ill-gotten riches.

Now, there are even more incentives for politicians and government officials to engage in corruption; they can get off the hook while being investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

The KPK may have uncontested prosecutorial prowess with an unblemished reputation of being able to score a nearly 100 percent conviction rate, but it is up against not only corrupt politicians, but also the country’s judiciary, known for its reputation as one of the most corrupt branches of government — and corrupt politicians have exploited the condition for their benefit. Speaker of the House of Representatives and Golkar Party chairman Setya Novanto is the latest politician who managed to exploit the loopholes in the country’s judiciary to repel the KPK’s inquiry.

Following in the footsteps of former deputy National Police chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan and former chief of the Supreme Audit Body (BPK) Hadi Purnomo, whose suspect statuses were annulled by a lower court on technicalities, Setya scored a victory in a pretrial motion filed against the KPK’s move to name him suspect in the e-ID graft case. This time, a judge at the South Jakarta District Court argued that evidence used to charge Setya was inadmissible because it had been taken from cases that implicated individuals who have not yet been convicted by the court.

It was the South Jakarta District Court that first opened this can of worms. Responding to a pretrial motion filed by Budi in February 2015 against the KPK, the court ordered the antigraft body to halt its probe into the police general. It then served as a catalyst for a rash of pretrial hearing petitions. The court initially rejected these pretrial petitions, arguing that it had no authority to examine a person’s status as a suspect. Originally, a pretrial hearing — which takes one week to complete — only looks into the administrative procedures of ongoing investigations.

Later that year, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that was a godsend to graft suspects. Responding to a judicial review filed by PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia, the court revised the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP) by inserting an article authorizing lower courts across the country to proceed with pretrial petitions to challenge suspect statuses handed down by law enforcement agencies.

Against the decision to water down the KUHAP, there’s little that the government could do as a proposal for an amendment through the House could take years to complete. The last time the KUHAP went through a revision was in 1981. The onus is on the KPK now to build solid cases against graft suspects, so that the court would not be able to mess with it.

(source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2017/10/02/editorial-travesty-of-justice.html)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Travesty of Justice