Margarito Kamis as an expert for the Petitioner at the third hearing for the 2020 Sabu Raijua regent election, Tuesday (6/4/2021) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held another hearing of the 2020 Sabu Raijua Regency election dispute case on Tuesday, April 6, 2021 in the plenary courtroom. The case No. 133/PHP.BUP-XIX/2021 was filed by Candidate Pair No. 1 Nikodemus N. Rihi Heke-Yuhanis Ulu Kale. The hearing had been scheduled to hear the experts and witnesses presented by the litigants.
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Margarito Kamis, an expert presented by the Petitioner, testified that the 1945 Constitution gives only its citizens the rights to vote and to govern. He said that citizenship refers to the people who live in a certain region and agree to build a community in a social order as independent individuals with equal rights and obligations. Citizens, he said, are those who live within cities and have the right to participate in government. He stressed that this is related to the positions of the people within the community and to the right to participate in society.
Margarito highlighted that after the French Revolution, the concept of citizen was shown in the 1945 Constitution, in that the people who gather in a sovereign state hold the highest power in the state. As such, only they hold all the rights and obligation to form a government. This, he said, is expressed in the 1945 Constitution: sovereignty is vested in the people.
“So, citizens are not the same as population. Therefore, sovereignty is nothing but the exercise of power. That's why the 1945 Constitution says that only Indonesian citizens have equal legal standing in government and only they can participate in government, and nobody else,” he explained virtually from his residence.
Invalid
Margarito stated that when a foreign citizen applies to run as a regional head, although their documents are deemed legitimate by the KPU (General Elections Commission), they don’t have the right and legal requirements to do so. When the citizenship requirement is not met, then by law all concerning the fulfilment of the requirements can be declared invalid. As a consequence, the person doesn’t have any rights in the election.
“[Even] if the KPU declares the person eligible upon registration, they must be declared illegitimate from the start, even though the KPU has issued a legal decision. After all, when there are facts that says so and they are legally valid, the [person] hasn’t met the requirements from the start. The same applies to the vice regent paired with that person. In reality, even the [vice regent] must be declared illegitimate because the pair is a legal, administrative entity, and no election law declares that an election has only one person running. So, if one of the candidate pair’s requirements is not fulfilled, the [vice regent] will also have to bear the same responsibility,” Margarito explained.
Relocated Candidate
Hendri Dunant, a head of RT (neighborhood unit) and witness for the Petitioner, said that Orient Patriot Rewu Kore filed for relocation request from Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta to his area in Melawai, South Jakarta. He admitted that on December 9, 2019, he received such a letter from RT 03/RW 07 of Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
“I met with [Kore] in person and gave [the letter] a stamp for him to be able to register his relocation on the KTP [resident ID card] at the kelurahan (village). So I didn’t know at the time his area of residence on his KTP,” Henri said.
Another witness for the Petitioner, a data officer for the campaign team of Candidate Pair No. 1 Samuel P. said that he found an anomaly on Kore’s KTP when registering as a candidate pair in the 2020 Sabu Raijua Regency election. He found that Kore’s NIK (resident identity number) didn’t correspond with Kupang region, whose code is 5371. Kore’s NIK bore the code 3172, issued by the Disdukcapil (Population and Civil Registry Office) of Kupang.
Next, Alberky M., a liaison officer for Candidate Pair No. 1 with the KPU, testified that he had known about Kore’s citizenship since 2018. It was widely discussed by the Sabu Raijua community because Kore had sponsored a soccer game in the region.
Globalization
Maruarar Siahaan, an expert for the Relevant Party, said that Indonesia doesn’t recognize dual citizenship, but it could be possible after Law No. 12 of 2006. He saw the a quo case as a development for Indonesians that was led by globalization. He recommended that the Government be given opportunity to review the issue, as it comes down to the certification of an elected regent. He hoped the case would help the Government decide whether or not to inaugurate the regent-elect.
Siahaan believes the world is now a global unity, leading to the possibility that Indonesian diaspora would be needed in Indonesia’s development for their knowledge and potential. He believes that Kore hasn’t lost his Indonesia citizenship as he hasn’t made a statement to renounce it.
“So, dual citizenship is inevitable in building Indonesia reciprocally, especially for citizens who do not wish to have another citizenship unless, for example, for work and other matters,” he said at the special plenary hearing chaired by Chief Justice Anwar Usman alongside the other eight constitutional justices.
Citizenship Renunciation Procedure
Another expert for the Relevant Party, Nurudin, said that dual citizenship may apply for an Indonesian until the age of eighteen, after which they must choose a citizenship. He explained that one may lose their Indonesian citizenship when they voluntarily apply for another citizenship, not relinquish another citizenship, be declared to have lost their citizenship by the president, or have a passport or other official citizenship document from another country as proof of their other citizenship.
At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner requested that the Court nullify the Sabu Raijua Regency KPU Decree No. 25/HK.03.1-Kpt/5320/KPU-Kab/I/2020 on the Certification of the 2020 Sabu Raijua Regent-Vice Regent dated December 16, 2020 as the regency’s Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) had discovered that regent candidate Orient Patriot Rewu Kore was a US citizen. They requested that the Constitutional Court decides the legal certainty of the issue.
The Petitioner strongly objected to the Sabu Raijua Regency KPU’s (Respondent) decision because Bawaslu had found that the candidate pair in question didn’t meet the requirements asked of the regent-vice regent candidate pairs. They believe it violated Article 10 paragraph (1) of Law No. 30 of 2014 on Government Administration. The legal fact prompted them to request in the petitum that the Court declare Candidate Pair No. 2 illegitimate for having violated the KPU Decree No. 1 of 2020 Article 1 Point 18 and declare the Petitioner the election winner and/or order a revote.
Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Nur Rosikin
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti
Editor: R.A. Indah Apriyanti
Translation uploaded on 4/8/2021 14:12 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.
Wednesday, April 07, 2021 | 14:04 WIB 430