Chief Justice Anwar Usman inaugurating the smartboard mini courtroom at Sultan Agung University, Semarang, Centra Java Province, Friday (2/17/2023). Photo by MKRI/Wengky.
Chief Justice Anwar Usman inaugurating the smartboard mini courtroom at Sultan Agung University, Semarang, Centra Java Province, Friday (2/17/2023). Photo by MKRI/Wengky.
(MKRI) — Chief Justice Anwar Usman delivered a keynote speech at the inauguration of a smartboard mini courtroom and a national seminar on “Challenges to Realizing Election and Regional Election Justice in 2024” on Friday, February 17, 2023 at Sultan Agung University (Unissula) Semarang, Central Java Province. Acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan, Chairman of Yayasan Badan Wakaf Sultan Agung Ahmad Azhar Combo, Unissula Rector Gunarto, Law Faculty (FH) Dean of Unissula Bambang Tri Bawono, Vice Dean I of FH Unissula Widayati, and Chairman of the Central Java Bawaslu (Elections Supervisory Body) Muhammad Amin also delivered presentations.
In his speech, Chief Justice Anwar said that starting from the end of 2022 until possibly the end of 2023, various academic activities at campuses such as seminars, discussions, and others talk about simultaneous general and regional election. This is understandable, as the election is a routine quinquennial agenda for the nation. Common themes in academic forums are part of consolidation and education for the community. Election and democracy, he added, are not static themes.
“One of the prerequisites for a democracy is general elections,” he said.
The electoral mechanism, Justice Anwar said, is an absolute requirement for a self-declared democracy. Without election, there is no democracy, and without democracy, there is no popular sovereignty in governance. Therefore, the electoral process is referred to as a democracy celebration through which people are placed in a noble position to determine the nation’s fate to choose leaders in the executive branch and their representatives in the legislative branch.
“The Constitution mandates that elections be direct, public, free, confidential, honest, and fair. Direct means every citizen must exercise their right to vote without being represented by anyone. Public means that elections must be open to the public, transparent, so that it can be accounted to the public. Free means that every citizen has the right to vote for any candidate without pressure from anyone. Confidential means that every citizen has the right not to broadcast the candidate they have chosen in the election process. Meanwhile, honest and fair means that every organizer or state apparatus involved in the general or regional election process must be honest and fair in carrying out election process,” he explained.
Justice Anwar said that the state apparatuses’ honesty in election can be interpreted as moral integrity in carrying out every process and stage of the election as well as carrying out their duties and responsibilities in accordance with applicable regulations. While fairness for state apparatus can be interpreted as fair and equal treatment for all contestants or participants in the election or regional election, without exception.
However, he continued, in reality, the democratic and election process is not easy and is without obstacles. Elections and democracy in various parts of the world also face hard challenges because democracy that is not well managed can lead to division, chaos, and even national disintegration.
Election Justice
Chief Justice Anwar also emphasized that realizing justice in the 2024 simultaneous election is a difficult challenge. For highly complex democracies like Indonesia, there is the fact that the election process is often fraught with fraud and injustice. It is unfortunate that unbridled political ambitions and desires often overlook values, principles, and procedures. Often, the people as the holders of sovereignty become victims of various electoral fraud.
Justice Anwar said that in response to this, various adjustments and changes in perspective are needed to uphold political ethics and justice. A comprehensive perspective on substantive justice is needed throughout the long process of the election, from the initial registration phase to the stipulation of elected candidates. Realizing election justice also means keeping justice values alive throughout the process so that this democratic celebration can become a healthy and civilized national practice. These days will be recorded in history as days when the people choose their representatives with a high level of trust that all contestants and election organizers uphold the values of honesty and justice.
“It is not an easy to ensure honesty and justice in every process. That is precisely why our theme this time, the justice of the simultaneous elections in 2024, is very relevant to discuss. Understanding the dynamics of contemporary political world, with dominating pragmatism and materialism, we will easily find political practices that violate religious and human values. In the midst of a high-cost political structure and the unfortunate permissive attitude of some members of society towards money politics, electoral competition sometimes becomes a space that increasingly damages the value of justice,” he emphasized.
