VZCZCXRO1368
OO RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #1818/01 2690835
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 250835Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0198
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5442
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 3092
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 1330
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 1300
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2273
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 4951
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2541
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 3116
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 2991
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 1161
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHHJJPI/USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 001818 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, INL 
INL FOR ROESS/BARCLAY 
DEPT FOR EEB/IFD/OMA 
DOJ/OPDAT FOR LEHMANN/ALEXANDRE/JOHNSON 
MCC FOR LONGI 
SINGAPORE FOR BAKER 
TREASURY FOR M.NUGENT 
NSC FOR E.PHU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KJUS KCOR ID
SUBJECT: KEY ANTI-CORRUPTION COURT'S MANDATE UP FOR RENEWAL 
IN LEGISLATURE 
 
REF: A. JAKARTA 1815 
     ¶B. JAKARTA 1759 
     ¶C. JAKARTA 865 
 
JAKARTA 00001818  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (U) SUMMARY:  President Yudhoyono sent a draft bill to 
re-authorize the Anti-Corruption Court to the Indonesian 
Parliament (DPR) on August 11.  The DPR is slated to begin 
discussions of the draft soon.  There are a couple of 
problematic issues that need to be addressed before the bill 
is passed.  In addition, due to the political timetable, it 
is unlikely that the draft could be passed into law before 
late 2009.  The Anti-Corruption Court has been a key link in 
the GOI's efforts to tackle corruption and warrants a renewal 
of its important mandate.  END SUMMARY. 
 
KEY COURT'S MANDATE UP FOR RENEWAL 
 
¶2.  (U) A key court needs to have its mandate renewed by the 
Indonesian legislature.  The Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) was 
created in tandem with its partner body, the Corruption 
Eradication Commission (KPK), to try high-profile corruption 
cases as well as cases which incur a state loss of over USD 
$100,000.  Since their founding in 2002, the KPK and the ACC 
have been a solid success and are repeatedly mentioned as 
Indonesia's most trustworthy institutions in public polls 
(ref B). (Note:  For a big picture review of Indonesia's 
anti-corruption effort, please see ref A, which includes a 
discussion of the effectiveness of the ACC and the KPK.) 
 
¶3.  (U) In December 2006, the Constitutional Court ruled that 
the Anti-Corruption Court (ACC) was unconstitutional due to 
flaws in the original legislation and the potentially 
differential treatment defendants might receive in the ACC 
versus the general courts (ref C).  The ACC was granted a 
three-year grace period to continue operation, pending new 
DPR legislation.  A Ministry of Law and Human Rights drafting 
team submitted the draft bill to the President for approval 
in 2007.  After initially sending the bill back to the 
Ministry for further revisions, President Yudhoyono sent his 
Cabinet-approved version of the bill to Parliament on August 
¶11. 
 
DPR TO DEBATE DRAFT LEGISLATION 
 
¶4.  (U) Deliberations on the bill in the DPR are slated to 
begin on October 15.  The draft bill has two critical 
variables: the number of courts and the ratio between career 
and non-career (so called ad-hoc) judges.  The Ministry's 
draft law would establish five "model" Anti-Corruption Courts 
in Jakarta, Medan, Semarang, Surabaya, and Makassar.  In the 
version approved by the Cabinet, however, ACCs would be 
established in the district court of every provincial 
capital--34 courts in all.  The specialized nature of the 
courts could be rendered meaningless with this arrangement as 
there may not be a sufficient number of qualified justices to 
staff 34 ACCs, experts assert.  Judges in the ACC's district 
courts would not necessarily understand the issues and could 
be easily influenced by political or economic considerations, 
according Prof. Romli Atmasasmita, chief drafter of the 
Ministry of Law and Human Rights' version of the legislation. 
 
 
¶5.  (U) The ad-hoc to career judge ratio, currently 3 to 2 
respectively, is seen as critical to court independence.  In 
 
JAKARTA 00001818  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
the Cabinet approved bill, the Supreme Court would determine 
the composition and ratio of ad hoc to career judges, 
undermining the current independence of the body.  According 
to Atmasasmita and other ACC contacts, the majority of ad hoc 
justices on panels hearing cases have created a more 
independent and less corrupt judicial body in the current 
ACC.  The current Anti-Corruption Court has ruled in favor of 
the KPK in 100% of the cases (some civil society groups 
express concern over this high conviction rate).  He 
clarified that the Supreme Court, which appoints all career 
judges to the district courts, regards this non-career, ad 
hoc judge majority as an affront to its judicial authority. 
 
ANTI-CORRUPTION MOMENTUM CONTINUES 
 
¶6.  (U) Mission contacts are optimistic that the draft ACC 
legislation will become law by December 2009.  Even though 
the DPR is scheduled to begin deliberations on the ACC bill 
in mid-October, Atmasasmita and other court insiders believe 
that the legislation will not be passed until after the 2009 
national elections.  Atmasasmita, and anti-corruption 
watchdog groups, have stated privately and in the press that 
they hoped that the recent KPK investigations into former and 
current members of the DPR would not stall the legislation. 
 
¶7.  (U) The pending legislation has not slowed down the work 
of the KPK or the ACC.  The KPK continues to investigate and 
successfully prosecute high-level government officials for 
bribery and corruption using the ACC.  In the past six 
months, the KPK has arrested six Members of Parliament--from 
both ruling coalition and opposition parties--in separate 
scandals.  On September 24, President Yudhoyono expressed his 
support for the anti-corruption drive in his reaction to the 
Transparency International release of its corruption 
perception index (which showed that Indonesia had slightly 
improved its relative standing).  He again underscored his 
commitment to reform and the ongoing campaign to eradicate 
corruption. 
 
HUME