Vice Chief Justice Appreciated the Contribution of the University
Yogyakarta | badilag.net
Vice Chief Justice for Non-Judicial Affairs, the Honorable Dr. H. Ahmad Kamil, SH, M.Hum was a keynote speaker in a national seminar entitled "Mediation and the Legal Aid in the Religious Court", conducted in Prof. Muzakir room, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Indonesian Islamic University of Yogyakarta, Saturday (01/21/2012).
As a keynote speaker, Ahmad Kamil expressed his appreciation to the Dean of Faculty of Islamic Studies, H. Dadan Muttaqien, SH, M. Hum, for the seminar."The initiative of Faculty of Islamic Studies, Indonesian Islamic University of Yogyakarta must be appreciated. The seminar is a form of the university’s attention towards the prioritized programs of the Supreme Court." He said.
Ahmad Kamil hopes that the national seminar can produce important recommendations to advance the implementation of mediation and legal aid.
The national seminar was officially opened by the Rector of UII Yogyakarta, Prof. Dr. Edy Suandi Hamid, M. Ec and was attended by a number of Religious Courts judges, lawyers, academicians, some chiefs of religious courts and high religious courts. The speakers at the seminar were the Honorable Dr. H. Habiburrahman, SH, SIP, M. Hum (the Supreme Court Justice), Wahyu Widiana (Director General of Religious Court), Dr. Edi Riyadi, SH, MH (the Junior Registrar for Religious Civil Affairs of the Supreme Court), and H. Dadan Muttaqien, SH, M. Hum (Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies of UII Yogyakarta).
The Progress of Posbakum
In his presentation, Director General of Badilag, Wahyu Widiana pointed out that Posbakum in the religious court is much interested by the community. The recent datas obtained by Badilag indicate that there are about 34,647 Posbakum services. Badilag originally was targeted to hold only 11,553 services. This means that there are 300 percents increased from the original target.
Of the total budget allocated about IDR 4.152.000.000,- It has been absorbed about IDR 4.053.968.138, -. This means that the budget has been absorbed about 98 percent.
"It is a remarkable achievement in creating the image that religious courts care about the people who can not afford. I personally and on behalf Badilag gratefully acknowledge the hard work of our friends in the religious courts to support the program." He said.
http://www.badilag.net/images/seminarUII2.JPG
Anyway, Wahyu expressed his worry about the implementation of Posbakum in 2013. Because, according to the Law No. 16/2011 on the Legal Aid, the “poverty letter” (SKTM) becomes a necessary condition to obtain the services.
Based on the observations in the field, the people have difficulty to obtain such SKTM. In contrast to the Law, the Circular Letter of the Supreme Court No. 10/2010 on Guidelines for Provision of Legal Aid, does not require SKTM absolutely. The people can only make statements that they can not afford a lawyer if they can not show SKTM.
"The conditionality of SKTM in the Law would have an affect on the declining of Posbakum service in 2013," Wahyu said.
In addition, he explained that the National Law Development Agency (BPHN) does not have offices in every district. It certainly will complicate the public.
"Therefore, it is true the statement of Vice Chief Justice that the university can contribute a recommendation to the government that the Posbakum can run well. We need the contributions of multi-stakeholders," He said.
Indicators of Success of Mediation
Edi Riyadi explained that when a divorce case examined until cassation level, the parties will get a decree after 35 months since they filed the case to the religious court. This is a very long time.
"Hence, the mediation has an important role in accelerating the settlement process," Edi Riyadi explained in his presentation.
In addition, he also mentioned the function of mediation in reducing cases backlog, providing realistic justice, and relieving the court fees.
Edi Riyadi explained that the success of mediation in the religious court only reach 1%. This is caused by several things, among them are 1) mediation is merely formalistic, 2) mediator has no authority to be a mediator, 3) in case of divorce, litigation is the last resort after going through the negotiation process conducted by the family and relatives, and 4) the procedural law of divorce is equated with one of material case.
In practice so far, if the judge has succesfully come to the agreement about the child support, hadhanah and matrimonial property rights but does not successfully reconcile the spouses, then this can not be categorized as a successful mediation.
Edi Riyadi criticized the false benchmark of such success of mediation. According to him, this will cause a low rate of the success of mediation.
"I think it is a mistake when the success of mediation is measured from the reconcile of the parties. This is not an easy job. Why the success to resolve the accessory cases is not assumed as a successful mediation?" He said.
[Mohammad Noor]