Deputy Chief Justice Andi Syamsu Alam:

Three Pillars for Service Improvement

Mediation, Access to Justice for the Poor, and Transparency are three pillars for courts. Deputy Chief Justice Andi Syamsu Alam (white shirt), DG of Badilag Wahyu Widiana (second right), Vice Chief Judge of PTA Samarind, Ismail Ibrahin (leftmost), and Chief Judge of PA Tarakan, Mulawarman (rightmost).

Tarakan, East Kalimantan | badilag.net/english

Deputy Chief Justice for Religious Courts Affairs, Andi Syamsu Alam, highlights three aspects that must be put into practice by Indonesia’s Religious Courts to improve public service and the court’s image. Those are maximizing mediation, improving access to justice for the poor, and enhancing court transparency.

Deputy Chief Justice said all those three pillars should be made as ‘a weapon’ for the courts in executing the task to provide justice to the society. The Deputy Chief Justice delivered his statements on Wednesday (23/6/2010) on the program of technical guidance on court administration for Religious Courts all over East Kalimantan in Tarakan.

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Prioritizing Mediation

Deputy Chief Justice Andi Syamsu Alam said mediation had to be prioritized over litigation process. “With mediation, no parties will feel defeated. Mediation must employ win-win solution system,” Andi said.

Mediation chamber in every religious court should be comfortable so as to support mediation process. Similarly, the mediators have to be professional, skillful, and whole-hearted, he said.

“In the efforts to advance the quality of mediation, there are now 17 religious courts which have been proposed as a pilot project. I hope other religious courts can take examples from the success of those courts (in handling mediation),” Andi explained.

Improving Access to Justice for the Poor

Andi also urged religious courts to seriously make every endeavor to provide access to justice for the poor and marginalized. “Realization of prodeo facilities and circuit court for people in remote areas should be improved in the next years,” he said.

Starting next year, Andi added, legal aids post should be available at religious courts as stipulated by Law No. 48/2009 and Law No. 50/2009. Legal aids are important for the poor to resolve their legal cases.

Enhancing Court Transparency

Transparency is a must for religious courts in order to provide satisfaction for all parties. The more transparent the courts in giving services, the higher the public trust will be.

“The usage of Information Technology is a must to realize court transparency,” Andi asserted.

Meanwhile, DG of Badilag Wahyu Widiana, who also spoke on the same occasion, emphasizes that the usage of IT by religious courts is not solely for improving court image.

“Use the advance of IT for accelerating court services and transparency,” Wahyu said.

Wahyu urged all leadership ranks of religious courts to be always well-informed of the current information. Therefore, it is important for the leadership to spare time opening related websites such as badilag.net and mahkamahagung.go.id.