Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic Pancastaki Foekh as a keynote speaker in a webinar on Tuesday (16/6) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court— Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic Pancastaki Foekh was a keynote speaker in a webinar entitled "The Enforcement of Law and Human Rights amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic" organized by the Indonesian Christian Students Movement (GMKI) on Tuesday (16/6/2020) on the Zoom application.

Justice Foekh stated that COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic by the WHO, is a constitutional issue. “The constitutions of several UN member states officially declared this pandemic an emergency,” he said. Meanwhile, only three articles in the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia—Articles 11, 12, and 22—regulates the state of emergency. In such a state of emergency, the president has the right to set a government regulation (Perppu) as a substitute for a law. He said that a perppu can change certain norms that exist in the law.

He also said that in the state constitutional law, there must be provisions of two different legal systems for emergencies and normal circumstances. "So, actually, the founding fathers already had constitutional dualism in mind," the justice explained.

Justice Foekh believes that all emergency and Perppu laws have existed for a long time. However, the handling of emergencies is currently based on command and where the emergency state administration law temporary grants to the government the authority to deal with this virus. The goal is to restore the situation.

He also said that during such emergency, it is impossible to expect a Perppu formulated using the normal principles. In addition, it is not known when the COVID-19 outbreak will end. He also talked about the crucial role of the community in dealing with emergencies. "Participation is also very important to deal with emergencies. Currently as the PSBB [large-scale social restrictions] is applied, community participation is also required," he stressed. (Utami/NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 06/18/2020