Chief Justice: Integrity is Essential for Judges

en1.hukumonline.com | Friday, January 27, 2012  

Chairman of the Supreme Court (MA) Harifin A Tumpa, asked judges to work on increasing their integrity. He expressed this desire as he kicked-off the regional workshop on judicial integrity, titled “Regional Workshop on Judicial Integrity in Southeast Asia : Integrity-based Judicial Reform” at Hotel Borobudur Jakarta, Thursday (26/1). Ideally, he said, law enforcers must have integrity, especially judges.

Harifin asserted that aside from having sufficient knowledge and independence, a judge must carry out his/her duties with integrity. According to Harifin, knowledge and independence have no value without integrity. Given the complexity of problems nowadays, judicial reform is essential in terms of improving capacity, professionalism, and ethics.

Furthermore, the code of ethics and code of conduct for judges must be clearly manifested in judges' behavior. “Integrity must be imprinted in a judge’s personality, so it may be reflected in their judicial performance,” he said.

As a part of MA’s commitment to this issue, the MA Regulatory Agency (Bawas MA) has  audited court performance since 2010. In 2011, Bawas MA evaluated the performance and integrity of 105 courts throughout Indonesia.

“The audit is necessary to evaluate court transparency and public confidence levels, along with identifying violations, so preventive and repressive action can be taken,” said Harifin.

At the event, Harifin also announced the results of the 2011 public sector integrity survey, which was conducted by the Corruption Eradication Commission’s Directorate of Research and Development (Litbang KPK). MA was ranked number three out of seven government institutions.

Another survey conducted by the Indonesian Information Commission (KI Pusat) in 2011, ranked MA number six out of 10 public institutions that improved transparency of public information through their official websites.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Judicial Commission (KY) Eman Suparman, hopes  participants at the event will share their experiences and how their judicial commissions work. “Whether they have the same system, or how they conduct external supervision will be shared and compared to KY,” Eman explained.

Eman added, there are five ASEAN countries that have judicial commissions. These countries are Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. “Only two of these countries are present. They will discuss their systems later in the forum,” he said.

The event was held by MA and the Judicial Commission. It was attended by leaders of Southeast Asian and Asian Pacific judicial institutions. The countries represented are: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Netherlands, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, New Zealand, and Nepal.

(Agus Sahbani / Mahinda Arkyasa)