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Monday, May 3, 2021 | 11:42 WIB

Petitioner Wielfried Milano Maitimu representing the Ambon-Lease customary law community at the judicial review hearing of the Civil Code, Monday (3/5/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Ilham.

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the second material judicial review hearing of the Civil Code (KUHPer) on Monday, May 3, 2021. Wielfried Milano Maitimu represents the Ambon-Lease customary law community to challenge Articles 831, 832, 834, 849, 852, 852a, 857, 862, 863, 864, 865, 867, 869, 872, 913, 914, 916, 916A, 920, and 921 of the Civil Code against Article 18B paragraph (2) and Article 28I paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution.

At the petition revision hearing, the Petitioner for case No. 1/PUU-XIX/2021 conveyed revisions regarding the legal standing and posita (background to the petition).

“I clarified the contradiction between the norms and the Petitioner’s constitutional rights,” Maitimu said before Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat (panel chair), Wahiduddin Adams, and Saldi Isra.

Also read: Ambon-Lease Customary Law Community Challenges Civil Code on Inheritance

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner alleged that the norms in question are in violation of the customary law on inheritance practiced in Maluku, especially Ambon. The reason being that the customary law on inheritance no longer applies since the courts refer to the Civil Code. As a consequence, the Petitioner, failed to receive housing inheritance as ‘anak rumah’ (or ‘rumahtua’ in the Moluccan customary law)—a term in the Moluccan kinship system that means a child that is not acknowledged by the paternal relatives but acknowledged by the maternal relatives and, thus, can continue the matrilineal line.

After the Petitioner’s mother passed away in 2018, a house previously belonging to the ‘rumahtua’ fell to the hands of his mother’s husband. It was to be sold and the proceeds be distributed according to the norms in the Civil Code. The Petitioner believes that this shouldn’t apply in the Moluccan customary law. In his petitum, he requests that the Court declare all norms in contention unconstitutional and not legally binding or conditionally constitutional insofar as not be used to rule on disputes within customary law communities.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Andhini S. F.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 5/3/2021 14:29 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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