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All modern countries are built on the basis of constitutional principles. As general agreement of all nation’s components, those principles needed to be known and understood by all layers of the people. In the effort to improve people’s understanding, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK), Jimly Asshiddiqie, gave his speech in front of teachers, lecturers, officers, people’s figures, and students also Junior and Senior High Students in Surakarta Area, Central Java, in Sebelas Maret University, Solo, Saturday (15/3).
 
“Because of that, with the help from teachers and lecturers as a socialization media for the students, this meeting is important to shorten the distance between constitutional ideas that are formulated elitically in the constitution and the reality of everyday state’s life among the people,” explained Jimly.
 
Furthermore Jimly added, constitution as the basis of democratic principles was also a social contract of all the people. In the contract, all citizens were bound with similar rights and obligations. Every single person had the duties in the his/her position according to each role.
 
“There is a president, governor, and there are also merchants. But so long as we have the status as citizens we have equal rights and obligations towards the country and the principles of it are formulated in the constitution,” he added.
 
The first Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court in the history of Indonesian constitutional system also emphasized that citizens rights were guaranteed by the constitution, now they could be preserved in concrete with the existence of the Constitutional Court, as the guardian of the constitution in Indonesia. “so, if there is a citizen considers that the constitutional rights are violated then the person can file his complaint to the Constitutional Court, even though the person is only a citizen from a remote area” he exclaimed.
 
Jimly also reminded that after the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, Indonesian people agreed to make the constitution as the highest law, not an institution or a leader anymore. “That is the essence of the rule of law. Because the leaders always change, therefore it is important to have a law awareness among Indonesian people,” he explained.
 
At the dialogue occasion with the educational people, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court also talked about the Constitutional Court verdict on the teachers’ salaries to be included in the education budget. “This is not a decision that has a bad impact on educational world,” he said. According to Jimly, in fact through the verdict the Constitutional Court emphasized on the element of 20 percent of the budget as a minimum ammount to be allocated by the Government for education. The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court also reminded that all regional government to obey the constitution that strictly stated that the State Budgeting and Regional Budgeting for education is 20 percent, so that the budget for education can be used to improve the quality of the education. “I want that all verdicts of the Constitutional Court to be solutions, not to be the problems,” he stated strictly. (Andhini Sayu Fauzia / Yogi Djatnika)

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