Constitutional Justice Harjono when welcoming students of National University Singapore during their visit at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday (9/3) afternoon.
Jakarta, MKOnline - A number of students from National University Singapore visited the Constitutional Court (The Court) on Wednesday (9/3) afternoon. Their visit that was directly welcomed by Constitutional Justice Harjono, was intended to get a closer to The Court, starting from the session, working system, and other things related to The Court. Including to get a short lecture from Harjono on Indonesian Constitution.
When opening the meeting, Harjono explained in brief about the history of Indonesian Constitution, the background of the establishment of The Court including the authorities and the obligation of The Court. Harjono explained that the history of Indonesian Constitution had experienced a long period of ups and downs. There had been three changes in the constitution starting from the 1945 Constitution, The Federal Republic of Indonesia (RIS) Constitution, then the 1950 Temporary Constitution.
Since the formulation in 1945 until 1959, the issues on constitution had been one of the focuses in inter-group debates which reached a point in a constituents forum (1956-1959).
In the development of the constitution in Indonesia for years, there was an amendment or a change in the 1945 Constitution which was so significant. The change in the 1945 Constitution took place in 1999 and managed to discuss two things which were the limitation of President’s authority and the empowering of the House of Representatives, until an idea to form a Constitutional Court in Indonesia arose.
That was begun with the adoption of the idea of a Constitutional Court in the constitutional amendment conducted by the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) in 2001, as formulated in the stipulation of Article 24 paragraph (2), Article 24C, and Article 7B of the 1945 Constitution as the Third Amendment enacted in November 9, 2001. The idea of forming a Constitutional Court was one of the development in legal thought and in modern state-institutional thought which came to surface in the twentieth century.
After the enactment of the Third Amendment of the 1945 Constitution, as an effort to wait for the establishment of the Constitutional Court, MPR announced that the Supreme Court temporarily carried out the function of The Court as arranged in Article III of the Transition Rules of the 1945 Constitution as the result of the Fourth Amendment. The Parliament and the Government after that sat down together to form a Draft Bill on Constitutional Court until finally the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia was founded on August 13, 2003.
Harjono also explained that The Court holds the authority to review Acts against the Constitution, to decide on disputes over State Institutions’ Authorities, to decide on the dissolution of a political party and to decide on the election dispute including the regional election. Added by an obligation of The Court that was to give decision on the opinion of the Parliament concerning the allegation of violation committed by the President and or Vice President according to the Constitution (Nano Tresna A./mh/YDJ)
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 | 16:02 WIB 284