Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra speaking in a panel discussion at the 20th Indonesian Scholars International Convention (ISIC) virtually, Saturday (10/7/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Bayu.
Sunday, July 11, 2021 | 09:45 WIB
JAKARTA, Public Relations—The peak of the 20th Indonesian Scholars International Convention (ISIC) took place on Saturday evening, July 10, 2021. The event, which ran under the theme of “Indonesia Levelling Up: Enhancing Indonesia’s Crisis Resilience,” was organized by the Overseas Indonesian Students’ Association in the UK (PPI UK). As many as 73 overseas Indonesian students currently studying in a number of countries participated in the discussion forum. They asked the panelists, who didn’t deliver presentations, questions regarding various recent issues.
Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra answered many questions as a panelist on politics and law. In response to a question on issues after the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, he said that one of Indonesia’s issues was the balance of power between the executive and the legislative.
“I read in detail the debate when the 1945 Constitution was amended in 1999 to 2002. I believe there were positive things [regarding the amendment]. How to strengthen representative institutions so that the president wouldn’t become too dominant like they did during the New Order,” he said. Alongside Justice Saldi, Pribadi Kusman, a lecturer at the Department of Politics at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) of Airlangga University, and R. Valentina Sagala of the Women's Institute were also in attendance.
Justice Saldi added that when the 1945 Constitution was amended, a new design was created to promote balance between the legislative branch, especially the House of Representatives (DPR), and the president.
“At that level, we actually succeeded. The Constitution, which was amended [at four stages], succeeded in reaching that level. However, I believe that the amenders of the Constitution didn’t imagine how bad it would be if at one point two powerful branches of state authority collaborated,” he said.
Two Forces Collaborate
Justice Saldi added that the executive and legislative branches must understand that the Constitution was designed to give room for checks and balances. However, the two branches then collaborated and formed a coalition.
“Scholars and reviewers of constitutional law at that time tried to encourage political parties to refrain from joining the government. We needed a strong government, in the sense that it didn’t control everything. This means that there was sufficient power in the House to be able to balance the government, even if [officials] later joined a number of political parties in the House,” he explained.
He added that any of the government’s—in this case the president’s—agenda cannot disregard two major forces in the parliament. Some political parties might support the government at some point, but oppose it the next.
“This didn’t happen, so some political parties tend to side with the government than to maintain its [opposition] of the government,” he said. He also added that political parties are one of the new forces that resulted from the amendment to the 1945 Constitution.
Hyperregulation
Justice Saldi then answered a question of the issue of hyperregulation and many overlapping regulations. He questioned the argument of hyperregulation at the level of laws because the legislature only produced a little over ten laws per year. He stressed that the issue occurred under the level of laws.
“Starting from [regulations] by the executive—government regulations, presidential decrees, ministerial decrees—to legal products at the regional level,” he said. He also added that many ministerial decrees were regarded as regulations in Indonesia.
Justice Saldi believes hyperregulation has a simple solution. He said the president has the authority to solve the issue, as they are authorized by the Constitution to manage regulations.
He illustrated that a country as small as the Netherlands is very concerned about the unconstitutionality of regulations. It has around 1,000 people employed to assess bills that will be issued. This will make it easier for the president to take action whether or not to issue regulations.
Justice Saldi also explained how hyperregulation in the regions happens. He believes that the central government is granted the preventive authority by the law to review all drafts of regional regulations issued by both the regional government and the regional head. Any inconsistency with the national legal products should authorize the central government to veto the regulations.
“The Constitutional Court in its decision once held that the central government must optimize such preventive authority,” he stressed.
Radicalism
Next, Justice Saldi responded to a question on religious radicalism in the country, which he said is a universal issue.
“The state is expected to find its own ways to manage and mitigate religious radicalism. New concerns emerged. [Recently] people talk about the influence of education on this type of issues. However, we could be making the wrong conclusion. For example, in the United States today there are many radical movements in various forms. Ones based on religion could be as strong as those in Indonesia,” he said.
What Indonesia can do to fight religious radicalism, Justice Saldi said, is urging the educated to build a common understanding. As a state, Indonesia already has a common understanding that the country has been being built.
“If we disregard the [understanding], it will disadvantage us as a nation. As a nation we sometimes ignore the importance of civic education, but that which doesn’t mean indoctrination. This is another issue that we must face,” he added.
Justice Saldi touched on the importance of nationalism. He also talked about the fact that many schools might not have the facilities for building nationalism from early education.
“In some schools there are no rooms, for example, for the students to organize activities that allow them to receive [basic education] about national life,” he said.
Writer : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 7/12/2021 16:57 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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