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Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra giving a public lecture virtually to the Law Faculty of Taman Siswa University Palembang, Friday (6/11) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—People often mistake government system, form of state, and form of state governance for one another. A government system is the system of the relations between the executive and legislative branches of power. “The form of state is related to the relationship between the central and regional governments in federal and unitary states. Meanwhile, the forms of government are a republic, a monarchy, et cetera,” said Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra delivering a public lecture on "The Development of Democracy and the Indonesian Administration " virtually to 100 Law Faculty students of Taman Siswa University Palembang, Friday morning, November 6, 2020.

He explained that there are parliamentary and presidential systems of government, as well as a combination of the two. In the parliamentary system, the state power lies with the parliament. The parliamentary election decides the executive branch and the composition of the government. This type of states doesn’t elect a prime minister. One will be appointed from the majority party in the parliamentary election. “In the parliamentary system, the executive always grows along with the legislative because ministers, prime ministers, deputy prime ministers are usually also members,” he said.

“In the presidential system, there is always a push-and-pull between the executive and the legislative because they both receive mandates from the people,” he said.

A combination of the two systems applies in France. French president Charles de Gaulle said in the 1950s that both systems are lacking, therefore a combination emerged. France now has a parliament, a president, and a prime minister. “The French Constitution designed so that the president is directly elected and communicates with the majority party to appoint a prime minister. The prime minister deals mostly with national affairs, while the president with foreign affairs,” Justice Saldi explained.

Justice Saldi also talked about the current election in the United States, where the one-man-one-vote principle doesn’t apply. The U.S. uses the electoral college system.

Purification of the Presidential System

What about Indonesia? Did the founding fathers design the presidential system in the 1945 Constitution? “One of the crucial points that was debated in the amendments of the 1945 Constitution in 1999-2002 was whether the 1945 Constitution will keep the presidential system. Those who amended the Constitution maintained the presidential system but urged the purification of it by improving the characteristics of the old model that don’t fit with the presidential system,” Justice Saldi explained.

The amendment to the 1945 Constitution dictated that the president, previously elected by the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), was now elected directly. In addition, the Constitution then stressed that not only the president was to be elected directly by the people, but also members of the House of Representatives (DPR). Last, the terms of office of a president are also regulated. “It was finally agreed on that a president of the Republic of Indonesia holds the office for five years and no more than two terms,” he said.

This term limit, Justice Saldi added, was adapted from the U.S. model. In the beginning, the U.S. Constitution stated that a president was to hold the office for four years and can be reelected once. This was the case since the first president George Washington until the 32^nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. However, this didn’t apply during FDR’s terms, as he held office for two more terms. He even held the office for another half-term after his third was completed, before he passed away.

“Americans then came to believe that without a term limit for the presidential office, new Roosevelts could emerge. This led to the 22^nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that a president cannot hold office over two terms,” he said.

Justice Saldi then talked about the fourth purification of the Indonesian presidential system, which is the impeachment. “A president can no longer be impeached for political reasons. [President] Soekarno was impeached because he was said to have failed to explain the G30S/PKI incident. Gusdur was then impeached because he was deemed to have violated the Constitution when he dissolved the MPR. Finally, the amended 1945 Constitution states that the president and vice president can only be impeached while in office if they violate the norms explicitly stated in the Constitution, for example committing corruption, despicable acts, etc.,” he said.

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

Translation uploaded on 11/13/2020 10:06 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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