MA CHIEF CALLS FOR HALT TO CRITICISMS OVER JUSTICES' RETIREMENT AGE

Jakarta, Sept 26 (ANTARA) - Supreme Court (MA) Chief Bagir Manan called on people who have been continuously criticizing him and other supreme judges over a proposal to set their mandatory retirement age at 70 years to stop their actions.
"I appeal to those people to stop their criticism against us. I don't understand why they have the heart to slander and criticize us. It's probably just because of hate," Manan said here on Friday.
A number of quarters, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and former MA justices have voiced protests against a government-sponsored bill on MA in which the mandatory pension age of supreme justices is set at 70 years.
Manan said "those people have been leveling criticism after criticism and slander after slander against me and other justices."
"We are now in the fasting month. I hope God will witness these slanderous criticisms," he said.
He said he and the MA r justices had not done anything wrong. "I think those people are taking the law into their own hands against me," he said.
The MA chief, however, said he had no plan to report the matter to the police. "I have no plan yet to report the case to the police," he said.
It was reported earlier Bagir Manan was ready to retire as a supreme court judge on October 6, 2008.
"I am firm on my stand that based on present conditions, I will reach mandatory retirement age soon," he said.