VZCZCXYZ0002
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJA #0889/01 1452357
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 252357Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2388
INFO RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

UNCLAS JAKARTA 000889 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, INR/EAP, INL FOR CARLON 
DOJ FOR AAG SWARTZ, OPDAT FOR ALEXANDRE/BERMAN/JOHNSON 
NCTC 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KCRM KJUS SNAR PHUM ID
 
SUBJECT:  INDONESIAN AGO IMPLEMENTS NEW TRAINING SYSTEM 
 
REF:  2008 JAKARTA 1658 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Indonesian Attorney General's Office (AGO) has 
successfully implemented a new training approach involving two-month 
internships and distance learning modules for all incoming 
prosecutors.  These changes are part of a wider effort to move the 
AGO from a traditional bureaucracy to a more professional 
prosecutorial service capable of handling complex crimes.  The 
training reforms are a product of the August 2008 INL-funded study 
visit to DOJ's National Advocacy Center and related assistance 
provided by the DOJ/OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor (RLA).  End 
summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The AGO's Training Center (Pusdiklat) is a key institution 
in the AGO's efforts to reform itself.  In previous years, 
approximately four hundred new prosecutors spent six months at 
Pusdiklat in Jakarta for their basic training.  This traditional 
training approach, however, involved highly theoretical lectures and 
considerable internal administration, but little practical 
experience.  As a result, AGO graduates were ready to process paper 
and march in straight lines, not prosecute sophisticated criminal 
cases. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  In December 2008, Pusdiklat head Halius Hosen announced a 
series of major reforms for the coming year, including  the 
establishment of a two-month internship program for new prosecutors 
that incorporated distance learning approaches and a more 
interactive, practical curriculum focused on more advanced topics 
during the follow-up classes to be held at Pusdiklat.  In announcing 
these changes, Hosen credited an August 2008 study visit to DOJ's 
National Advocacy Center (NAC) in Columbia, South Carolina as 
instrumental in developing this new approach.  Hosen and other 
Pusdiklat leaders had observed the basic trial course for new DOJ 
prosecutors taught by current prosecutors using interactive 
techniques, as well as seeing how DOJ relied upon distance learning 
to reduce housing and transportation costs (reftel). 
 
¶4. (SBU) On May 20, 2009, Hosen invited the RLA to Pusdiklat the see 
the results of his reform efforts.  He described how each of the new 
recruits had just completed their internships at a local 
prosecutor's office prior to coming to Pusdiklat.  During the 
internships, the prosecutors combined practical observations based 
on their work with more experienced prosecutors while also 
completing ten subject matter modules regarding basic criminal 
enforcement and the prosecutorial function prepared by Pusdiklat's 
teaching staff.  The Pusdiklat instructors were also available by 
email to answer questions from the participants during the 
internship.  Last month, Hosen sent his Jakarta staff out to each of 
the provincial capitals to conduct oral and written tests of the new 
prosecutors to determine the success of the new program.  Having 
completed the internship, the new recruits arrived at Pusdiklat to 
begin the introductory course, which was trimmed from six to four 
months, and refocused on more advanced subjects as the participants 
already had some basic practical experience.  Hosen observed that 
the internship was essential because many of the new recruits 
previously had lacked a basic understanding of their role when they 
had arrived for the Pusdiklat class and noted that for next year, he 
had received funding to expand the internship to a third month.  His 
staff observed that during their field inspections, it seemed that 
the new prosecutors had readily adapted to the internship system, 
but some of the more senior officials out in the districts were 
still only getting the message. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The RLA also met with a class of new prosecutors who had 
completed the internship program and recently begun their classroom 
program at Pusdiklat.  They indicated that the internship experience 
had been particularly beneficial because it required the experienced 
prosecutors in their offices to adopt a more mentoring role by 
explaining to the new recruits what they were doing in their cases. 
They noted that it would be helpful if the internship program also 
included more computer training. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Hosen was generally positive about the AGO's support for 
prosecutorial training.  He informed the RLA that the AGO was 
planning to break ground next year on a second training center in 
Jakarta that would focus only on new prosecutor training.  The new 
facility would free up more space in the current location for 
programs with more experienced prosecutors while reducing class 
sizes at the new training center to allow for the use of more 
interactive methods.  Still, he acknowledged that Pusdiklat had a 
long way to go as most Indonesian prosecutors only participated in 
training only twice in their careers - at the outset and as part of 
a mid-level class.  He stated that finding experienced prosecutors 
to teach at Pusdiklat remained a major challenge because he wanted 
instructors with real world experience.  He also noted that 
Pusdiklat needed to develop a database to track who at the AGO had 
received training and how they had performed. 
 
¶7. (SBU)  Pusdiklat has moved forward in just five months with 
fundamental changes to its teaching model by developing real world 
internships and emphasizing more practical, case-study, hands-on 
curriculum.  The successful implementation of these changes will be 
a key factor in allowing the AGO to transition to a more 
evidence-based criminal system that places greater emphasis on 
skills.  Bureaucratic reform is the often repeated mantra within the 
AGO and the Indonesian Government more generally; teaching new 
prosecutors not to be bureaucrats is a necessary first step. 
 
HUME