Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat speaking at a focus group discussion in Makassar, Thursday (24/10/19). Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) in collaboration with Hasanuddin University and the Cooperation Agency of All-Indonesia State University Lecturers held a focus group discussion (FGD) in Makassar, Thursday (24/10/19). The FGD was under the theme "The Direction of National Law Development and Development of Law Enforcement Apparatus Human Resources." In the first session, the Constitutional Court discussed "The Direction of National Law Development from the Perspective of Legislation and Regulation" with legal experts.

Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat stated that from the perspective of legislation and regulation and from the direction of law enforcement officials, the law has many definitions. The law aspired in a society shall provide justice, while in politics, the first law is ideal legal politics. "It is stated in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution and it applies permanently. It is permanent in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution and must be realized accurately because all the articles contained therein are bound by the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution, the fourth paragraph," said the Diponegoro University professor.

Justice Arief also explained that the articles could be changed, but the most perilous was to change the articles that are dependent on the politics of the House (DPR) that do not know Pancasila, which would eliminate the values of Pancasila. "Therefore, Pancasila education and citizenship must be strengthened. Pancasila as an ideal legal politics is permanent. But what is in the 1945 Constitution is temporary," he explained.

In the latest development of Indonesia, the decisions on the Constitution also contain legal politics, so the House uses many decisions of the Constitutional Court. "This is because the value of the Constitutional Court\'s decisions is very high. Thus, the Parliament creates laws based on the decisions of the Constitutional Court," he concluded.

In the second session, Galang Asmara talked about the direction of national law development from the perspective of law investment, which is influenced by several factors, ranging from infrastructure, structure, to culture. However, structure or human resources is key. "Therefore, HR must really know the values in law enforcement, which are derived from education. This is due to law enforcement determining the direction and legal development going forward," Galang stressed.

Galang also expressed concerns that legal education in Indonesia is unlike medical education, which is focused and intense. "There are a lot of specialists. Therefore, let us build our legal education system for the future development of national law from all factors, so that it will lead to good human resources and good law investment as well," he said.

This FGD is part of the 6th constitutional event Gebyar Konstitusi, which took place at Hasanuddin University, Makassar. The event included a national seminar, constitutional debate competition, and moot court competition, from Thursday to Saturday (26/10/2019). (Panji/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti