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Tuesday, May 25, 2021 | 08:59 WIB

Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih speaking at a webinar by Lemhannas, Monday (24/5/2021) from the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih spoke at a virtual panel discussion on the sub-subject (SBS) of the 1945 Constitution, part of the Short-Term Education Program Batch (PPSA) XXIII of Lemhannas RI (National Resilience Institute) on Monday, May 24, 2021. She discussed “The Impacts of the Amendment to the 1945 Constitution on the State Administration System.”

Justice Enny talked about the need for the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, which she believes was inevitable, because the Constitution had allowed for amendment upon consensus. She said that the New Order proved to be a bad history, as there was the intention not to amend the Constitution for pure and accurate implementation. The intention was manifested in the MPR (People’s Consultative Assembly) Decree No. 4 of 1983 on Referendum.

“Essentially, the TAP MPR was against the Constitution, but no institution can review it. The contradiction remained, where the TAP MPR [reflected the wish] to implement the provisions of the 1945 Constitution. What is contained in the TAP MPR contradict our founding fathers’ wish, especially that of the drafters of the 1945 Constitution, because [they], especially Bung Karno, stated from the beginning that the 1945 Constitution was temporary,” Justice Enny explained.

Meanwhile, Justice Enny added, the original text of the 1945 Constitution stated the need to improve on itself. President Soekarno in 1957 stressed that the amendment to the 1945 Constitution must be accelerated to improve on its weaknesses, to provide new nuances, and to follow the times—all of which the original text of the Constitution hadn’t accommodated.

Weakness of 1945 Constitution Pre-Amendment

The political reform of 1998, Justice Enny said, was used as a momentum to revoke TAP MPR No. 4 of 1983, which required a referendum to amend the Constitution. At the time, many experts already offered their opinions of the weaknesses of the 1945 Constitution, which needed amendment and improvement. One of the parts needing amendment was the limit of state powers.

“Another weakness of the 1945 Constitution is that the [state] power is vested in the president. There was no checks and balances mechanism among state institutions to balance each other out. In addition, the 1945 Constitution hadn’t clearly defined our state administration system, whether presidential, parliamentary, or presidential combined with parliamentary,” Justice Enny said.

Another weakness was the vast power of the president over crucial matters, which was then manifested in laws or regulations under laws. For example, human rights should have been a core material in the 1945 Constitution, but it was contained in statutory regulations. This led to weak enforcement of human rights. In addition, the 1945 Constitution was often interpreted in many ways, such as regarding the presidential term limits, which didn’t exist at the time.

Therefore, Justice Enny said, reformers demanded that the amendment be expedited. It finally occurred in 1999-2002. The amenders of the Constitution agreed not to amend the Preamble, to maintain the form of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), to affirm the presidential system, to remove the elucidation to the Constitution, and to include normative matters in the elucidation to the Constitution in the body of the Constitution. The Constitution was amended with addendums, not by replacing it completely.

“The first amendment to the 1945 Constitution concerned the reduction of the president’s power. The second was massive, especially concerning human rights. The third concerned a good design of relationship among the state organs. The fourth also concerned a good design of relationship among the state organs,” Justice Enny explained.

Impacts of Amendment to 1945 Constitution

Justice Enny also revealed some impacts of the amendment to the 1945 Constitution. One of them is that MPR no longer serves as the highest state institution, making state organs equal. This, she said, affected the three branches of state power—executive, legislative, and judiciary. In the executive branch, the presidential term is limited to a five-year period and a one-term extension. In the legislative branch, a new institution was established—the DPD (Regional Representatives Council). In the judiciary, the judicial and non-judicial functions of the Supreme Court were combined and the Constitutional Court was established.

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 5/25/2021 15:21 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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