Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah at the opening of the PPHKWN for the Association of Indonesian Policy Analysts (AAKI) virtually, Monday (6/20/2021). Photo by Humas MK/Teguh.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | 08:47 WIB

JAKARTA, Public Relations—Policy analysts are always guided by statutory regulations and provisions. The constitution awareness program for citizens (PPHKWN) organized by the Constitutional Court (MK) is an important program for analysts to understand that provisions sometimes get out of context, said Secretary-General M. Guntur Hamzah virtually at the opening of the PPHKWN for the Association of Indonesian Policy Analysts (AAKI) on Monday afternoon, June 20, 2022. The program took place virtually from the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor.

“I often find parties, experts, officials, policy analysts focus too much on technical regulations. They were not wrong, but it will be better to understand from the point of view of the Constitution,” he said.

Many things, he added, are regulated substantively in the Constitution. “So, when we understand laws, government regulations, ministerial regulations, down to the lowest regulations, hopefully we do not lose its constitutional context,” he explained.

Therefore, Guntur hoped that the participants of this PPHKWN collaboration could understand the Constitution more when analyzing policymaking. "Thus, understanding its constitutionality becomes important," said Guntur. 

Guidelines for Thinking

Acting Head of the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center Imam Margono emphasized the strategic role of the AAKI in improving the understanding of citizens’ constitutional rights. He said this program was the Court’s Pusdik first collaboration with the AAKI.

“The AAKI was targeted for the [PPHKWN] because we believe in its strategic role as one of the professional organizations that brings together Indonesian policy analysts from various disciplines across ministries/agencies in local government both at the first and second levels from all parts of Indonesia,” he explained.

Imam hoped that through this PPHKWN, the board and members of the AAKI would learn the values ​​of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution. Such a learning process would be continuous, so that Pancasila would truly become the spirit and guidelines for all PPHKWN participants in their thinking and in behavior.

Friendly Relationship

The AAKI chairman Totok Hari Wibowo said the interaction between the Court and the AAKI was friendly and pleasant. The Court had the initiative to strengthen the competency of policy analysts.

“The Court offered use to play a role in positively improving performance and policies, including the constitutional rights of the community, both the general public and policy analysts as part of community members and as advocates to present issues faced by the community,” he said.

For the AAKI, Totok said, this program provided an opportunity for its board and members to increase their understanding of Pancasila and to equalize perceptions about the Constitution and the Constitutional Court’s procedural law as well as constitutional issues. 

Writer        : Nano Tresna Arfana
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 6/24/2022 14:05 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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