Prabowo promises to ‘pay attention’ to judges, as they continue strike demanding better pay

JAKARTA – President-elect Prabowo Subianto has promised to pay attention to the welfare of the country’s judges as hundreds began a week-long strike on Oct 7 to demand higher salaries.

Scores of judges across the country, grouped in the Solidaritas Hakim Indonesia (Solidarity of Indonesian Judges) movement, took mass leave for five days until Oct 11 to draw policymakers’ attention to the fact that their wages had been unchanged for 12 years.

Many regional movement members staged local protests over the past few days, while others travelled to Jakarta and met the Supreme Court officials of President Joko Widodo’s administration as well as lawmakers of the newly installed House of Representatives, including those from Mr Prabowo’s Gerindra Party.

During a meeting with the House on Oct 8, the group’s representatives received assurance from the incoming president – he will be inaugurated on Oct 20 – who attended via a phone call to House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of Gerindra.

“To curb corruption in the country, judges should be immune to bribery. The state must provide them with sufficient income so that they can maintain their dignity and do not need to seek additional income. That’s my commitment,” Mr Prabowo said during the call, which was broadcast using a speaker.

“Be patient, I will pay attention to judges once I assume office,” he added.

The striking judges are demanding a revision to a 2012 government regulation on the judiciary’s financial rights to include annual salary adjustments.

Under that contentious regulation, a low-ranking judge currently earns a base salary of around 2.06 million rupiah (S$172) on a scale that reaches 4.9 million rupiah for the highest-ranking judges.

Judges also receive allowances ranging between 8.5 million rupiah and 14 million rupiah, as determined by the classification level of their court.

Data from the Supreme Court in 2023 showed that around 6,000 judges served lower courts nationwide.

More than half of these judges served a criminal or civil court, which heard some 2.2 million cases combined in 2023 alone.

Citing the same data, the strike organisers’ representatives told the House they had been struggling to make ends meet with wages that remained stagnant despite their greater responsibilities.

“We spent most of our time at work. We female judges did not have time to take care of our children, our families,” said one judge.

Following the meeting, the House is now considering starting deliberations on a judicial tenure Bill, which would provide a legal framework for the employment of judges, including their rights and obligations, appointments, welfare and supervision.

The Bill has been stalled in the House since 2019, when it was first included on the priority legislation list.

Strike continues

While strike organisers described Mr Prabowo’s statement during the House meeting as the “strongest support yet from the highest rank of the next government”, the group said on Oct 9 that it would continue reaching out to other institutions in Jakarta.

“We are now keeping a close eye on how any future policies (will address our demands),” spokesperson Fauzan Arrasyid said in a press release.

A number of district courts across the country reported that their judges were still striking on Oct 9 and would not be hearing any cases until Oct 11, except those deemed urgent. Not all judges have joined the movement or participated in the mass leave, however.

Judges were still hearing cases at the district courts in Denpasar, Semarang and Yogyakarta, wearing a white ribbon on their robes to express solidarity with their peers.

The Solidaritas movement has secured the support of the Judicial Commission, an external oversight body, which it met on Oct 7 in Jakarta, along with representatives from the Supreme Court and the Finance Ministry.

Budget Director-General Isa Rachmatarwata said the ministry had approved “in principle” a salary increase based on a proposal from the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry and the Supreme Court, news outlet Tempo reported.

Better wage system

Mr Muhammad Tanziel Aziez, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute for an Independent Judiciary (LeIP), said on Oct 9 that the problem “lies in the absence of mechanisms to regularly evaluate and adjust the salaries of judges”.

Mr Tanziel said the 2012 regulation instead set the salaries of judges on a par with other civil servants’ despite their greater responsibilities, noting that their allowances had remained unchanged for a decade regardless of inflation.

He also said the problem of judicial corruption should be addressed systematically, rather than seen as a direct result of low wages.

“If their pay is raised, judges can at least no longer say that they (had to) resort to accepting bribes to make ends meet.

“But if we are speaking about the impartiality and professionalism of the courts, we need thorough reform,” said Mr Tanziel.

Data from the Corruption Eradication Commission shows that it arrested 31 judges for graft from 2010-2024. THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK