President Jokowi Orders AGO to Make Thorough Improvements
President Jokowi delivers his remarks at the 2020 AGO’s Working Meeting, Monday (14/12). (Source: Presidential Secretariat YouTube)
In a bid to ensure the country’s legal certainty, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called for thorough improvements within the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
“The AGO’s performance is the face of the Government. The AGO’s performance is the face of legal certainty in the eyes of the domestic and international public. Without a clean and trustworthy prosecutor, an important foundation for national development will also be fragile,” the President said at the 2020 AGO’s Working Meeting, Monday (14/12).
Public trust in law enforcement agencies, the President said, must continue to be improved through integrity and professionalism. “The AGO must be clean, must be able to become a role model for professional and integrity law enforcers,” he said.
Recruitment and promotion, the President added, must be conducted in a meritocratic, transparent, and open manner. Its human resources must have integrity, national insight, and readiness to face future legal problems, he said.
The AGO, he added, must carry out early detection of various possible crimes in the future and be part of the prevention of crimes against state security, such as terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking, as well as other crimes that bring impacts on the country’s economy.
“The capacity of human resources of the AGO that is relevant to the 4.0 industrial revolution must also be prioritized. An efficient, transparent work system must be pursued. Manual methods that are slow and prone to corruption must be eliminated,” the President said.
For this reason, the President expressed his appreciation for the development of an integrated information technology-based case handling system developed by the AGO.
In his remarks, the President also reminded the Prosecutor’s Office to streamline internal supervision. “Supervision and enforcement of internal discipline must be continuously strengthened,” he said.
Case handling, he added, must be directed at correcting the wrongdoing of the perpetrator, correcting the perpetrator’s (misbehavior), and restoring (the condition) of the crime victims.
“Corruption handling must also be able to increase the return of criminal assets to the state. Earlier, the Attorney General stated that approximately Rp19 trillion has been returned to the state. It’s a substantial amount of money. And, of course, it can prevent further corruption,” President Jokowi said.
As the Government’s power holder, he said, the AGO must work hard to defend the interests of the state and save state assets. However, law enforcement should not cause fear that hinders acceleration or innovation.
“Supervision must be directed at accelerating national development, especially on the use of the State Budget which must be spent quickly and precisely for the benefit of the people and to bring our country, Indonesia, escape the current health and economic crisis,” he said.
The President also highlighted that the commitment to settling past human rights abuse must be continued. He said that the AGO is a key actor in resolving past human rights violations.
“We need to see concrete progress immediately. Cooperation with related parties, especially with the National Commission on Human Rights, needs to be made effective,” he said. (FID/UN) (FI/MUR)
