Law students of Malahayati University, Lampung, Tuesday (25/2) at the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Constitutional Court (MK) researcher Luthfi Widagdo Eddyono welcomed 43 law students of Malahayati University, Lampung at the Delegation Room on Tuesday afternoon (25/2/2020). One of the attending lecturers said that they intended to visit the Court to find out about constitutional law mechanisms and activities in the Registrar\'s Office and Secretariat General of the Constitutional Court, starting from the courtrooms, the constitutional justices, and constitutional solutions that the Court has offered to petitioners.

Luthfi began his presentation by talking about Indonesia\'s constitutional history. Before the amendments to the 1945 Constitution, the judiciary was focused on the Supreme Court. After the Reform, the Constitutional Court was established to settle constitutional cases.

"In truth, democracy is not enough. Democratic principles through the judicial review are required because in principle, the majority does not necessarily reflect the truth. Therefore, the Constitutional Court must not ignore minority voices for the sake of establishing the Constitution," explained Lutfhi, who been working in law and government research since 2005.

Luthfi then talked about the Court\'s authorities, among others to carry out judicial review of laws against the 1945 Constitution. With this authority, the Court must enforce justice for all citizens, individuals, legal entities, and customary law communities to review any violation to constitutional rights due to the enforcement of laws made by lawmakers. The next authority is settling disputes among state institutions whose authorities are granted by the Constitution.

So far, the Court has never carry out its authority to dissolve political parties because only the government has the right to petition for it, with the proof that the political party in question practices an ideology that contradicts the 1945 Constitution. "[This authority] is indeed very limited. Even though this authority actually exists in several other countries, such as Portugal, where any political party can be dissolved because of non-transparent budgetary problems, bad party accountability, illegal funds, and others. Meanwhile, in our country this does not apply because only the government can file for this case," Lutfhi explained.

Lutfi also encouraged the law students, who in the future will become legal experts to continue the nation, to work hard so that even though the students do not choose to become advocates, they can still become legal counsels in the Constitutional Court, to assist petitioners who do not understand the intricacies of the law, but need assistance due to constitutional right violations due to the enactment of norms of law. (Sri Pujianti/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 2/26/2020