Constitutional Court researcher Abdul Basyid Fuadi welcomingstudents of SMAN 1 Padang, West Sumatera on Monday (10/2). Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Some 37 students of SMAN 1 Padang, West Sumatera listened to a presentation on the constitutional system of Indonesia at the hall of the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday (10/2/2020). Constitutional Court researcher Abdul Basyid Fuadi welcomed the students and three teachers.

Prior to the presentation, one of the teachers delivered a remark that the 11^th grade Social Science students from SMAN 1 Padang was visiting some of the best campuses in Java as well as state institutions that have central roles in national and state life. Hopefully, this visit would motivate students to continue their studies at a higher level at the best campuses and become future leaders of the nation.

Abdul Basyid explained that in the constitutional system of Indonesia, the Constitutional Court is very closely related to the demands for reform in 1998. Even though the students who were present had not been born, they must understand the great history of the Indonesian nation because it is closely related to the establishment of the Constitutional Court as a judicial institution born out of a change in the constitution and the demands for reform.

"The demands for reform are very close to us. Therefore, the Constitutional Court is an institution that was born from the changes that occurred from the amendments to the 1945 Constitution. Previously we did not know the Constitutional Court," Basyid explained.

Basyid also stressed that with changes in the implementation of democracy in Indonesia, the state administration in Indonesia developed and the struggle for human rights started. Before amendments to the 1945 Constitution, the state administration in Indonesia was vertically hierarchical, guided by Article 1 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution that reads, "Sovereignty is in the hands of the people and fully carried out by the People\'s Consultative Assembly." After the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, the structure of the constitution in Indonesia became horizontally functional. "There is no longer categorization of state institutions, [as] the highest and high institutions supervise and balance each other," he explained. (Sri Pujianti/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Uploaded on 2/11/2020