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Wednesday, March 31, 2021 | 14:14 WIB

Chief Justice Anwar Usman opening the annual members meeting of the Constitutional Court’s cooperative, Wednesday (31/3/2021) at the hall of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court’s cooperative held an annual members meeting (RAT) on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at the hall of the Constitutional Court (MK). This year’s meeting was under the theme “Pandemic: A Moment for Creation and Compassion.”

“This theme shows that amid the pandemic, the cooperative’s administrators have maintained their spirits in performing their duty to manage the cooperative to the best of their abilities. With the spirit of creativity in work amid the pandemic, hopefully the welfare of all members of the cooperative is maintained,” said Chief Justice Anwar Usman said before the administrators and members when opening the virtual meeting.

Justice Anwar stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly impacted all sectors, including the cooperative. He also mentioned how it has challenged the diverse Indonesia. However, he said that we as a nation should be thankful despite the challenges as other countries are faced with even more ordeals.

“The attempt by the city of Catalonia to separate from Spain, the Rohingnya crisis in Myanmar, the coup d’état in Thailand and Zimbabwe some time ago, the political instability in Egypt, and many others are evidence of how hard it is to manage diversity and social democracy in a state. Looking at those countries, we must be grateful that the state of our diversity is better,” he explained.

Justice Anwar revealed that at a meeting between Constitutional Court and Supreme Court justices around the world in Mexico City in 2012, he had conversed informally with colleagues from several countries about their democracy. They asked him about the implementation of the democracy in Indonesia.

“I explained to those colleagues that Indonesia practices a democracy where it elects regents, mayors, governors, president, and regional and central legislative members directly; that every person has equal right to vote. The previously hadn’t been aware that the Indonesian democracy was based on diversity—hundreds of ethnicities and regional languages, races, religions, geographical conditions as Indonesia consisted of thousands of islands, and a population of over 250 million. They were surprised by my explanation and wondered how it would have been possible for a direct democracy to be implemented peacefully amid such a diverse nation. To them, it was hard to fathom,” he recalled.

Benefits of Cooperative 

Meanwhile, Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah, encouraged the cooperative’s administrators and members to continue increasing their social saving, education saving, and other savings in the cooperative. “Therefore, despite the pandemic, the Constitutional Cooperative will remain with the community. It will offer benefits not only to the members, but also to the community surrounding the Constitutional Court,” he hoped. 

He added that the cooperative’s challenge concerns creativity. “There must be more efforts to be creative amid the pandemic. In this era of online connectivity, everything is quick. [The cooperative] could come up with a business idea of speedy service, a type of online business, for example. Why don’t the Constitutional Cooperative sell goods online?” he suggested. He also suggested that the cooperative make applications that can move the economy for individuals and communities.

An annual members meeting (RAT) is a mandatory agenda of all cooperatives, in which the administrators account for their management of the cooperative in that year. This meeting is a forum for the Constitutional Court staff members to plan the cooperative’s direction the following year and to voice opinions on their membership. 

Writer: Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari P.

Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: NL

Translation uploaded on 4/1/2021 12:30 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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