Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto delivering a keynote speech in the virtual constitution awareness program for all-Indonesian Pancasila and Civic Education teachers of elementary schools, Friday (9/3/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

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Friday, September 3, 2021 | 17:44 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The constitution awareness program for all-Indonesia Pancasila and Civic Education (PPKn) teachers of elementary schools (SD) that the Constitutional Court (MK) organized virtually on August 31 to September 3, 2021 was officially closed by Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto on Friday afternoon, September 3, 2021.

“Constitutional rights cannot be separated from the history of Indonesia. There are objectives in founding a state and how to achieve them. The objectives in founding Indonesia were protecting the nation, guaranteeing that all Indonesian citizens obtain justice and welfare,” he said in his keynote speech.

Justice and welfare, he said, must be obtained according to basic principles that do not violate religious and cultural values that develop in society.

“Seeing the religious and cultural values that develop and live in society, we can conclude that overall religious and cultural values have been formulated in the five precepts of Pancasila,” he said.

Justice Aswanto said that the recognition of God by all religions and cultures in Indonesia is reflected in the first precept of Pancasila—the Belief in One Supreme God. This means that justice should not be realized with a disregard to this first precept.

The second precept—Just and Civilized Humanity—reflects welfare for all Indonesians. This means that human beings must be treated humanely. The third precept—Indonesian Unity—means that in realizing welfare for all Indonesians, discord should be prevented.

“A just and prosperous society must be achieved through deliberation, which we call democracy. This is in line with the fourth precept of Pancasila—Democracy Led by Wisdom in Deliberation/Representation. It all comes toward Social Justice to All Indonesian People, the fifth precept of Pancasila. This founded the state,” he said. The foundation, he said, was then laid in the Constitution as constitutional rights—the rights granted by the state to its citizens.

Justice Aswanto revealed that people often mistake human rights with constitutional rights. While they semantically may be similar, he said, there are philosophical difference between the two.

“Human rights are the rights attached to a person as God’s creation, while constitutional rights are basic rights that one obtains as a citizen of a state,” he stressed.

Constitutional Court’s Responsibilities

Next, Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono said that the constitution awareness program could take place smoothly virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Constitutional Court, as one of the state institutions formed in the Reform era through the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, was meant to be a strategic part of the administration in the form of the institutionalization of the Reform agenda—democracy, legal supremacy, protection of human rights and citizens’ constitutional rights,” he said.

As the guardian of the Constitution, he added, the Constitutional Court is responsible for introducing the values of the Constitution, which comes from Pancasila values, to the community. “The understanding of the key values that form the Constitution values will improve the people’s understanding of the ideology Pancasila,” Imam said.

Prior to the closing, a presentation on “The Use of ICT in Handling Cases in the Constitutional Court” was delivered by the Center for Information and Communication Technology on the last day of the program. ICT in the Constitutional Court is a real effort to provide access to cases handled by the Court as a modern and reliable judicial body. The basis to the use of ICT in performing its duties and responsibilities in handling constitutional cases is the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 18 of 2009 on Electronic Filing and Video Conference Examination.

On the last day, the participants’ judicial review petition drafts were evaluated by the Court’s research team and the staff of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center. The participants then presented the results of their practice virtually.

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 9/13/2021 11:03 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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