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Thursday, December 23, 2021 | 09:56 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—The ethics council have retired after performing its duties to uphold the honor of constitutional justices for eight years (2013-2021). Law No. 7 of 2020 on the Third Amendment to Law No. 24 of 2003 on the Constitutional Court marked the end to this council’s tenure.

The Constitutional Court (MK) bid farewell to the chairman and members of the ethics council on Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Chief Justice Anwar Usman expressed his gratitude for the council’s guidance to the constitutional justices.

“Alhamdulillah, during [the ethics council’s] guidance, there were no ethical violations. Thank you for your guidance so far for the rehabilitation and the wholeness of the Constitutional Court. From the depths of my heart, I and the other constitutional justices would like to say thank you and, of course, we hope you’d still continue to provide us with inputs on the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s duties and functions in accordance with the new Constitutional Court Law,” he said alongside Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah, and Head of the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau Heru Setiawan.

The council’s chairman and member Achmad Sodiki and Etik Sudjito said that they had found no violations by the constitutional justices during their tenure. The decline in reports to the council and the general public’s acceptance of the Court’s decisions show the public’s trust in the Court.

“I really appreciate it, the fewer people report, I think the Court’s quality is improving because the public has nothing to complain about,” Achmad Sodiki said.

He explained that the council had performed ijtihad and improvisations to build a model of ethical supervision over the constitutional justices, who are statesmen and are addressed as “their Excellencies.” This, he said, was not an easy task.

“It was not easy because in upholding code of ethics and laws and regulations over the constitutional justices, the ethics council must keep the constitutional justices from demoralization and delegitimation,” he explained.

The ethics council has finished upholding the honor and integrity of constitutional justices and the Constitutional Court. They will be replaced by a new institution following the mandate of Law No. 7 of 2020.

At the end of his remarks, Sodiki apologized for any mistakes during his tenure. On behalf of the members of the council, he expressed his willingness to lend support to the Constitutional Court.

“[I] would like to convey our deepest apologies to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia and the constitutional justices. We will stay loyal as long as we are physically able,” he said.

The ethics council was formed at the end of 2013 by the Court to uphold the honor and integrity of constitutional justices, as well as the code of ethics and the code of conduct of constitutional justices (Sapta Karsa Hutama).

The council consisted of a chairman and two members. In 2018-2021, it was chaired by Achmad Sodiki, with members Ahmad Syafii Maarif and Sudjito. The first members of the council were Abdul Mukthie Fadjar, Muchammad Zaidun, and M. Hatta Mustafa. The second members were Achmad Rustandi, Bintan Regen Saragih, and Salahuddin Wahid. Salahuddin Wahid was then replaced by Ahmad Syafii Maarif.

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

Translation uploaded on 12/29/2021 11:25 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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