The Constitutional Court (CC) in cooperation with the Central Executive Board of the Justice Prosperity Party (PKS) held a Colloquium on the Constitutional Court’s Code of Procedure in Jakarta on March 9-11, 2007. The event, which was attended by 200 PKS functionaries within the legislative, executive, as well as PKS administrators/activists, was the second round for the PKS cadre. Participants enjoyed presentations by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Dr. Jimly Asshidiqie, S.H., Constitutional Judges, and members of the People’s Representative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia about the 1945 Constitution and the amendment process, along with the functions and authorities of the CC in the Republic of Indonesia state administration system.

In his speech, the President of PKS, Tifatul Sembiring, said that, after the issuance of the amendments, there are still many members of the community who do not have comprehensive understanding of the 1945 Constitution. “A lot of people did not understand the 1945 constitution even before the amendment, and much less after the amendments which have changed 80% of the contents of the 1945 Constitution”, he said.  Ustad Tif also expressed gratitude towards the Constitutional Court for the cooperation in organizing the colloquium. This cooperation, said Ustad Tif, was one of the forms of participation of political parties in the effort to nurture constitutional awareness among politicians in living as a state.

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of CC Prof. Dr. Jimly Asshiddiqie, S.H. in his speech described the people’s misunderstanding of the amended 1945 Constitution. In fact, if counted, said Jimly, there are only 71 points of provisions in the original version of the 1945 Constitution, whereas after the amendments, the 1945 constitution has 199 paragraphs. “However, even though the contents of the 1945 Constitution are currently very different from the original as a result of the amendments, it does not mean the constitution has been replaced by the 2002 Constitution, Jimly said.

Furthermore, Prof. Jimly added, the amendments to the constitution are not replacements, as the changes made in the amendments are not consolidated in the original text of the 1945 constitution but rather attached. “Consolidated texts of the Constitution bearing one, two, three, and four asterisks, are unofficial texts made merely for the readers’ convenience”, said Jimly.

In addition, Prof. Jimly also pointed out the importance of compliance with the 1945 Constitution as the nation’s consensual constitution and basic law. For that reason, Jimly expressed his expectation that there will be no more Moslems contradicting the 1945 Constitution as the national basic law with the Holy Qur’an or Islamic laws, since they are applied in different dimensions. “The 1945 Constitution is our national pact as citizens. We, as Moslems, have the obligation to fulfill our promises”, said Jimly. (ardli)