Chief Justice Anwar Usman speaking at the national seminar on “Simultaneous Elections: Potentials of Post-Elections Disputes and Conflicts” by Lampung University (Unila) at the Unila Abdul Kadir Auditorium on Saturday (13/4/2019).

LAMPUNG, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Democracy in Indonesia continues to change and develop. Since independence, several electoral systems and democratic systems have been implemented. All those systems need reforms and evaluation.

“In the past, after Indonesia\'s independence, the implementation of democracy and election that received praise from both national and international communities was the election held in 1955,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman in his keynote speech at the national seminar on “Simultaneous Elections: Potentials of Post-Elections Disputes and Conflicts” by Lampung University (Unila) at the Unila Abdul Kadir Auditorium on Saturday (13/4/2019).

According to Justice Anwar, the election deserved praise because it was carried out honestly, fairly, and transparently. However, post-1955 election, democracy and elections seemed to be an ordinary, compulsory routine to be carried out in accordance with the existing constitutional calendar. In fact, he added, experts said that democracy that post-1955 election only fulfilled the requirements of a democratic state.

Therefore, Justice Anwar added, to evaluate the process of democracy and previous elections, changes were made to the 1945 Constitution after the 1998 reform. The current elections are the consequence of democracy and monocracy that became the paradigm of our 1945 Constitution after the amendments in 1999-2002. "This paradigm then labeled our country as a democratic country based on democratic constitutional law or a democratic legal state," he said before around 150 participants.

According to him, the paradigm was the choice to improve nomocracy in addition to democracy. This change in paradigm is an attempt to correct the weaknesses of the democratic system used in the past.

The chief justice also said that the academic community and students have the duty to educate the public to exercise their right to vote. It is a noble duty because it is directly related to voters and that the responsibility of the knowledgeable person is heavier because it they have the obligation to practice their knowledge. (Utami/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)