Fastabiqul Khairât
Chief Justice Anwar said a strong political will from all stakeholders is necessary to ensure that election serves as a means to fulfill constitutional responsibilities. While competition in election is natural, it does not mean treating each other as enemies. Moreover, election should not become an arena for competing without regard for applicable norms.
On the contrary, all stakeholders, including contestants, election organizers, law enforcers, and the public, have an obligation to fulfill the mandate of the 1945 Constitution with the spirit of fastabiqul khairât or striving to do good deeds, to realize fair general and regional elections.
Improving Public Understanding
Chief Justice Anwar further explained that the cooperation between the Constitutional Court and the academia since 2003 has significantly increased the public awareness and understanding of the 1945 Constitution. This has been realized through the cases the Court examined and decided. In addition, the Court also facilitates access to justice through long-distance hearing facilities at law faculties throughout the provinces, first through video conferencing at 42 universities throughout Indonesia, now through a smartboard in mini courtrooms at law faculties at various universities, including Unissula.
In addition to facilitating justice seekers to file cases and have hearings at the Court, the smartboard also serves to provide judicial transparency.
With this technology, academia in particular can directly monitor the hearing process in real-time. This technology can also be used for academic purposes, such as public lectures, academic discussions, seminars, and various other activities.
The success of organizing activities to resolve election disputes does not solely depend on the Court alone, but also on various parties. On this occasion, Justice Anwar expressed his hope for the academia to oversee the ongoing democratic process. As a pillar of democracy and a key player in the success of the 2024 simultaneous election, they need to oversee this democratic process to ensure that it stays on the right track.
Smartboard Mini Courtroom
Meanwhile, Unissula Rector Gunarto said in his speech that Unissula and the Constitutional Court were born for the nation. The Court upholds and enforces the Constitution for the people, while Unissula is a leading university nationally and internationally in producing generations with knowledge and integrating religious knowledge to realize a prosperous and blessed Indonesia.
“Today Unissula receives blessings from Allah through the smartboard mini courtroom from the Constitutional Court. Unissula is the only private institution that met the requirements for this facility. So, thank you to the Court for providing this facility. By unceasing gratitude, God’s blessings will increase,” he said.
Court-Unissula Collaboration
Acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan stated in his report that this was not the first time the Court visited Unissula. He talked about the campus’ atmosphere, nuance, and aura as a world-class Islamic cyber university, a campus with an Islamic academic culture. He believes that with its current potential, it would play a significant role and pioneer innovations and creativity while seeking knowledge and maintaining diversity and local cultural values.
“I’d like to report to the chief justice and the rector that our team arrived here ahead of time to install this equipment and I was informed that this could all be done quickly, accurately, and precisely due to the support of quality technology human resources at Unissula,” Heru explained.
The Court is determined to build and nurture collaboration with Unissula. Heru revealed that Court had signed an MoU with Unissula to improve awareness and understanding of the citizens’ constitutional rights and the quality of legal education based on Pancasila and the Constitution.
“Earlier, the rector stated that this smartboard is for hearings. However, the chief justice would like to add that with the provision of this smartboard, the rector has joined 63 video-conference managers throughout Indonesia so that we can collaborate to advance higher legal education,” Heru said.
He emphasized that both institutions should focus on synergizing and collaborating to further facilitate accessibility, ensure and guarantee access to court and justice, and build public trust in the Court so that the public truly feels the Court’s presence. Trust, he added, is far more valuable and meaningful than praise, which often tends to weaken. Meanwhile, trust would boost services. However, trust is acquired by sincere and serious efforts. Therefore, with Unissula and all its partners, hopefully the Court can make concrete efforts, actions, and collaboration.
The Court allows the use of the mini courtroom smartboard for academic and non-academic learning and encourages Unissula to use it to its fullest potential for all the academic community at Unissula. “We all hope that this equipment will be maintained well,” he said.
Author : Utami Argawati
Editor : Nur R.
Translator : Azzahra Salsabilla/Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)
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.
Friday, February 17, 2023 | 16:16 WIB 109