Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra chairing the panel hearing of the material judicial review of Law No. 6 of 2014 on Village, Wednesday (11/9/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 15:12 WIB

JAKARTA (MKRI)—The Constitutional Court (MK) held the petition revision hearing for the material judicial review of Articles 1-95 of Law No. 6 of 2014 on Village on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. The petition No. 102/PUU-XX/2022 was filed by village apparatuses Hendra Juanda, Wibowo Nugroho, Yuliana Efendi, Fredi Supriadi, and Utep Ruspendi.

Yuliana Efendi said the petition had been revised following the justice panel’s advice from the previous hearing, such as on the format of the petition and the posita.

“The format of the petition has been revised and the posita abridged,” she said virtually before Constitutional Justices Saldi Isra (panel chair), Suhartoyo, and Wahiduddin Adams.

She also said that in the petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Court grant the entire petition and declare the articles unconstitutional and not legally binding.

The justice panel approved the evidence that the Petitioners submitted. “You submitted evidence P-1 to P-9, correct? We will approve the pieces of evidence since they have been verified,” said Justice Saldi.

Also read: Status Unclear, Village Apparatuses Challenge Village Law

At the preliminary hearing on Thursday, October 27, Hendra Juanda said the petition was filed because the Village Law negatively affected the welfare of village apparatuses.

“We are not recognized as state apparatuses because we work in smallest government institutions in the Republic of Indonesia but until today it is still unclear whether we are ASN, employees, or PPPK [(contract-based government employees)]. Meanwhile, we have to carry out our duties as providers of public services and public goods,” Hendra said virtually to the panel of justices.

In the petition, the Petitioners argued that the enactment of the Village Law and its political policy had factually been very detrimental to them and the Indonesian people. Village apparatuses are greatly disadvantaged because they are tasked by the state to implement the law, but are not appointed as ASN (state apparatuses). Meanwhile, villagers are disadvantaged because they are not taken care of by formal government units, unlike city residents. As a result, villagers are only served by quasi-governmental organizations with incompetent and unprofessional village officials because they are not state civil servants who are recruited, developed, given career positions, paid, and discharged into retirement following Law No. 5 of 2014 on State Civil Apparatus.

In addition, villagers are discriminated against by the state. City residents, on the other hand, are managed by a formal state bureaucratic unit or the kelurahan, which has competent and professional ASN apparatuses. Hendra also said that villagers do not get public goods and/or public services from modern formal government units but from pseudo-government organizations inherited from the Japanese colonialists under the village government. As a result, villagers do not receive crucial public goods and/or basic public services such as education, health care, drinking water, sanitation, village public transportation, ID cards and family cards, public housing, waste management, agriculture (rice fields, plantations, fisheries, livestock), tertiary irrigation management, agricultural production facilities (seeds, fertilizers, medicine, agricultural tools), rural economic infrastructure, microfinance, village environmental management, village infrastructure, as well as orphanages.

Therefore, the Petitioners request that Articles 1-95 of Law No. 6 of 2014 be declared unconstitutional and not legally binding. 

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

Translation uploaded on 11/10/2022 08:40 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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