Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman (center) witnessing the signing of MoU with UIN Malang on Thursday (5/12/2019) in Malang, East Java. Photo by Humas MK/Yok Banu Prihatno.

MALANG, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Towards the end of 2019, the Constitutional Court (MK) agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic University of Malang (UIN Malang). Head of the Public Relations and Domestic Cooperation Department Fajar Laksono and Deputy Rector III of Student Affairs of UIN Malang Isroqunnajah signed the MoU at the Ulul Albab Campus of UIN Malang on Thursday (5/12/2019).

In his remarks, Fajar stated that the MoU with universities, especially UIN Malang, is a strategic step for the Constitutional Court to facilitate socialization and obtain feedback. "UIN Malang is part of academia, which is closely related to the Constitutional Court, which was also born from an idea that by academics, whose system and mechanism also deals with academia to improve the quality of court decisions," he explained. Fajar hoped that UIN Malang could make the most of this collaboration by planning academic activities together in the future.

In response, Deputy Rector III of UIN Malang Isroqunnajah, also known as Gus Is, stated that UIN Malang welcomed the cooperation. "We are ready to commit [to the cooperation] and certainly hope that in the future activities such as collaborative research with and internship for students at the Constitutional Court will be held in the future," he said.

Aside from witnessing the signing of the MoU, Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman also gave a public lecture entitled "The Strategic Role of the Constitutional Court in the Settlement of the 2019 Elections Results Disputes." Before around 500 guests, he said that the Court’s strategic role in the settlement of the election results disputes is to guard the constitutional democracy in Indonesia.

The Court held hearings in the Settlement of the 2019 Elections Results Disputes to settle 261 legislative election cases and one presidential election case without much problem. Out of the 261 cases, 250 were filed by political parties and 10 by regional legislative members. Out of those, 58 cases moved forward to evidence hearing, while 202 others were dismissed for not meeting the procedural law. "Most importantly, when deciding on a case, the justices must look at the facts revealed at the hearings, in accordance with existing regulations," he explained.

At the end of his lecture, Justice Anwar advised the academic community of UIN Malang to provide political education to the public because the main task and responsibility of academics in the field of law or sharia includes educating the public in utilizing their political rights. (Yok BP/Wiwik BW/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti