Constitutional Justices Arief Hidayat, Enny Nurbaningsih, and Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh entering the courtroom for the preliminary hearing of the material judicial review of Law No. 2022 on the State Capital City, Monday (6/27/2022). Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.
Monday, June 27, 2022 | 15:24 WIB
JAKARTA, Public Relations—The head of the State Capital (IKN) authority is to be appointed by the president following Law No. 3 of 2022 on the State Capital (IKN Law) received public backlash. The lack of public participation in the mechanism compelled six law students of University of Bandar Lampung to challenge the law materially.
The preliminary hearing of the judicial review of case No. 66/PUU-XX/2022 was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday, June 27, 2022 in the plenary courtroom. Petitioners I-VI—M. Yuhiqqul Haqqa Gunadi, Hurriyah Ainaa Mardiyah, Ackas Depry Aryando, Rafi Muhammad, Dea Karisna, and Nanda Trisua Hardianto—appeared before the Court virtually. They challenge phrases and words in Article 5 paragraph (4), Article 9 paragraph (1), and Article 13 paragraph (1) of the IKN Law.
Article 5 paragraph (4) reads, “The Head of the Authority of the New State Capital administer the regional government affairs of the Capital City Special Region, whose office equals to that of a minister, who is appointed, designated, and dismissed by directly the President after consulting with the House of Representatives (DPR).”
Article 9 paragraph (1) reads, “The Authority of the New State Capital shall be led by the Head of Authority assisted by the Deputy Head of the Authority, who is appointed, designated, and dismissed by directly the President after consulting with the House of Representatives (DPR).”
Article 13 paragraph (1) reads, “As an exception to the laws and regulations that regulate electoral districts in election, the Capital City of Nusantara shall only carry out General Elections to elect the President and Vice President, members of the House of Representatives (DPR), and members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).”
The Petitioners are individual Indonesian citizens who feel that they have been restricted from obtaining justice and legal certainty as individuals, group, and community due to the enactment of the a quo articles of the IKN Law. They alleged that those articles have harmed democracy and do not respect the reform as part of the nation’s history, causing real harm to them in particular and the Indonesian people in general, who basically have political rights, the right to participate in government, and the right to vote/be elected.
They asserted that the administration of government requires the public participation in policy-making and the election of people’s representatives and regional heads in a direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair manner. The principle of democracy guarantees that all citizens have equal rights in making decisions for the survival of citizens.
The Petitioners argued that the community or citizens must be able to freely choose their own representatives and regional heads who will lead them and participate actively either directly or through representative institutions in making government policies. Article 9 paragraph (1) of the IKN Law, they asserted, kills the democratic principle for the people to participate directly in electing their own regional heads, thus contradicting Article 18 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution.
“The unique and distinctive of the Nusantara IKN, according to the team that formed the IKN Law, are intended as a special regional government as mandated by Article 18B paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution. However, upon further examination, the form of government of the Nusantara IKN Authority is a special regional government unit referred by the drafters of Article 18B paragraph (1) 1945 Constitution. In Book IV Volume 2 of the comprehensive text of the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, what was meant by special and special regional governments in Article 18B paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution was initially the original government of Indonesia. The original Indonesian government was referred to by Soepomo as the chairman of the Small Committee for Drafting the 1945 Constitution in a large session on July 15, 1945,” said M. Yuhiqqul Haqqa Gunadi, one of the Petitioners.
For this reason, in their petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Court annul those articles and declare them unconstitutional.
Petitioners’ Seriousness
Responding to the petition, Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat as the panel chair questioned the Petitioners’ seriousness because they had not signed the petition, and there were missing pages on the petition.
“Are all of you serious or are you just practicing by litigating at the Constitutional Court? There have been five petitions by Unila students, but they were discontinued,” he said.
The Petitioners answered that they were serious about the case. “Well, if you’re serious, the advice of the Constitutional Court’s justice panel must be heeded,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Enny Nurbaningsih observed that the petition was incomplete, including the Petitioners’ signatures. She also observed that the petition’s pages were not numbered.
“The Petitioners are inconsistent with what is being petitioned. There are additional articles in the elaboration of the petition, when they are not [mentioned] in the subject of the petition,” she said.
Meanwhile, Constitutional Justice Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh said that because the Petitioners were without any legal counsel, they must appear at every hearing. “Except if the Petitioners give power of attorney to advocates, which must be confirmed in the petition, will the Petitioners attend individually or together,” he explained.
He also advised the Petitioners to study the judicial review petition format from Article 10 of the Constitutional Court Regulation (PMK) No. 2 of 2021 as they still referred to PMK No. 6 of 2005, which has been revoked.
Writer : Nano Tresna A.
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR : Andhini S. F.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 6/28/2022 10:37 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.
Monday, June 27, 2022 | 15:24 WIB 281