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Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra speaking at the launch and review of the book “Pokok-Pokok Pemikiran Penataan Peraturan Perundang-undangan di Indonesia” organized by the Center for Pancasila and Constitutional Studies of the Law Faculty of Jember University, Wednesday (7/10) virtually from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra spoke virtually at the launch and review of the book Pokok-Pokok Pemikiran Penataan Peraturan Perundang-undangan di Indonesia (The Fundamentals of the Arrangement of Legislation in Indonesia) organized by the Center for Pancasila and Constitutional Studies of the Law Faculty of Jember University, Wednesday, October 7, 2020.

"Congratulations to Dr. Bayu Dwi Anggono as the author of [this] book on the arrangement of regulations in Indonesia. To me, books are the manifestation of immortality. If a person expresses their thoughts in writing, they leave behind [something immortal] for the public to be discussed. Whether people agree or disagree with what we write, it’s another matter. This is part of an academic’s responsibility to enrich [the body of] literature, especially in constitutional law, more specifically on legislation. Moreover, legislation is an ever-disputed issue after the amendments to the 1945 Constitution," he said. 

Justice Saldi believes the book will be a great contribution to the discussion of regulations. In his opinion, the book is compact in terms of substance, and able to reflect the author’s thoughts. However, he made one recommendation, “The title could be fixed as it is too long, so that it would be more eye-catching and simple, for example Penataan Regulasi di Indonesia or Gagasan Penataan Regulasi di Indonesia (The Arrangement of Regulations in Indonesia or Ideas on Arranging Regulations in Indonesia).”

Hyper-Regulation 

Justice Saldi said the arrangement of regulations in Indonesia is an ever-debated topic. Many scholars and researchers on the constitutional laws, especially the legislation, who have conducted studies of arrangements of regulations said there is hyper-regulation in Indonesia: there are simply too many laws.

"We don’t reject such opinions. However, having the competencies to study our regulations more comprehensively, of course we have to look at it from different perspectives. One of the points that is often forgotten about regulation its place in the government system," he said.

Indonesia’s presidential system have different regulations from the parliamentary one. In the presidential system, is it appropriate to give ministers the authority to issue ministerial regulations? Justice Saldi said it is important to study the hierarchy of statutory legislation in a presidential system. Does such a system give agencies outside the president or the legislature the authority to create regulations?

He stressed the importance of understanding the differences of regulations under the presidential and parliamentary systems. The Temporary People’s Consultative Assembly Decree TAP MPRS No. XX/MPRS/1966 stipulates the hierarchy to be the Constitution, TAP MPRS, laws or perppu (government regulation in lieu of law), ministerial regulations, ministerial instructions, etc. He added that people seem to have forgotten that the mention of ministerial regulations and instructions in TAP MPRS No. XX/MPRS/1966 was related to Indonesia’s parliamentary system from 1945 to 1959 until the Presidential Decree of July 5, 1959. He also revealed that the code of conduct of Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Gotong Royong (DPR-GR), which was established in 1960, was adopted from that of a parliamentary system.

“The interpretation of the code of conduct is that the president and the DPR [House] discuss [lawmaking] together. It is the pattern of a parliamentary system. It was practiced continuously and was proposed in the amendment to the 1945 Constitution. One of the things to be studied now is the scope of statutory legislation. The Constitution clearly mentions perppu, government regulations, and regional government regulations,” he said.

He wondered about the starting point of Indonesia’s hyper-regulation. The number of effective laws exceeds that of government regulations, presidential decrees (keppres), presidential regulations (perpres), and ministerial regulations. “It turns out that hyper-regulation occurs in the executive [branch],” he said. He added that the solution is to improve the formulation process of the regulations in the executive branch.

Justice Saldi said that when Joko Widodo was elected president, there must have been new political laws to control all legal products in the executive branch, “Moving forward, ministerial regulations should no longer remain. All legal products in the executive branch must be presidential regulations or government regulations. Without restricting ministries from issuing ministerial regulations, it’s hard to arrange future regulations,” he said.

Writer: Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Nur R.
Photographer: Gani
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/15/2020 10:50 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.

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