Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman and Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah welcoming the central executive board (DPP) of the Congress of Indonesian Advocates (KAI), Tuesday (30/6) at the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman along with Secretary General M. Guntur Hamzah, Head of the Legal and Registrar Administration Bureau Tatang Garjito, and Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan welcomed the central executive board (DPP) of the Congress of Indonesian Advocates (KAI) at his office at the 15^th floor of the Constitutional Court building on Tuesday afternoon (30/6/2020).

KAI President Siti Jamaliah Lubis first explained the history of KAI in 2008 in Jakarta, attended by about 5,000 Indonesian advocates. At that time, Indra Sahnun Lubis was elected as the first chief of KAI. In 2014 a second congress was held in Palembang. In 2019 a third congress was held in Malang and Siti Jamaliah Lubis were elected President of KAI.

"At present KAI has 34 DPD [regional executive boards] in all provinces of Indonesia and KPC DPC [branch executive board] in each district. The number of KAI members currently reaches 30,000. We thank the Constitutional Court as our members have participated in several technical assistance programs held by the Constitutional Court to face regional and presidential elections," said Siti alongside KAI Vice President for Organization Tommy Sihotang, KAI Vice President for Interagency Division Irman Putrasidin, and Head of KAI’s Interagency Department Budi Rahman.

Siti said KAI had organized advocate education and hoped for the Constitutional Court to send its speakers to deliver advocate education materials. "We expect our collaboration with the Constitutional Court going forward," she said.

"We came to the Constitutional Court [today] without any specific purpose. We, just as you are, will be implementing the law. We hope that our members will be given another chance to follow the technical assistance programs [organized by] the Constitutional Court to face the upcoming simultaneous local election," Tommy Sihotang said.

Justice Anwar Usman expressed his gratitude and appreciation for KAI’s intention. The Constitutional Court welcomes KAI members to participate in the Court’s technical assistance programs and appreciates advocate education by KAI. Justice Anwar said that the Constitutional Court would continue to disseminate the Constitution comprehensively to various regions so that more people will have more understanding of the Constitution. (Nano Tresna Arfana/LA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Translation uploaded on 6/30/2020