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Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah welcoming Kode Inisiatif chairman Veri Junaidi on Wednesday (9/10) in the Meeting Room of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Konstitusi dan Demokrasi Inisiatif (Kode Inisiatif), a nonprofit agency promoting constitutionalism and democracy in Indonesia, visited the Constitutional Court on Wednesday (9/10/2019). Kode Inisiatif chairman Veri Junaidi and three researchers were welcomed by the Constitutional Court (MK) Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah as well as Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan and a few Court researchers at the 11^th floor Meeting Room.

During the visit, Veri said that since 2003 Kode Inisiatif has continued to examine the Constitutional Court decisions in various cases. Therefore, Kode Inisiatif summarized the results of quantitative research of the 16-year journey of the Constitutional Court decisions in a book that will be launched in the next two weeks.

Veri hoped that the Constitutional Court representatives would attend and accept the results of their research as part of their contribution to the Constitutional Court and the nation. "Since 2015 when Kode Inisiatif was formed, we have collected data related to cases that have been reviewed and petitioned to the Court since 2003. In many studies, we see that there is still a quantitative research vacuum. Through the results of this study, we hope to complement the studies on the Constitutional Court by observing the trends of the Constitutional Court\'s decisions," said Veri. 

Welcoming the Kode Inisiatif team and their work for the Constitutional Court, Guntur expressed his gratitude. According to him, Kode Inisiatif is an institution that devotedly follows the Constitutional Court\'s journey with a variety of data accessible for the public. "We are very grateful to have partners such as the Initiative Code who devotedly follow the Constitutional Court\'s journey to see the Constitutional Court in each of its decisions and the data sought by the public, so the Constitutional Court can get a lot of inputs in the process of resolving various cases that is the Court\'s authority," Guntur said. 

Regarding observation by Kode Inisiatif on case trends at the Constitutional Court and the length of the process of a case at the Court, Guntur said that as an institution that oversees the implementation of citizens\' constitutional rights, the Court would continue maintaining the rhythm of case settlement with the duration of 5.2 months per case. Guntur realized that the Court not only has to race against the time for the settlement of each case, but also has to maintain the quality of the decisions. "We continue to accelerate the settlement of a case, but its quality has become [a focus of] our commitment in the Constitutional Court\'s decisions," said Guntur. 

This commitment, Guntur added, was to protect the reputation of the Constitutional Court in the quick settlement of cases and problem solving for every constitutional issue of citizens. In addition, the Court also hoped that its decisions would be obeyed by the relevant institutions involved in the decisions. In Guntur\'s view, that enforcement of the Constitution is reflected in how a Constitutional Court\'s decision is carried out by stakeholders. 

Trends of the Decisions

Veri added his team\'s research categorized various trends in the Constitutional Court\'s decision into 24 categories, such as general election cases, regional head elections cases, etc. From the results of those studies, the public can see the parties who are most interested in the petitions at the Court, the direct and indirect damage experienced by the petitioners, as well as the considerations most used by the Court in making decisions. "We collect data from the decisions of the Constitutional Court and what the trends are. So, the results of this research are quantitative data, so it differs from qualitative research," Veri explained. 

Veri hoped that Kode Inisiatif\'s research data can be input for the Court to see further the impact of its decisions. In addition, it becomes materials for Court researchers. 

Joint Discussion

Constitutional Court researcher Pan Mohamad Faiz also expressed his appreciation for Kode Inisiatif\'s work. He hoped that in the future the Constitutional Court researchers can hold joint discussions with Kode Inisiatif\'s researchers and transfer knowledge to enrich future studies. 

Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan also expressed his appreciation for Kode Inisiatif\'s work. He believed that the results of the studies can be further managed by the Constitutional Court and be updated to support the Court’s case tracking effort.

At the end of the visit, Veri symbolically handed the work by Kode Inisiatif\'s researchers as a gift for the 16-year journey of the Constitutional Court in guarding the Constitution. (Sri Pujianti/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

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