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Chief Justice Anwar Usman delivering a keynote speech virtually at the 2020 Jambi Law Fair, Friday (20/11/2020). Photo by Humas MK/Bayu.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman delivered a keynote speech virtually at the 2020 Jambi Law Fair on Friday, November 20, 2020. The fair was organized by the University of Jambi. At the fair, he delivered a presentation on "Looking to the Future of Law in Indonesia Post-COVID-19 Pandemic."

To begin his presentation, Justice Anwar said that the amendment to the 1945 Constitution in 1999-2002 was the right foundation to build Indonesia’s civilization and constitutionalism to a constitutional law-based state. He said, the constitution as the supreme law of the land must be a basis and guideline for all state elements in the state life. “There must be no excuse [against] complying to the constitution. If the constitution is not complied with, the state foundation will be fragile, as [it] is the basic law of the state. On the other hand, when the constitution is upheld in state administration, the state foundation will stay strong,” he said.

He also said that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Constitution as the basic law must be upheld by all state administrators and attention on it must even be more focused. “Because amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the people need protection from state administrators so that the pandemic wouldn’t take more lives and cause more damage,” he said.

Justice Anwar stressed that one of the main content of the constitution is the protection of citizens’ constitutional rights. This is expressed in the fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution on the ideals and purpose of the state: to protect the whole people of Indonesia and the entire homeland of Indonesia. “There is no other interpretation of the purpose of the establishment of the state, aside from protecting citizens in all conditions, against anyone that can harm their constitutional rights,” he said.

Great Impacts

Justice Anwar believes the COVID-19 pandemic has great impacts on all aspects of state life—politics, economy, social, defense and security, science and technology, etc. “From the legal aspect alone, if we observe more closely, many aspects of the law are also complex. Therefore, in accordance with the Constitutional Court’s authority as the guardian of democracy and the current factual condition, one of the relevant topics to discuss at the moment is the implementation of the concurrent pilkada [regional head election],” he said.

He also said that although the state is obligated to fulfill the people’s democratic rights, there would always be challenges. “[The Court] has had experience since 2005 regarding the direct regional head election, and we’ve had experience in concurrent pilkada since 2015 until 2018. However, this 2020 concurrent pilkada of course has unusual challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic, which happens worldwide,” he said.

He also said that the pandemic highlighted the state’s responsibility to its citizens in terms of health. Article 28H paragraph (1) and Article 34 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution states that each person has the right to receive medical care and that the state is responsible for it. This is not an easy task for the state.

Dilemma of Regional Election

He said that the upcoming 2020 concurrent pilkada amid the pandemic presented a dilemma. On the one hand, the state must fulfill the people’s democratic rights. On the other hand, the state must implement health protocols to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the community. “The implementation of health protocols is part of fulfilling the people’s right to health, following the constitutional mandate. The challenges in this 2020 concurrent pilkada are heavy. The concurrent pilkada, which was set for September 23, 2020, was even delayed to December 9, 2020,” he said.

He said that the House (DPR) and the Government had decided to go ahead with the pilkada, so adjustments were needed in each of its stage, including in the resolution of the pilkada disputes in the Constitutional Court. These adjustments, however hard, are not impossible, he added.

Justice Anwar believes South Korea, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka had conducted elections during the pandemic successfully. Although elections in those countries cannot be compared to Indonesia, whose geography, population, and number of voters are vastly different, he would like to urge Indonesians to do their best for their country so that the upcoming pilkada would be a success.

He also said that the pandemic, which is a human tragedy, is a real common enemy that should unify the nation and the world. It affects all human civilization, so there is no reason against working together to fight it.

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

Translation uploaded on 11/25/2020 16:13 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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