Head of the Legal Aid Bureau of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Tio Serepina Siahaan giving his statement on behalf of the Government in a follow-up hearing of the judicial review of Law Number 86 of 1958 on the Nationalization of Dutch-Owned Companies on Monday (5/6) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The Government is of the opinion that the Executive Board of the West Java Christian Secondary Education Foundation (BPSMK-JB Foundation) filed a judicial review of Law No. 86/1958 on the Nationalization of Dutch Owned Companies (Nationalization Law) has no legal standing. This is because, based on the history of state control over China\'s ex-assets, the assets controlled by the Petitioner are not derived from nationalized assets, so the requirement of causal relation or causaal verband between the constitutional impairment of the Petitioner and the law petitioned for review is completely unfulfilled. This was conveyed by the Head of Legal Aid Bureau of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Tio Serepina Siahaan representing the Government in the follow-up hearing of Case No. 27/PUU-XVI/2018, Monday (5/6).

The assets owned by the Petitioner, Serephina added, are China’s ex-assets of derived from state control over assets owned by legal entities or individual associations. This was prohibited by the Regulation of the Central War Ruler Number PRP/032/Peperpu/1958 and Law No. 50 PRP of 1960.

"Based on the provision on the requirements of legal standing of the judicial review of the aforementioned laws and observing what was stated by the Petitioner in the legal standing of their petition, the Government is of the opinion that the Petitioner of the judicial review of this law have no legal standing," he explained at the hearing led by Chief Justice Anwar Usman.

The Petitioner of Case No. 27/PUU-XVI/2018 reviews Article 1 of the Nationalization Law on the nationalization of Dutch-owned companies. According to the Petitioner, Article 1 of the Nationalization Law has harmed the constitutional rights of the Petitioner. The Petitioner is the legal owner of the land or assets owned by Het Cristhelijk Lyceum (HCL) located at Jalan Ir. H. Juanda No. 93, Bandung. However, since 1991 to 2018, the Petitioner faced a lawsuit from the Christian Lyceum Society claiming to be the owner of the HCL assets that had been nationalized by the government when, in fact, the Ministry of Finance has relinquished state control over the foreign-owned land assets to the BPSMK-JB Foundation on December 19, 2003.

However, Article 1 of the Nationalization Law has caused the foundation to often facing legal challenges. Article 1 of the Nationalization Law does not provide legal certainty for nationalized assets formerly owned by HCL that have been nationalized and transferred from the state to the Petitioner. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioner requested that the Court declare the word "free" in the provision of Article 1 of the Law on Nationalization not having a conditionally unconstitutional binding force as long as it is not interpreted as "Free from all legal demands and lawsuits." (ARS/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)