Key aspects of the Indonesian legal process are being tested in ways that could have important implications for the operation of justice, for parliamentary process and for corruption. Will members of the Indonesian Parliament (including two of SBY’s Ministers) be brought to account for receiving 'facilitating' payments to encourage them to pass legislation? Will a senior judicial official, caught red-handed taking a $600,000 bribe, be tried? And will a very senior general in the official intelligence agency, currently on trial for involvement in the poisoning of a human-rights activist, be found guilty?
Tackling the pervasive deficiencies of the Indonesian legal process will inevitably have inconsistent and unfair outcomes. It’s not enough that, in the words of an old Jakarta newspaper headline, 'all guilty parties will be given a fair trial': the innocent have to be protected and the guilty have to be given a punishment commensurate with the crime. The corruption issues are examined in my article in the AFR today.
