Apart from the fact that the Indonesian legal system was inherited from the Dutch, the philosophy behind justice in Indonesia is that the outcome must be right for community ahead of being right for the individual. This applies to justice both from within the court system and outside it. In the early 80's there was what appeared be an organised killing of known criminals who were normally found shot dead in the streets in most of the major cities across Indonesia. As most criminals in Indonesia are tattoed, the hospitals were rushed with people wanting tattoes removed. The hospitals refused unless the person could provide a letter of good conduct from the police. Obviously those who were crims were afraid to go near the police and suddenly the crims were the ones afraid to go out. However the ordinary citizen and housewife who previously been afraid to travel on public transport or go to the market for fear of being robbed of their purse or jewellery and being stabbed, gradually started to find it safe to go about their day to day business. I suppose it depends which side of the fence you sit as to whether you see this as justice or not, but if you are concerned only with small single issues you probably don't see it as justice, whilst if you are concerned with the big picture, it is justice, as it bought greater good to the greater number of people.
