A Face to Face Meeting of The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with Judges through the Region of Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, pa-bantul.net (23/06/11)

On the sidelines of the visit of Chief Justice of The Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Harifin Tumpa to Yogyakarta as one of the dissertation examiners of Junior Chief Justice for the Religious Courts Affairs of The Supreme Court, Andi Syamsu Alam, he took the time to conduct meeting with all ranks of judges of four judicatures of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Accompanied by Andi, Chief Justice conducted coaching for the Judges within the jurisdiction of Yogyakarta.

The coaching held on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, took place in the main courtroom of Yogyakarta  High Court. Present in coaching, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Yogyakarta High Religious Court, Chairwoman of the High Court of Yogyakarta, with the vice chairwoman.

Face to Face Meeting Brings Benefits

Opening the meeting, Harifin Tumpa said that meeting brings benefits and is imperative to maintain a relationship, because the continuously good relationship goes up mutual understanding and remind to each other. Chief Justice also asked the Chairmen of the Courts of First Instance as well as they of the appeal level to regularly and continously conduct meetings that impact on coaching and supervision. According to him, to conduct supervisory, no need to wait certain moments.

"Supreme Court (MA) realizes that it can not supervise itself, therefore, MA distributes supervision at the level below it. In the supervision the judges will realize how important the task of judges", he said.

Harifin Tumpa also elaborated on the number of sanctions that had been meted out to the judges, in 2006 were 16 judges, 2007 36 judges, 2008 76 judges, and in 2009 more than 100 judges. But until May 2011 only 21 judges. If the last number is used as the prediction to five months onward, it is expected until the end of the year, the number will be less than the previous year, or only about 50 judges are problematic. This figure is expected to decline as an indication of the results of supervision, although it is still far from what to be expected to be zero percent.

Those who Can Fix the Court are the Court Members

Chief Justice also realized that the dissatisfaction so far to the court from various parties can only be solved by members of the judiciary. "If we do not fix it, the judiciary will be like today. Especially when I hear that there is a judge that the courts failed miserably. This certainly is an insult to the citizens of the judiciary. But if we react to fight openly, then it may be increasingly embattled people and can cause more harm," he said.

He added that judges as the silent corps, should not bandwagon politics. They must be independent figures. Chief Justice asserted that judges do not have to answer if asked by Judicial Commission about judicial techniques. But they must be held accountable on the question if the judge took the decision that indicated taking bribes.

Independence of Judges for Interest of Justice Seekers

The Supreme Court will seek to maintain the independence of judges. The independence is not belonging of judges and nor for interest of judges, but for the interest of justice seekers. The independence should not be misconstrued in any form, by anyone. If a judge takes bribes, then the independence of judge is gone.

Judge’s independence is concerned with the functions of judge, which is to uphold law and justice. Rights and justice are one unit because justice is the spirit of law, while the law is the foundation of justice.

Chief Justice warned that the condition today is different from the situation ten years ago. Ten years ago, there were judges who show off the goods of bribe. If today it is still found, then the judge is crazy. Begging silently itself was a disgraceful act, let alone begging openly.

The arrest of one of the judges led to what to be pursued for no meaning. Then the chairman of the Supreme Court handed fate in the hands of judges. Morally, the Supreme Court is responsible for the conduct of judges. He expected hopefully case is the judge who was arrested last case.

As a keyword, Harifin delivered two things, namely that a judge must maintain the judge integrity. Since this is the main capital of judges to continue their mission. Only judges who have good integrity can get trust. And the key to maintain the integrity is on honesty. The another, Chief Justice also asked the judges to continuously increase their knowledge since to decide the case, should be adequate to knowledge.

Reward and Punishment

In the debriefing session, a judge of Bantul Religious Court, Lily Ahmad, asked that all highlighted in the media are the penalties for judges, and even then the amount is very small. While from about the 7000 judges exist, according to her, still have high integrity. The Supreme Court judges as the mother of judges, should balance between punishment and reward for judges. This is for encouragement for judges in the work, amid the shadows of the supervision of the Judicial Commission.

To this question, the Chief Justice responded that the Supreme Court appreciates judges who have high integrity and gives them reward but that is not published. But silently, The Supreme Court monitors every move of the judges, their achievements are always monitored. The judges will eventually be promoted.