Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman with Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah and Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan handing a memento to Central Information Commission (KIP) Chairman Gede Narayana and his team on Thursday (10/10) at the 5^th floor Delegation Room of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ganie.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman welcomed Central Information Commission (KIP) Chairman Gede Narayana, Vice Chairman Hendra J. Kede, Secretary Bambang Sigit Nugroho and their team at the Delegation Room of the Constitutional Court on Thursday (10/10/2019). The KIP delegation came to plan an MoU with the Constitutional Court on public information openness.

"We, as the executors of the Public Information Openness Law, invite relevant stakeholders, in this case the Constitutional Court, to implement public information disclosure in accordance with the Constitution. We have also tried with various other institutions to hold a kind of MoU or other [collaboration] including the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court as the main pillar of the judiciary is expected to provide a good example for transparency and accountability," Narayana said in a meeting attended by Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah, Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan, as well as a number of Constitutional Court officials. 

Justice Anwar welcomed the KIP’s intention. "[We welcome] an MoU between the Constitutional Court and the KIP. The technical issue, which is to be discussed today or at another time, can be discussed with the Secretary General of the Constitutional Court. In principle, we really appreciate the wishes of KIP. We have done information disclosure, except for highly confidential information such as the Constitutional Court deliberation meeting, we cannot disclose. We will convey the results of the deliberation meeting at the ruling hearing," he explained. 

Chief Justice Anwar also revealed positive results of the Constitutional Court related to information disclosure, one being the results of the 2019 presidential election dispute. The Court received three awards from the Indonesian Record Museum (MURI) as the most transparent court, for the highest number of files, and a nonstop hearing of almost 20 hours. 

Secretary GeneralM. Guntur Hamzah explained that the MoU would include activities to strengthen the understanding of the Constitution in a transparent and accountable manner through various events such as seminars, video conference, and cooperation in publication of academic works. (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti