DG of Badilag:
Judges should be confident to publish verdicts
DG of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana (right) and Secretary to Ditgen, Farid Ismail (center) conversing with Gary Ellem, monitoring and evaluation Specialist from AusAID.
Jakarta | badilag.net/english (17/3)
Director General (DG) of Badilag Wahyu Widiana admitted there are a number of judges who have no enough confidence to publish their verdicts on the web. The judges deem their verdicts ‘not good’ to issue on the internet due to some reasons. DG hopes judges to enhance the quality of their judgments both in terms of outline and substances so that no more confidence-related reasons in the future.
“We intensively socialize the importance of this judgment publication to Religious Courts all over Indonesia. One big impact (of this socialization) is that judges are more triggered to formulate better verdicts because their verdicts can be easily accessed and read by everyone, anywhere and anytime,” said Wahyu when receiving guests from AusAID, Gary Ellem and Emily Ralney on Monday (15/3).
.Emily Ralney is the First Secretary for Democratic Governance of AusAID and Gary Ellem is montoring and evaluation Specialist assigned by AusAID to prepare, evaluate and monitor transition programs run by AIJP (Australia Indonesia Justice Partnership) after the cooperation with IA-LDF ended last December 2009.
Asked the biggest challenge in running judicial reform within the courts, Wahyu mentioned the need to change mindset of all judicial staff. Mindset changing, Wahyu said, plays a very dominant role in ensuring the success of judicial reform.
“Above all, the role of leaders is very vital. Leaders are the drivers.”
The meeting between AusAID and Badilag. Emily Ralney (third right) and Peter Edward (fourth right) also in the meeting.
External Factor of Judicial Reform
“People are now more aware and demanding of their rights of transparency and accountability from public institutions including Religious courts. I think this public demand is one of external factors in triggering judicial reform,” said Wahyu.
Badilag, Wahyu went on, is therefore continuously encouraging all Religious Courts to realize transparency and accountability through, to cite an example, promoting the use of Information Technology.
Justice for the poor is also one of Badilag’s main priorities.
“We have budget allocation, though not sufficient, for prodeo (free of charge) cases and circuit/mobile courts. I have asked Religious Courts to take necessary steps to secure the acces to justice for poor people,” Wahyu said. (vic)