Visit of Australian National University, Macquarie University and Western Sydney University Students to Badilag
Last Tuesday, February 10th 2020, four Australian law students came along to visit the Directorate General of Religious Courts and Central Jakarta Religious Court (PA Jakarta Pusat). Leyla Kaya, from Macquarie University, Sermin Sayan from Western Sydney University, Freya Henfrey and Luca Sdraulig from Autralian National University designedly took a time to figure out more about religious court. They have been in Indonesia since mid-January in the context of an Internship at the Constitutional Court for one month long.
Tour at PA Jakarta Pusat
The students paid a visit to PA Jakarta Pusat before they came up at Badilag. Leyla Kaya, as a group leader stated her impression about why she wanted to visit a religious court. ‘”Australia and Indonesia have a huge differences about their court system. What’s interesting is the religious court,’ she said.
The group was welcomed by the vice chair Drs. Syuaib M.H in his office, accompanied by Dr. Tamah, one of PA Jakarta Pusat jugde. Mr. Syuaib friendly explained in general concerning history, development and authority of PA Jakarta Pusat. He also briefly explained various types of cases and the number of cases that increasingly registered to PA Jakarta Pusat during 2019. ‘Last year, we received more than 3000 cases. Nevertheless, we were able to wrap out about 92% of them with only 14 judges.’ Said Mr. Syuaib.
After hearing welcoming explanation and having a short discussion about religious court, the group was conducted a registry walk, which was a tour around the court. They looked around the court, studied about the organizational structure, office lay out and the flow of case registration. They started with studying about the PTSP (One Gate Service) section, the e-court desk, mediation room, waiting room and finally the court rooms. The tour ended in media center room of PA Jakarta Pusat by delivering the testimonial from each student.
“PA Jakarta Pusat is so hospitable and very open to the society. There are many services that the society can get with the easy access to reach the court.” Sermin Sayan said.
Visiting Badilag and Trying Command Center
After leaving PA Jakarta Pusat, the four law students arrived at Dirjen Badilag office which is only about 500 meters away from PA Jakarta Pusat. They were warmly welcomed by the Director General himself, Dr. Drs. Aco Nur, S.H., M.H. and directly guided to look around into Religious Court Gallery to see various things about religious court that contains about the history, historical objects and religious court figures.
They were also invited to see Badilag Command Center. The Director General explained the use of Command Center. In addition to coaching and supervising, it is also used as a national data center as well as learning center in the form of public lectures, seminars and discussions. “We have invited Supreme Court Judge and several guests speaker from outside Mahkamah Agung to give public lectures here. Every person in Religious court may come to participate in the discussion.’ Claimed the Director General.
The Director General then connected the Badilag Command Center with PTA Banjarmasin and PTA Jayapura to hold dialogues with the students. In the smooth and warm dialogue, there was a discussion about the development of religious court today. Luca Sdraulig asked about what Zona Integritas is. Earlier, He heard that PA Jakarta Pusat was awarded with predicate Wilayah Bebas Korupsi/ WBK (Corruption Free Area). ‘What is that meant?’
The Director General explained that Zona Integritas is a program of Indonesia government, Kemenpan RB to manifest a clean bureaucracy and be free of corruption. ‘Nowadays, there are 29 courts have been awarded with the WBK predicate and this year we will submit about 250 courts to join the program.’ Explained the Director General.
While Leyla Kaya stated her impression about the development of religious court, especially related to Information Technology. “I feel it is hard for religious courts to run the use of IT, yet it is a huge challenge. In Australia, we had experienced such thing and the progress to electronic service has been growing rapidly.’” Said the Turkey-Australian woman who works for Family Court of Australia.
At the last session, The Director General highly appreciated for the visit and declared that he might start a collaboration with some popular universities in Australia to gain the development of human resource of religious courts. (dh/ahb)