Chief Justice Anwar Usman giving a keynote speech at the constitution awareness program for the Indonesian Association of Persons with Disabilities (PPDI) virtually, Tuesday (10/5/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

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Tuesday, October 5, 2021 | 23:04 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK) Anwar Usman gave a keynote speech at the constitution awareness program for the citizens (PPHKWN) for the Indonesian Association of Persons with Disabilities (PPDI) virtually on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. At the event, he talked about the objective of the founding of the state in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution—protecting all Indonesian people and the entire land of Indonesia and to develop the welfare of the people, the life of the nation, and participate in the world orderliness based on freedom, eternal peace and social justice.

On the first objective, protecting all Indonesian people, he said, “This sentence is very noble, because the state has a responsibility to protect all its people without exception. The state in carrying out its duties to protect all its people shall not differentiate based on ethnicity, race, religion, or any group,” he added.

He further explained that those objectives are also reflected in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that the United Nations ratified on December 21, 1965.

“Contrasting the international anti-discrimination convention with the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, it can be concluded that the founders of the Republic of Indonesia had upheld anti-discrimination principles long before the convention. This fact shows that the founders were very progressive in instilling noble values for the nation and state life,” said Justice Anwar alongside Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah.

On the second objective, he said that the concept is known as a welfare state in Europe and the United States. Such a state is responsible for fulfilling its citizens’ basic needs.

Although it is not explicitly stated that Indonesia is a welfare state, he said, the norms of the 1945 Constitution reflect the spirit to realize it. Chapter XIV of the 1945 Constitution has two norms that regulates the national economy and social welfare—Articles 33 and 34—which can be said to be an effort to guarantee the people’s welfare.

In practice, he said, the efforts to improve people’s welfare are made continuously, despite constraints, for example, Law No. 11 of 2009 on Social Welfare, laws on the management of natural resources—Law on Mineral and Coal Mining, Law on Natural Oil and Gas, Law on Water Resource, Forestry Law, etc. All natural resources are ‘capital instruments’ that must be managed by the state for welfare of the people by taking into account environmental sustainability.

The third objective provides guidelines to developing the life of the nation. “Without the intellect, the state goals as referred to in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution will not be realized. It can only be carried out by developing the education system for all the nation’s children without exception,” he explained.

Justice Anwar said there were significant differences of quantity in the regulation of the right to education before and after the amendment to the 1945 Constitution. Before the amendment, there was only one article with two paragraphs regulating education: Chapter XIII Article 31. However, after the amendment, it is found in 4 articles and 9 paragraphs: Article 22D paragraphs (2) and (3), Article 28C paragraph (1), Article 28E paragraph (1), and Article 31 paragraph (1-5).

In terms of quality, before the amendment, it was only said that citizens shall be entitled to education and that the state was obliged to seek and organize an education system. After the amendment, every citizen shall follow basic education, which the Government must fund. The differences are substantial, where education for citizens and the state’s role in its implementation used to be facultative.

After the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, Justice Anwar explained, education is imperative on citizens and the Government as the implementer. The Constitution mandates that 20% of the central (APBN) and regional (APBD) government budgets be allotted for education.

Writer        : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/6/2021 10:28 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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