Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman delivering his address and laying the first stone at Bima Koramil Kodim, Saturday (12/10) in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara. Photo by Humas MK/Hamdi Vigo.

BIMA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court— Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman delivered an address in the laying of first stone at Subdistrict Military Command (Koramil1608-01/RASANAE KODIM 1608-BIMA, Saturday (12/10/2019), in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

Also attending the event, Military Resort Commander (Danrem) 162 Wira Bakti Kolonel (Inf.) Rizal Ramdhani, Bima Mayor M. Lutfi,  DPR RI member Syafrudin,  Bima City Police Chief Erwin Ardiansyah, and Military District Commander (Dandim)1605 Letkol (Inf.) Bambang Kurnia Eka Putra. 

Starting his address, Justice Anwar said a leader keeps his words. "Not carrying it out is a grave sin," he said. According to him, being a judge is hard. If a judge decides on one case, then performs ijtihad (to rationalize) and is proven right, they will get two merits. And if they decide on one case, then performs ijtihad and is proven wrong, they will get one merit. The Chief Justice invited everyone to defend the truth, honesty, and justice.

In addition, Justice Anwar said, the people are the most powerful since the republic was established through Article 1 paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution. Before the amendments, he added, sovereignty was in the hands of the people and carried out entirely by the People\'s Consultative Assembly (MPR). Now, sovereignty is still in the hands of the people, but is carried out according to the 1945 Constitution. 

Justice Anwar explained that to review an unconstitutional law, it was agreed that mechanism used was a judicial review, which is the authority of the Constitutional Court. If any law or any part of it is declared proven to be incompatible with the Constitution, it will be revoked by the Constitutional Court. Therefore, all legal products must refer to and must not conflict with the Constitution. Through the judicial review authority, the Constitutional Court carries out its guarding function so that no legal provisions are unconstitutional. 

The main function and role of the Constitutional Court is to maintain the Constitution in order to uphold the principle of constitutionality of law. It is the underlying reason of the formation of the Constitutional Court in the constitutional system. In order to maintain the Constitution, the judicial review authority is inevitable in the Constitution because the 1945 Constitution confirms that the government system is no longer the supremacy of the parliament but the supremacy of the Constitution. 

In addition, Justice Anwar also emphasized that the Constitutional Court won three awards from the Indonesian World Record Museum (MURI), handed out by MURI’s highest executive officer (CEO) Jaya Suprana as an appreciation for the Court’s hard work. The three records are the longest nonstop court hearing, the court hearing with the most court files, and the most transparent trial process. (Utami/Hamdi/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti