Fachrizal Afandi, PhD, Chair of the Criminal Justice System Research Center, Universitas Brawijaya (PERSADA UB) attended President Joko Widodo’s invitation to Bogor Palace, Thursday (14/9/2023) together with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Prof. Mahfud MD and other members of the Legal Reform Acceleration Team. The team’s presence was in order to submit Recommendations for the Acceleration Reform of Judicial and Law Enforcement Institutions.
“Since it was formed in early June 2023, the team has completed recommendations for short-term and medium-term priority agendas along with action plans. “His team has identified seven short-term priority agendas in accelerating legal reform,” he said.
According to Fachrizal, one of the proposed priority agendas is also based on research conducted by PERSADA UB. In terms of recommendations for the formation of a National Advocates Council, for example, Fachrizal said that the institutional study of the Organization of Advocates in Indonesia which was carried out in early 2023 in collaboration with PERSADA UB and ICJR was the basis for the recommendations in this team. Also, several PERSADA UB research related to APH personnel system and organizational culture as well as the Criminal Procedure Law will continue to be advocated to become government policy in order to continue to improve the justice system in Indonesia to make it more just and civilized.
Fachrizal, who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Brawijaya, is a member of the Legal Reform Acceleration Team of the working group for the Reform of Judicial Institutions and Law Enforcement. These seven short-term priority agendas are accompanied by action plans that are proposed to the President and must be implemented by the relevant Ministries and Institutions with the results expected to be reported in 2024.
These seven agendas are first, improving human resource management for judges, law enforcement officers (APH) and related civil servant. Several agendas covering this first issue including carrying out assessments of officials at APH, strengthening the process of appointing accountable APH officials through position auctions involving the Corruption Eradication Commission, PPATK and related parties. Another thing that was highlighted was the need to limit the placement of POLRI members in K/L positions as well as improving the recruitment of adhoc judges for Corruption Courts.
The second agenda for Improving Supervision of APH and Judges focuses on strengthening APH’s internal and external supervision as well as affirming the legal process for APH who violate discipline/ethics or crimes. The third agenda is increasing APH and Judge allowances and the case handling budget which is still not in line with needs and opens up opportunities for corruption. The fourth agenda is Strengthening Regulations, Case Handling Processes and Prison Management, which includes the preparation of more definite rules regarding Restorative Justice, resolving the legal status of pending cases, revising the Narcotics Law, the ITE Law and granting mass pardons to convicts who abuse narcotics.
Meanwhile, the fifth agenda for Accelerating the Execution of Decisions is related to strengthening Polri’s support for the execution of civil decisions and accelerating the execution of civil decisions, TUN and KI as well as ORI recommendations and civil decisions that have not been implemented by the government.
The sixth agenda is related to the Acceleration of Information System Utilization and Accountability which can be implemented, one of which is through SPPT-TI (Information Technology Based Integrated Criminal Justice System) initiated by the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs as well as strengthening the transparency of the criminal case handling process at APH.
The final agenda which is also very important is Strengthening Institutions and Improving Organizational Culture which includes the Revision of the KPK Law to restore the KPK as an independent institution with integrity, the Establishment of a National Advocates Council to standardize the advocate profession and enforce ethics, Changes to uniforms with rank marks at the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as well as Publication of annual reports on the implementation of Polri’s duties.
This team includes Prof. Maria W Sumardjono, Prof. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, and Prof. Susi Dwi Harijanti. Also present at the meeting at Bogor Palace was Minister of State Secretary Prof. Pratikno and the President’s staff.
As stated by Prof. Mahfud MD to President Joko Widodo, the Legal Reform Acceleration Team was formed based on Decree of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs No. 63 of 2023 which consists of various selected experts, practitioners and academics from all over Indonesia who are divided into four working groups, namely Judicial Reform and Enforcement. Legal reform law of the Agrarian and Natural Resources Sector, Prevention and Eradication of Corruption, and Legislative Reform. (UB PR/ Trans. Iir)
