Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra delivered a keynote speech at the national Universitas Ahmad Dahlan Law Competition (ADACOM) of 2022, organized by Lentera Law Community of the Law Faculty of Ahmad Dahlan University, Yogyakarta, Saturday (11/26/2022). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W. M.
Saturday, November 26, 2022 | 16:01 WIB
(MKRI) — Constitutional Justice Saldi Isra delivered a keynote speech at the national Universitas Ahmad Dahlan Law Competition (ADACOM) of 2022 on “Improving Meaningful Participation in Lawmaking,” organized by Lentera Law Community of the Law Faculty of Ahmad Dahlan University, Yogyakarta on Saturday, November 26, 2022.
Justice Saldi said lawmaking are inseparable from history, when kings had the authority to form laws, implement laws, and punish violations. The concept of magna carta (royal charter), the people’s objection to taxation, emerged. They, in fact, did not object the imposition of taxes, but the fact that there was no public representation in decision-making on the determination of those taxes.
“We then know that people may be elected to represent the community, to represent the people, to fight for the people’s representation in the country’s political structure, in the legislative institution, as part of the political superstructure,” he said.
However, along the way, elitism developed, where people who have been elected through elections lost their relationship with the people who voted for them after the elections. Many books have criticized elitist democracy, in which elected members of the parliament no longer listen to the aspirations of their constituents.
In order to the people and those they vote for, public participation is essential, where there is a real effort to involve the community in making important decisions that directly or indirectly affect them. In addition, it is provided to balance political interests. Without it, Justice Saldi added, decisions will become elitist, and powerful groups will dominate policy-making.
Without public participation, laws will be formed without any regard to the implications they have on society. For those in the field of law, there should be an explicit legal basis to everything, so that there are strong legal reasons for the community to fight for their interests in lawmaking.
Public participation not only exists in lawmaking. Studies have shown that the public participated in drafting the constitution of Thailand as well as the amendment of the constitution in the Philippines, South Africa, and the Republic of Korea. Even in Indonesia, amendment to the 1945 Constitution involved the public massively.
Due to massive pressure from the people, changes were not only made in the House of Representatives (DPR), but also the state administration system. Overtime, it seems as if public participation were only for lawmaking, even though it can exist in the drafting of regulations under laws.
“Public participation is a bargaining process between the community and the legislatures, so it must be properly allotted. However, not all demands from society can be fulfilled in lawmaking. The community must be aware that not all their requests can be granted, because this is a meeting point for many issues to be considered, where the interests of the community and of the legislatures meet, and that’s where the process can be carried out,” he said.
Formal Review
Next, law professor of the Islamic University of Indonesia Ni’matul Huda explained in his presentation that currently, democracy in Indonesia has died, as shown by the many formal judicial review petitions being lodged to the Constitutional Court. This indicates that the lawmaking process has not allowed public participation.
“You can see how the Constitutional Court’s decisions encourage public participation in the lawmaking process and how the public can participate if the lawmaking duration is short,” he said.
He believes the current laws are not in favor of the community. This is apparent with the Job Creation Law, despite the Constitutional Court’s decisions on said law emphasized the importance of public participation. He also asserted that lawmaking should not be discreet, in order to prevent laws from being influenced by certain politics or economic interests.
Public Participation
The next speaker, the head of the House’s Lawmaking Center Lidya Suryani Widayati explained in her presentation that, in practice, public participation is still a formality and is limited, so the contents of bills are more substantive to answer the needs of the community. The Constitutional Court in its decisions has demanded the optimum public participation, especially for those directly affected or concerned with the issues discussed in the bill.
Lidya believes the Constitutional Court’s decisions on the Job Creation Law aimed at bringing up strong collective intelligence and an inclusive legislative body. Public participation will create legitimate laws.
Writer : Ilham M.
Editor : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 11/29/2022 11:08 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.
Saturday, November 26, 2022 | 16:01 WIB 415