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Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah speaking at a focus group discussion on The Urgency of Constitutional Complaint for the Promotion and Protection of Constitutional Rights of Citizens in Indonesia,” Tuesday (17/11/2020) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—The Constitutional Court (MK) will do some planning, discussion, and meeting to find common ground regarding constitutional complaint so it would be ready if it is instructed to exercise such authority, said Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah at a focus group discussion on The Urgency of Constitutional Complaint for the Promotion and Protection of Constitutional Rights of Citizens in Indonesia” on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.

In his presentation in the fourth session of the discussion under the theme “Constitutional Complaint from the Perspective of Institutions,” he said that this authority can be adopted through three methods: an amendment to the 1945 Constitution, a revision of the Constitutional Court Law, and a Constitutional Court decision.

He said that should the Constitutional Court be mandated with such an authority, it wouldn’t find it a burden because, in order to handle the high number of cases lodged in the Court, it has prepared to accommodate it with or without a change of its organizational working structure (SOTK).

Qualified and Experienced Human Resources

With nine constitutional justices, any change of the organizational working structure would need the support from the Registrar’s Office and Secretariat General. Therefore, the Court would prepare enough number of qualified, experienced substitute registrars and researchers. They would research and review the implementation of constitutional complaints.

In the session moderated by researcher Bisariyadi, Guntur explained that no change in the organizational working structure would lead to the issuance of a Constitutional Court regulation (PMK) to detail the procedural law that can technically filter constitutional complaints, such as by applying more rigorous requirements to the petitioner’s legal standing.

Next, he added, the Secretariat General would utilize information and communication technology (ICT) to encourage the filing of online petitions and the publication of the decisions on the website. This hopefully would facilitate swift and effective handling of constitutional complaints. “The use of ICT in the Court would cut costs and time, minimize KKN (corruption, collusion, and nepotism), and realize swift performance,” Guntur said.

High Number of Cases

The next speaker in the fourth session, House III Commission member Habiburokhman, was one of the House members who proposed the authority to rule on constitutional complaint for the Constitutional Court. He believes Article 24 of the 1945 Constitution expressly states that the constitutional foundation of this authority can be mandated in the Constitutional Court Law and a Constitutional Court regulation.

Speaking about the concern of the high number of potential cases, he said that filtering can be done to allow only cases where citizens’ constitutional rights are violated by the actions/policies of the administration and officials.

In addition, he hoped that the Constitutional Court would add a special chapter in its regulation on the authority to rule on constitutional complaints. He was optimistic that if the foundation had been laid, it could be discussed to be included in the National Legislative Program (Prolegnas).

“All factions welcome the inclusion of constitutional complaint in the Constitutional Court Law. The important thing is that the concept is clear. This FGD will [gather perspectives] on constitutional complaint being included in the Constitutional Court Law,” he said.

The virtual FGD discussed four perspectives on constitutional complaint: philosophical, international comparison, regulation, and organization. In the first session, the philosophical perspective was discussed by the former Chief Supreme Justice of 2001-2008 Bagir Manan, the Deputy MPR (People’s Consultative Assembly) Speaker Arsul Sani, the former Constitutional Justice 2003-2008 and 2015-2020 I Dewa Gede Palguna, and Constitution Forum (FK) member Gregorius Seto Harianto.

In the second session, comparison with other countries was discussed in detail by the former Chief Constitutional Justice of 2003-2008 Jimly Asshiddiqie, the former Constitutional Justice of 2003–2008 and 2009–2014 Harjono, and senior researcher Pan Mohamad Faiz. In the third, constitutional complaint from the perspective of regulations was discussed by House member Taufik Basari, the head of the National Law Development Agency (BPHN) Benny Riyanto, the former Constitutional Justice 2003–2009 Maruarar Siahaan, and constitutional law professor of UII Ni’matul Huda.

In the fourth session, constitutional complaint from the organizational perspective was discussed by House member Habiburokhman, the commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Munafrizal Manan, the Constitutional Court Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah, and law lecturer of the University of Jember Bayu Dwi Anggono. In this last session, not only did the speakers deliver their presentations, but 32 academics and practitioners from communities and civil society organizations were also given the floor to respond to the presentations.

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Nur R.
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 11/20/2020 08:17 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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