The Petitioners’ attorney Ari Lazuardi conveying the petition revisions at the material review hearing of Article 19 paragraph (2), Article 58, and the elucidation to Article 59 letter c of Law No. 17 of 2019 on Water Resources, Thursday (24/9) in the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another hearing of the material review of Article 19 paragraph (2), Article 58, and the elucidation to Article 59 letter c of Law No. 17 of 2019 on Water Resources on Thursday, September 24, 2020 in the Plenary Courtroom. The second hearing of the case No. 73/PUU-XVIII/2020 heard the revisions to the petition.

The petition No. 73/PUU-XVIII/2020 was filed by Agus Wibawa, Dewanto Wicaksono, Prihatin Suryo Kuncoro, and Andy Wijaya (Petitioners I-IV). They work at a subsidiary of the state-owned electricity firm PT PLN, which focuses on power plants. Petitioners I and II are the chairman and secretary-general of the central executive board (DPP) of the PT Pembangkitan-Jawa Bali workers union (DPP SP PJB) while Petitioners III and IV are the chairman and secretary of the workers association of the central PT Indonesia Power (PP IP).

The Petitioners claimed that the a quo law potentially affect the company at which they work. The Petitioners are employees of hydropower plants (PLTA) owned by an SOE in electricity supply (in casu PT Indonesia Power and PT Pembangkitan-Jawa Bali), which manage water resources pursuant to Article 38 of the Water Law since 1995, before the law was enacted. They believe the provision may lead to constitutional loss due to the possibility of PT Pembangkitan-Jawa Bali and PT Indonesia Power’s continuous loss. They might lose their livelihood due to the automatic increase of electricity tariff and notoire feiten notorious (things that are generally known), which leads to the increase of cost of living.

Also read: Livelihood Threatened, Workers of PT PLN Subsidiary Challenge Water Resources Law

At the hearing chaired by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, the Petitioners through attorney Ari Lazuardi said their legal standing has been revised to describe that they are individuals or a group thereof who share a common interest and represent two workers union: the workers association of the central PT Indonesia Power and the PT Pembangkitan-Jawa Bali workers union.

Petitioners I and II are representative of the unions who have received mandate from the respective unions. The Petitioners also made some revisions in the posita and shortened the petitum.

Writer: Utami Argawati
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
PR: Annisa Lestari
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 9/25/2020 16:43 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.