Impeachment : a Myth or a Fact ?

                                      Chief Justice: Mahfud (Right) - Deputy A. Sodiki (Left)

On 12 January, the Constitutional Court has passed a decision that makes it much easier for the House of Representatives to make inquiries to the government, which may lead to the impeachment of the President and/or Vice President.

The Court annulled Article 184(4) of the Legislative Bodies Law No 27/2009 which stipulated that inquiries can be made if a meeting is attended by by 3/4 of the members and agreed by 3/4 of the attendance, and decided that 2/3 would be sufficient.

The Court's decision was made in response to the Judicial Review requested by some members of the House of Representatives and citizens on the grounds that the above Article was contradictory to the Constitution of 1945 which ruled that the meeting's quorum should be 2/3.

I hope that members of the House would use their rights wisely and only based on the laws, regulations and very best interests of the people of Indonesia, and not merely based on their selfish political goals.

I also hope that the President and Vice President would work properly much harder, smarter, based on the laws, regulations, and the best interests of the people so that they would not be impeached.

For details, please read the following articles :

- Court Cuts House Threshold Level for Impeachment (The Jakarta Globe)
- MK Nyatakan Jumlah 3/4 Kuorum .... Inkonstutusionil (Mahkamah Konstitusi)


Photo: Courtesy of Mahkamah Konstitusi

The Aquittal of Time Magazine

“Justice has prevailed!” That’s what I thought when I read the news last Thursday, 16 April, about our Supreme Court's verdict which accepted the Judicial Review requested by attorneys of Time Magazine, clearing all Defamation charges brought by the family of late former President Soeharto.

According to The Jakarta Post, the Supreme Court overturned its own verdict passed on August 2007, which required Time to pay US$ 106 Million Compensation for Damage to the Soeharto family. As the grounds for the verdict, Supreme Court Justice Hatta Ali said that Time "did not violate the law or breach ethical standards”.

The legal case started when Time (Asia) published in its 14 May 1999 edition an article tiled: “ Soeharto Inc., How Indonesia’s Longtime Boss Built a Family Fortune ”, which reported that Soeharto collected US$ 15 billion during 32 years in power, and transferred US$ 9 Billion from a bank in Swiss to a bank in Austria. Annoyed, Soeharto, through his team of attorneys led by Juan Felix Tampubolon, filed a Defamation Lawsuit demanding US$ 17.18 Billion compensation plus legal expenses. At the Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal Soeharto lose, but won the Cassation at the Supreme Court, due to which fact, Time has requested for the above Judicial Review.

Viva News reported according to their attorney Mohammad Assegaf, the Soeharto family has accepted the Supreme Court’s verdict.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Indonesian Alliance of Journalists (AJI) Nezar Patria said that AJI is grateful that the Supreme Court has adopted the Press Law and the Journalistic in handling this case.

I hope that the above verdict of the Supreme Court would be followed as Jurisprudence by other court judges in handling similar cases related to the news media.

Judicial Review on the Pornography Law

Legal action in Court must be prepared very carefully if we want to win the hearts of the Judges. For which purpose, any one who wants to take such action are advised to appoint a lawyer to represented to them if they want to succeed.

However, appointment of a lawyer does not always guarantee the success of a legal action. That’s exactly what happened to the Petition for Judicial Review of the Pornography Law filed with the Constitutional Court by famous lawyer O.C Kaligis on behalf of 11 North Sulawesi individuals who claimed to be the representatives Non Government Organizations (NGO) in North Sulawesi.
According to The Jakarta Post/E.Maulia, during the first court hearing yesterday, the council of judges demanded the Petitioners to prove their status as representatives of the NGOs. Besides, they were asked to mention correctly the Articles of the said Law that they want to be reviewed; and asked them to elaborate what harm that the Law might cause to the North Sulawesi community. The judges gave the Petitioners 14 days to revise their request.
Earlier, The Jakarta Globe/C. Pasandaran reported that 11 individuals who claimed to be the representatives of several Christian, student & minority organizations in North Sulawesi have requested the Judicial Review on three Articles of the Pornography Law i.e. Art. 1. about the Definition of Pornography, Art. 4. about the Production and Distribution of Pornographic materials, Art. 10. about the ban on Public Performances deemed to be Pornography.

The above shows that anyone who wants to fight in court should be very careful in preparing their actions although they are represented by well known lawyer.