Constitutional Court chief justice Moh. Mahfud M.D., accompanied by justices M. Arsyid Sanusi and Muhammad Alim, promoted the awareness about the Courtâs authority among South Sulawesi government officials at the Baruga Sangiaseri building in Makasar on Monday (8/10).
Jakarta, MKOnline - The Constitutional Court was formed as an effort to tackle the unstoppable and massive problems that mired Indonesia, and they were corruption, collusion, and nepotism, Constitutional Court chief justice Moh. Mahfud M.D. conveyed on Monday (Nov. 8) at the Baruga Sangiaseri building, the South Sulawesi Governor’s House, in Makassar. Chief Justice Mahfud, accompanied by justices M. Arsyid Sanusi and Muhammad Alim, said this in conjunction with the Court’s efforts to promote the awareness about the Constitutional Court, the event of which was also attended by a number of invitees, mainly government officials from South Sulawesi provincial government offices and the military.
“If seen from the legal aspects of combating corruption, we have three institutions: the Corruption Eradication Commission working together with the national police and the attorney general office to eradicate corruption; the Judicial Commission tasked with monitoring badly behaved judges; and the Constitutional Court serving as an institution conducting trials to guarantee that the constitutional rights of the citizens are not violated. So originally, the Constitutional Court was established to respond to the phenomena of corruption, collusion, and nepotism,” Mahfud explained.
In the past, Mahfud continued, everything was solved through political means. For instance, to impeach the president could be done in such a political way. “However, now everything has to be legally processed through the Constitutional Court. To impeach the president, you need to go through the Court trials, so is the case with the people wanting to review certain national laws, or those wanting to review the results of certain regional elections. Everything has to go through the Constitutional Court,” Mahfud sad.
This was done solely to balance the ways in which democracy and nomocracy work. Democracy, he says, is based on the decision of the majority, while he continued: “Therefore, if there were any laws deemed unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court could nullify such laws. For instance, the results of a regional election that was supposedly held and upheld the principles of democracy could be nullified if they were deemed unconstitutional. This is done to maintain the integrity and the unity of our nation,” he said.
Meanwhile, another Constitutional Court justice, M. Arsyad Sanusi, explained that the Court also had the authority to protect and guarantee the rights of citizens. (Ganie)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | 14:34 WIB 290