Chief Justice Anwar Usman, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, and Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra speaking at the national conference of APHTN-HAN, Thursday (5/19/2022) in Bali. Photo by Humas MK/Hendy.
Friday, May 20, 2022 | 10:11 WIB
JAKARTA, Public Relations—Three constitutional justices—Chief Justice Anwar Usman, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, and Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra—delivered presentations on “The Dynamics of the Democratic Law-Based State after the Amendment of the 1945 Constitution” at the national conference of the Association of Constitutional and Administrative Law Lectures of Indonesia (APHTN-HAN) on Thursday, May 19, 2022 in Denpasar, Bali. The event, which took place both onsite and online, was collaboration between the MPR RI (People’s Consultative Assembly) and APHTN-HAN.
Chief Justice Anwar Usman said that the cost of the legislative election exceeded that of the presidential election. “It should be noted that the president used to be appointed by the MPR, then is elected directly since the Reform, which is accommodated in the amendment to the 1945 Constitution,” he said.
He asserted that the presidential election was part of democratic process alongside the legislative election, which varied as it was to elect members of the DPR (House of Representatives), DPD (Regional Representatives Council), and the DPRD (Regional Legislative Council). This is a reason for the higher cost.
However, he added, the cost of democracy is a common consequence for various nations. “All around the world, the election is costly because it is the right of the people who vote. A research by [the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)] a while back showed that almost 80 percent [of the people] intended that the presidential election remains direct,” he said.
He also highlighted the high number of hoaxes during election. He expressed his concern of the political attitudes that were not in line with the culture of civility of the East. “Hardly anything is unaffected by the massive social media,” he said.
Threat of Social Media
Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat also voiced his concern that social media could threaten the nation. This, he said, could happen when it became rife with ambition, hatred, while responsibility lacked.
“Safeguarding Indonesia and Pancasila is indeed not easy. Along with the development of the era, many challenges arise. Today is the era of post-truth, fast truth, where statements become pseudo-truths,” he said.
He believed that the rapid advancement of technology led to challenging conditions. Social media became a new power everywhere and affected society’s system and the state. “The power of social media can change this nation,” Justice Arief said.
Social media, he said, is a means of modern interaction that support participative politics. Interactions have become new control power. Social media could pose serious threats if used with ambition, rage, and without responsibility. “Social media weakens cohesiveness. The death of expertise. We must stand up,” he stressed.
He reminded that Indonesia is a religious welfare state, not a secular one. “Indonesia is a big nation born out of vast blessing built by people with the objective to maintain and preserve the [Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia] by holding onto the people’s commitment,” he said.
Therefore, Justice Arief requested that Indonesia hold onto Pancasila. “The ontology of Indonesia is a united state. It is reached through democratic ways, not other kinds of democracy, not merely copying the democracy of the West. The values of democracy must be enshrined in Pancasila to guard Indonesia and Pancasila,” he added.
Overregulation
Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra also explained the role of social media in democracy. He illustrated it with the win of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr., the son of former president Ferdinand Marcos, in the election of the Philippines.
“It just happened in the Philippines. One of the major contributing factor was social media. There are an element of the generation that no longer care about the history of the administration,” he said.
He also talked about overregulation. He asserted that regulatory issues in Indonesia is not at the level of laws, but regulations under the law. Therefore, an initiative under the president is required to fix it.
“There are 40,000 regulations under the law. The issue is not in the law, but in regulations under the law. This must be fixed,” he said.
Out of those regulations, he added, laws do not reach 10,000 but regulations—from ministerial regulations to regional regulations—are so many and overlap with each other. “Now there are many ministerial regulations that has taken over presidential authority,” he stressed.
Also read: Guntur Hamzah: Two Decades of Indonesian Administration Dynamic
Writer : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor : Nur R.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 5/20/2022 15:14 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.
Friday, May 20, 2022 | 10:11 WIB 285