The Working Committee of TAO Indonesia Commission (BP-MTI) launched the 1945 Constitution Book in Chinese and Indonesian in Jakarta (18/04). This event was attended by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Jimly Asshiddiqie, S.H. together with the Constitutional Court Justices and the rank and file of the Secretariat General and Registrar’s Office of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, community organization leaders, religious leaders, and the Executive Boards of TAO Commission throughout Indonesia.

In his opening remarks, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Jimly Asshiddiqie, S.H, explained that the state should not make discriminative policies treating people unequally based on race, sex, and political conviction or religion. “Therefore, it is expected that every citizen participates in learning the 1945 Constitution, and one of the means is through the Chinese translation of the 1945 Constitution in order to abolish such discriminative treatments,” explained Jimly.

The symbolic meaning of the use of local and particular languages such as Chinese is to allow citizens to comprehend the 1945 Constitution on an aware and voluntary basis, because this constitution is from the people and for the people. With the publication of the 1945 Constitution in Chinese, Jimly expects that every person will obtain additional information in the context of establishing new awareness in living as a state particularly after the reform era, in order to be able to change the paradigm applied prior to the reform era.

Meanwhile, the MTI Great Master of Taosu said that hopefully after the launching of this 1945 Constitution Book, all Chinese people in Indonesia can understand better their rights and responsibilities as citizens in order to improve their active role in developing the nation’s image wherever they are in the territory of Indonesia. “It means that the Chinese people as Indonesian Citizens would no longer feel like strangers in their own country,” he explained.

The ceremony was concluded by the presentation of the 1945 Constitution Book in Chinese by the Chairperson of TAO Indonesia Commission to the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia. (Vipin Anggrie).