Chief Justice Anwar Usman and Deputy Chief Justice Aswanto welcoming President Joko Widodo at the special plenary session of the annual report of 2021, Thursday (2/10/2022) in the Constitutional Court building. Photo by Humas MK/Erwin.

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Thursday, February 10, 2022 | 13:14 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—As an effort to improve and maintain public trust by continuing to prioritize the principle of transparency, the Constitutional Court’s (MK) held a special plenary session for its Annual Report of 2021 on Thursday, February 10, 2022 in the plenary courtroom. The report was entitled “Digital Transformation for Constitutional Enforcement.” The special reporting session was an annual event for the Court to report its performance the entire year. President Joko Widodo and several other guests attended the event onsite.

The President expressed in his remarks his pride for the Constitutional Court, which amid the pandemic continued accelerating transformation and ensuring the rule of law by strengthening its steps and its role in guarding and maintaining the Constitution. He said these past two years dynamics relating to the Constitution had arisen as many countries took extraordinary steps to deal with the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This also posed a real challenge for the Indonesian people in implementing the Constitution. Thus, the Government took more responsive steps while still prioritizing the people’s interests, by ensuring that all policies were made with measurable reasons based on careful consideration to save the nation.

“As a law-based state, we must all uphold law and justice. For this reason, the Government always respects every decision made by the Constitutional Court in every case submitted to it. Thus, the Government hopes that the Constitutional Court’s decisions provide a sense of justice and legal certainty as well as benefits for the life of the nation and state and contribute to the progress of the people and the state,” President Joko Widodo remarked.

Judicial Achievements

The special plenary session was based on Article 13 of the Constitutional Court Law and the Court’s effort to provide transparency of the implementation of its duties and authorities to the public. Chief Justice Anwar Usman, alongside the other eight constitutional justices, read out the Court’s achievements throughout 2021.

The chief justice revealed that in the entire year, the Court had handled 277 cases—121 judicial review (PUU) cases, 3 SKLN (state institution authority dispute) cases, and 153 pilkada (regional election) result dispute cases. Out of all of them, 253 cases had been ruled—99 judicial review cases, 3 SKLN cases, and 151 pilkada dispute cases. “As such, until the end of 2021, 22 judicial review cases were still being examined, while all SKLN cases had been ruled, and 2 pilkada result dispute cases were also still being examined,” he said.

Non-Judicial Achievements

The Court had carried out all non-judicial programs and events in 2021 optimally. Justice Anwar said that utilizing information and communications technology (ICT) advances, the Court had also carried out constitution awareness programs for citizens (PPHKWN), organizational and institutional capacity building, research and studies, domestic and international cooperation, bureaucratic reforms, anti-corruption culture reinforcement, and digital archive management.

The Court has performed its functions not only as the guardian of the Constitution but also the guardian of the state ideology by carrying out programs to improve awareness of the values of Pancasila and the Constitution through the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center. Throughout 2021, 11 of such programs had been organized. They consisted of constitution awareness programs for citizens (PPHKWN), technical assistance programs on judicial review, and technical assistance programs on legal drafting.  

The Court also continued to improve the quality and scope of cooperation with both domestic and international partners. It had signed memoranda of understanding with universities as its intellectual partners in order to support remote hearings by providing 50 universities and 3 constitution villages with 53 smartboard mini courtrooms. The three villages are Galesong Village in Takalar Regency, South Sulawesi Selatan, Bangbang Village in Bangli Regency, Bali; and Nagari Pasia Laweh in Agam Regency, West Sumatera.

Global Role

Moreover, the Constitutional Court had expanded its bilateral, regional, and international cooperation. At the regional level, it participated in the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions (AACC) actively. In addition, alongside the Constitutional Court of Turkey, the Constitutional Council of Algeria, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, it had initiated a cooperation of judicial institutions of the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). This new cooperation was formed at the second conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/Observer States (J-OIC), which it hosted in September 2021.

Internationally, the Constitutional Court had been involved in the World Conference on Constitutional Justice (WCCJ), which consists of 118 constitutional judicial institutions. Based on the Istanbul Declaration in 2018, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia was appointed host of the fifth congress of the WCCJ, which will take place in Nusa Dua, Bali in October 2022.

Awards

Throughout 2021, the Constitutional Court also received awards, such as the Public Information Openness Award as an Informative State Agency, the Public Service Award in Excellent Service category in 2020 from the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, the Budget Performance Award for the Fiscal Year of 2020 in the Small-Ceiling Group of Ministries/Agencies. Meanwhile, its Center for Information and Communication Technology (PUSTIK) received the Corruption-Free Zone (WBK) award.

Justice Anwar also revealed that in December 2021, the Court had launched 66 citizens’ constitutional rights icons (i-HKWN), which serve as an instrument for the public to recognize, know, and understand the citizens’ constitutional rights guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

“All of the Constitutional Court’s achievements in 2021 will be a starting point to leap forward to continuously improve its performance. Hopefully, this annual report will be valuable and reflect transparency as well as become a starting point for the Constitutional Court to make progress, both this year and in the years to come,” Justice Anwar stressed before concluding his remarks.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Muhammad Syarifuddin, Chairman of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) La Nyalla Mattalitti, Chairman of the Judicial Commission Mukti Fajar Nur Dewata, Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces Andika Perkasa, Chairman of the General Elections Commission (KPU) Ilham Saputra, and other guests attended the session onsite. Meanwhile, a number of AACC and WCCJ members, ambassadors of friendly countries, and academics joined the event virtually.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 2/10/2022 21:15 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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