Muchammad Zaidun, Syamsul Bachri, and Hayan Ul Haq speaking at a focus group discussion for legal experts and academics, Saturday (12/17/2022) at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor. Photo by MKRI/Ifa.
Saturday, December 17, 2022 | 21:45 WIB
BOGOR (MKRI) — The focus group discussion for legal experts and academics on “The Development of Higher Legal Education Toward a Legal System with Pancasila Character” by the Constitutional Court (MK) entered the second day on Saturday, December 17, 2022 at the Pancasila and Constitution Education Center, Cisarua, Bogor, West Java Province. During the event, experts offered concepts of the higher legal education in Indonesia.
Legal expert of Sriwijaya University of Palembang, Amzulian Rifai, was the first speaker for the second session. In his presentation, he said law universities should play a major role in contributing to Pancasila character education. He highlighted the many court decisions that were not implemented and bureaucratic practices that did not meet expectations. Law enforcement that relies on bureaucracy and Bureaucracy and law enforcement officials who do not provide services properly posed a challenge to Pancasila law. he believed they were some of the challenges for higher legal education. The next challenge was inadequate lecturer-to-student ratio.
One of the complaints he received was that law graduates in Indonesia did not have Pancasila characters and were not ready for the work market. He also believed their soft skills to be inadequate. He revealed that many law students aspire to become advocates not because they want to improve the Indonesian legal system, but for the luxurious lifestyle the profession could afford them.
Value and Character Approach
The second speaker in the second session, Gadjah Mada University’s (UGM) legal expert Marsudi Triatmodjo said higher legal education in Indonesia still had many shortcomings as it still focused on knowledge and skills, and less on character.
“Imagine having to win a case, even though the case is about rape, murder, theft. This is very contrary to the humanity of these students,” he said.
He offered an approach based on value and character for legal education. It must be instilled through habituation in daily behavior. In addition, ideological values are also adapted to classroom subjects, for example, when discussing international law, national defense values are instilled.
Also read: Court Holds FGD for Legal Experts and Academics
Practical Science
UGM legal expert Sudjito, the third speaker in the second session of the FGD, said in his presentation that Indonesian higher education has not been moving in the right direction, as evidenced by plenty legal issues the nation is facing despite having many law faculties. He added that there are many economic faculties but the country is mired in capitalism; there are many political science faculties but national politics is chaotic; there are many social science faculties but society has become more individualistic.
“Knowledge cannot be value-free, it must be imbued with values. That is why higher education must be scientific. Legal education should not only be about teaching students knowledge, but also science,” he said. He revealed that he once asked that the Law Faculty be changed into the Faculty of Law Sciences. He believed legal education should teach values, norms, and their implementation so that law becomes practical science.
He also observed Indonesia’s fixation with the legal colonial legacy, where law is the product of the authorities and the people must submit to them. He added that teaching law not only means teaching truth, but also justice.
He explained that legal education based on Pancasila must have six characteristics. First, it must be based on religious values. Second, it must be unified and should not be fragmented. Third, it must be open to various values. Fourth, it must lead students towards state goals. Fifth, it must not be morally neutral, but must include Pancasila moral values. Sixth, it must not manipulate nature, instead it must be friendly to nature or the environment.
Crisis of Character and Ideology
The FGD continued into its third session. The first speaker, a legal expert at Hasanuddin University of Makassar, Syamsul Bachri, said that Pancasila is the source of all laws. However, in practice it does not become a reference in lawmaking, he lamented.
“Pancasila is not under the legislative hierarchy even though it is fundamental to the survival of this nation,” he said. Such a condition, he asserted, has resulted in legal disharmony. Pancasila is only a symbol and government administration is often not in line with the principles of Pancasila, thus negatively impacting the character and integrity of this nation. He believes crisis of character and ideology is more dangerous than an economic crisis because it eliminates tolerance, does not respect pluralism, and lead to disloyalty to the state.
In higher legal education’s curricula, he said, academic values and practical environments must be balanced for the sake of law that is substantially just in all regions of Indonesia. Therefore, he added, the current education system must talk about diversity to provide space for regions to develop a curriculum that is a fit for them.
He also reminded the participants not to be hung up on the internationalization of universities into world class universities, which are measured by numbers. He expressed concerns about the qualitative and quantitative measures for this.
Education of Character and Ethics
The second speaker for the third session, Airlangga University’s legal expert Muchammad Zaidun, asserted that Indonesia is currently moving towards liberalism while, in fact, under careful examination, Pancasila leans toward socialism, as reflected in its fifth precept—social justice for all Indonesian people.
Higher legal education, he argued, must also include education of character and ethics. In addition, aside from prioritizing the mastery of legal science, it must instill an understanding of the enforcement of law.
Legal education, he said, must also educate prospective legal scholars, policymakers, and professionals to have Pancasila characters. Whether a student has implemented Pancasila values, it can be seen from their understanding of those values and their religious experience. Does their behavior reflect national characters, and do they practice tolerance?
Also read: Constitutional Court and Legal Experts Talk Developments in Higher Legal Education
Spiritual Nuance
The third speaker for the third session, a legal expert from Brawijaya University, I Nyoman Nurjaya, said that higher legal education in Indonesia today cannot be separated from that of the past. Pancasila-based higher legal education should be able to produce graduates who are not only capable, smart, and adept at applying the law, but also have spiritual attitude in building a legal system based on Pancasila and Indonesian characters.
However, he said, it must be understood that higher legal education in the past was aimed at producing professionals that implement law, which were needed by the colonial. This went on until the 1970s. This was not wrong because it was necessary after independence, when the state needed a lot of judges and prosecutors.
However, he asserted, the law faculty is not a faculty that merely teaches norms of law. Therefore, the law and norms of law must be distinguished. He was not surprised of the idea that several participants of the FGD would like the Law Faculty be changed to the Faculty of Legal Sciences.
He also said higher legal education must be improved through fundamental changes, where its graduates are not only capable of implementing the law but also have Pancasila characters in accordance with the nation’s characters. He also urged law lecturers to deliver material in their lectures in ways that are more easily understood.
Habits and Behavior
The last speaker in the FGD, an academic of the University of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, Hayan Ul Haq, said that society develops very fast. Changes might even occur in the midst of research, due to rapidly-changing legal concepts.
He believes it is necessary to instill Pancasila in the legal education system in order to build collective awareness with Pancasila characters through legal education. The challenge is that government groups, communities, and individuals have their own values. The way to overcome this is to maintain the same values within each of these groups, i.e. Pancasila.
He explained that Indonesia has its own characteristics as a religious nation that embody religious values in society, nation, and state. This sets Indonesia apart from other nations.
“Teaching of Pancasila legal education must be seen in terms of habits and behavior,” he said.
Writer : Ilham Wiryadi Muhammad
Editor : Nur R.
Translator : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
Translation uploaded on 12/29/2022 08:44 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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