Professor Tim Lindsey:

Good News from Religious Courts

Jakarta | badilag.net/english

"We do not have any interest. As academics, we only elaborated the results of the researches objectively. The main sources that we used are the statistical data obtained from the field"

Prof. Timothy Lindsey from University of Melbourne, Australia, made the statement when he visited DG of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana, at his office on Friday morning (18/2). The statement was Tim’s answer to the question why he wrote the book entitled "Courting Reform: Indonesia's Islamic Courts and Justice for the Poor".

.

Together with Cate Sumner, Prof. Tim wrote the book which was released in December 2010 and published by the Lowy Institute in Australia. The contents of the book are quite astonishing. The Australian authors revealed a number of "good news" about judicial reform in Indonesia, particularly the religious courts. They concluded that religious courts are a justice-oriented model of social justice. Such model should even be a reference by other countries, especially in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the book mentioned that in general the religious judiciary is free from corruption practices.

Prof. Tim was aware of various and contradictory responses to his book, but he would not responded them back. “As an academic, criticizing and being criticized are common. You’re welcomed to agree and disagree with the book. We have all the data,” said Tim, who is the Chief Editor of The Australian Journal of Asian Law.

According to Tim, such a book is important to be published so that Indonesia people have an accurate perception, especially on Indonesian judiciary. “Indonesian people need to be optimistic of their country’s future since Indonesia is now in a much better condition than other countries particularly in Southeast Asia, he said.

“Indonesia’s Supreme Court has a close relationship with the Federal Court of Australia, just like the Religious Courts which has a very good relationship with the Australian Family Court,” Tim said. (c)