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Principally, the objectives of the constitution are to limit the government’s authority, to guarantee the rights of the subjects, and to formulate the implementation of sovereign authority.

The above statement is made by C.F. Strong in his book Modern Political Constitution, which was quoted by the Chairperson of the Association of Indonesian Local Councils (ADEKSI), Dr. H.M. Soerya Respationon, S.H., M.H. in his opening remarks in a Colloquium of the Constitutional Court on the Constitutional System of the Republic of Indonesia for the Leadership and Members of ADEKSI, on Thursday (7/6) in Jakarta. 

Soerya continued that theoretically according to the distribution of authority based on state form, a confederation state is applying a very decentralized concept. Meanwhile, a unitary state adopts a very centralized concept. According to Soerya, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia does not fully adopt both concepts because the 1945 Constitution particularly Article 18 paragraph (1) states that the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia consists of provinces and the provinces consist of regencies and municipalities, and each region has regional government stipulated by law.

“The regional government at the provincial, regency, and municipal levels govern their own governmental affairs based on the principles of autonomy and delegation of tasks. It indicates that according to the 1945 Constitution, centralism is not an option and a tendency towards decentralism becomes unavoidable alternative in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, because geographically, Indonesia is an archipelago and is a very plural society,” Soerya described. 

Soerya explained that law No. 5 of 1974 concerning Regional Government tends towards centralism. Whereas, Law No. 22 of 1999 regarding Regional Government has a tendency to decentralism, and Law No. 32 of 2004 concerning Regional Government seems to give a balance between centralization and decentralization. “Unfortunately, Law No. 32 of 2004 is interpreted as putting an emphasis again on centralism. Of course, we do not expect the regional legislative functions to be reduced and expurgated so that the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly are no longer able to work maximally in accordance with its duties and functions,” he said.

Therefore, Soerya expects that the colloquium may become an initial step particularly for the members of ADEKSI to have better understanding of the 1945 Constitution which, according to him, is very dynamic in its implementation phase as if it has no certainty.

In the meantime, in his remarks, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Prof. Dr. Jimly Asshiddiqie, S.H. stated that it is correct that the relationship between the central and regional government with respect to regional autonomy is very dynamic from time to time. Accordingly, Jimly said, the amendment of Article 18 of the 1945 Constitution describes the relationship between the central and regional government in a more detailed manner, because if it is left to be too general, the implementation of regional autonomy and the mechanism for proper relationship between the central and regional government would fully depend on the interpretation of authority. “That is not good and is dangerous. Therefore, the provisions are stipulated in the constitution in a more detailed manner,” the Professor of Constitutional Law of the University of Indonesia explained.

Jimly explained that the more important thing is that in the middle of current global competition, regional government must be strong so that the state will be solid at the national level. It will be better if Indonesian people are able to strengthen their sense of nationalism as the resultant impact of either global or regional aspects, according to Jimly. The analogy is that in order to strengthen the Indonesia Language, local language must also be strong, because Indonesia faces threats from foreign languages.

Jimly continued that people must be aware that actually both regional government and regional autonomy must be strong. However, regional government and regional People’s Legislative Assembly must also be aware that regional autonomy is not identical to autonomy for regional governments or regional officials. “Regional autonomy must be understood in the context of sovereign rights to be autonomous which must be granted to regional community. Regional government is merely a reflection of the sovereignty and autonomy of regional community. The community is governed by administrators and officials of the regional government,” Jimly confirmed.

With respect to the existence of the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly, Jimy explained that many people are of the opinion that the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly is not a legislative institution but a part of the government. In fact, Jimly explained that Law No. 32 of 2004 concerning the Regional Government formulates clearly that the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly and the Head of Region have similar relationship mechanism to that of the People’s Legislative Assembly and the President. “Unfortunately, the public have not considered the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly as a legislator,” he said.

Before concluded his remarks, Jimly requested members of ADEKSI to recall a message of Bung Hatta who interpreted “welfare state” as an “administrator’s state”. “The founders of the state have made a concept that we are an administrator’s state, which means that this state must manage the people’s interest,” said Jimly.

In addition, Jimly further explained, it is also necessary to arrange the institutional aspects of the Regional People’s Legislative Assembly by creating institutional vision in order to improve capacity building, which will be continued by the successors of current officials. “Therefore, an institutional blue print is required to determine the institutions’ functions for the next 20 to 40 years. Otherwise, the quality of state organization will be changed from year to year,” Jimly concluded his remarks. (Wiwik Budi Wasito)

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