The Dirty Judges

The concept of Rule of Law is adopted by most democratic countries of the world, emphasizing on the upholding on of the following basic principles :
-  Supremacy of Law
-  Equality before the Law
-  Human Rights protection

As a consequence, Judges of the Courts of Law must consists of high quality people who uphold the above principles and morality so that they can make wise and fair decisions/verdicts.

Considering the above, I was very upset when I read on the news media that in the first three months of 2012 (January - March) , 28 Judges have been punished by the Supreme Court. And this number is growing bigger as time goes by, the latest one being the Head of South Sumatera High Court M. Daming Sunusi who thinks that Rape is an act of fun enjoyed by the Rapist and the Victim.

What make me more upset is the opinion of former Chief of the Constitutional Court Jimly Assiddiquie that Daming should not be severely punished because what said was just a slip of the tongue not intentionally.
Hmmm ..... as the Head of a High Court with 24 years experience as Judge, Daming has no right to talk that way about Rape to anybody especially to members of the People's Consultative Council.

We can only hope that the Supreme Court would do its best to make sure that the Judges are doing their job properly so that Indonesia would be a lot much better place to live in.

Picture :  Courtesy of Bestuff.

The Dirty Candidate Judge

I always think that Judges of the Courts of Law are high quality people who would always think, talk and act fairly, wisely and extra careful based on the Laws, Tradition and Moral Standard.

These requirements are very important so that Court Judges can be expected to pass fair and non-biased verdicts.
For that reason, the recruitment and selection of new Court Judges should always be doe extra careful by a team of high quality and reliable public figures. 

Unfortunately, the above mentioned requirements seemed to be difficult for certain Candidate Judges to fulfil,

The Jakarta Globe reported that during a fit and proper test of new Supreme Court Judges by the national Parliament on Monday 14 January, a Candidate Judge i.e. Daming Sunusi, gave a very shocking and insensitive statement when he was asked about Death Penalty for Rapist.

Daming Sunusi, a senior Judge with the High Court of South Kalimantan, said :
“Both the rapist and the victim enjoy it. So, [we] have to think again about death sentence.”

This crazy comment caused mixed reaction among members of Parliament, some of them think that it is a joke, others protested. However, in the end the members of Parliament urged that Daming Sunusi should not be selected.

I hope that the Parliament would reject Daming Sunisi, and the Supreme Court would reconsider his eligibility and qualification as a High Court Judge.