Agenda Item FOUR THE ROLE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN THE ALLEVIATION OF EXTREME POVERTY(INDNESIA)
:PURNIANTI, Indonesia1. SUBJECT MATTER
Indonesia is an agricultural country with 1.9 million km2 land width. It comprises of 17,000 islands, 900 of which are populated. Based on the figures from the 1997 report of the Central Bureau of Statistics(BPS), the population of Indonesia is 201.4 million, of which 128 million or 65％ of it live in the villages with the agriculture sector as its main earnings. The rest of the population, which is 73 million, lives in the cities. Currently there are 67,033 villages registered.On the economic side, the agricultural sector is still the basis for the people's economy, which takes up about 55.6 percent, then services 55.9 percent, trades 14.9 percent, industry 8.8percent, and others 6.2 percent(BPS,1993). Nevertheless, the village and agriculture sector has for long been under poverty and backwardness.
About 71 million people, or about 75% of the village population, live under the poverty life. Compared to that of the other sectors, the income level of workers in the agricultural sector, especially the farm laborers, have not experienced a significant increase. The same goes with the farmers' exchange value(NTP), which tends to be unchanging or even stagnant.
One of the main causes of poverty and backwardness is the discrepancy in the structure of land control and the agriculture sectors within it. The discrepancy in the end creates an inequality in the distribution of income, wealth, secio-ecinimc accesses, and political power. The unequal land control in the villages is an old legacy. The problem has never been solved since the Dutch colonialism period until now.
Land ownership is the root of poverty in the villages and is one of the sources of economic crisis that people have experienced in the past two years. In 1983 in average land control in Indonesia was 0.98 hectares outside Java. There was a decrease nationally in 1993 to 0.83 hectares for outside Java. This causes an increase in the number of farm day laborers(Wacana,No18 July-August 1999).
The coordinating Minister for People7s Welfare and the Eradication of Poverty, Basri Hasanudin on March 18 2000, conveyed two important tendencies, that is, the "feminization of poverty" and unemployment. Basri mentioned a figure for employment that had reached 30 million people, or twice the number in 1996. The number is of those with less than 35 working hours per week, therefore, the number for the totally unemployed is 17 million.
According to Basri, the crisis that has sweepingly hit Indonesia has drastically reduced people's access to education, despite reports of signs of improvement. The improvement is gained through granting scholarships to children from poor families.
Coordinating Minister for People7s Welfare and the Eradication of Poverty quoted data from the Central Bureau of Statistics that reports that the number of children from poor family - who may not be able to continue education without (financial) assistance - is as many as 7.2 million.
Of that number, Basri said, only 3.5 million children that could be helped by the Social Safety Net (JPS) program and the other 1 million by the National Foster Movement. Whereas fund for the 2.7million are still being looked for from the community, since there is grave concerns that they may not be able to continue their education.In the Human Development Report 2080 published by the UNDP Indonesia is placed on the 109th rank on the Human Development Index among 174 countries that are rated as the Medium Human Development.
GENERAL STRATEGY
The general strategy in solving the programs of poverty is reflected in the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) in the economy, which states the direction of policies to put efforts to provide a decent life based on fair humanity for the people, especially for the poor and abandoned children by developing asocial safety fund system through government programs and to grow and develop community's efforts and creativity, of which the distribution is carried out by an effective and efficient bureaucracy and stipulated by laws.
The legal strategy in the GBHN emphasized as follows;
1. To develop a legal culture in every level of the society for the sake of creating an awareness of laws and to obey them in the framework of law supremacy and the re-enforcement of a legal state.
2. To put in order a comprehensive and integrated national legal system with an acknowledgement and respect of religious laws and custom laws and a renewal of laws which are a legacy from the colonial period and discriminative national laws, which include its gender inequality and its unsuitability with demands of reform through programs of legislation.
3. To consistently enforce the laws to ensure legal certainty, justice and truth, the supremacy of law, and to respect human rights.
4. To continue to ratify international conventions, especial those that concern with human rights in accordance with needs and interests of the nation in the forms of laws.
5. To increase the moral integrity and professionalism of the law enforcement apparatus, including the Republic of Indonesia's State Police, to cultivate people's trust by increasing the welfare, support of law facilities and infrastructures, education and effective monitoring.
6. To accomplish a legal institution that is independent and free from the influences of power and any other party.
7. To develop stipulations of laws that support economic activities in facing the free trade era without sacrificing the national interest.
8. To implement a quick, easy, cheap and open legal process that is free from corruption, collusion and nepotism while continue to decidedly maintain the principles of justice and truth..
9. To increase understanding of and awareness of and increasing the protection, respect and enforcement of human rights in every aspect of life.
10. To complete the various legal processes and violations of laws and human rights that have not been fully resolved.THE FUNCTION AND ROLE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN COPING WITH POVERTY
Strategies of coping with poverties clearly necessitate legal empowerment, especially the empowerment of the criminal justice system with two main orientations, which are as follows:
First, to establish "good governance" in order to prevent a misappropriation of bureaucracy or other non-bureaucracy elements in carrying out programs of the eradication of poverty, such as what have been realized through the Social Safety Net programs.
Second, to increase the effectiveness of repression on corruption. Steps taken to realize the "good governance" are carried out by implementing Law No. 28/1999 on the Implementation of a Clean State that is Free from Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism.RECOMMENDATION
In increasing the effectiveness of the criminal justice system to eradicate poverty concrete actions are needed, such as follows;
First, Strengthening the systems of community control to monitor the function of the criminal justice system in the eradication of poverty and to realize "good governance", such as through the establishment of a "criminal justice watch".
Second, Carrying out studies on the deviations of poverty eradication programs in order to determine patterns of their prevention.
Third､ Carrying out "public campaign" in order to increase the role of the criminal justice system in preventing and solving crimes of KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism).
Fourth, To consider the possibility of establishing a "corruption watch" at regional level in order to strengthen similar institution at the national level.