Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat giving a keynote speech at Surakarta University, Solo, Central Java Province Saturday (8/19/2023). Photo by MKRI/Hendy.

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SURAKARTA (MKRI) — Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat delivered a public lecture at the Law Faculty of Surakarta University (FH Unsa) on Saturday, August 19, 2023. Before giving his presentation, he invited the students to listen to a song Satu untuk Indonesia (One for Indonesia) by Yenny Sucipto performed by Dearly Dave. Citing the lyrics of this song, he called for all Indonesian youth to maintain the ideology of the heterogeneous and culturally-diverse nation. The youth, he said, must continue to strive to maintain and preserve it by understanding the concept of “National Insight in Campus Environment, Its Challenges and Solutions.”

Amid such heterogeneity, Justice Arief reminded, legal practitioners should promote the synergy of religions and beliefs in Indonesia as the foundation of legal life so that the law is not used as a commodity, but the cosmology that exists in Indonesia and the main basis in harmonizing legal norms for society. “Legal cosmology is not made in a hollow space, but in Indonesia the law must have the character of Pancasila. The development of technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) will never replace judges who providing legal opinions in order to deliver justice. So, in Indonesia, the synergy of various religious beliefs is also the thing that underlies the value of justice,” he said before UNSA’s rector Astrid Widayani, vice rector II Roderikus Agus Trihatmoko, vice rector III Arga Baskara, head of LPPM (Institute for Research and Community Services (LPPM) Herwin Sulistyowati, Law Faculty dean Unsa Sumarwoto, head of the law undergraduate program Andrie Irawan, and head of graduate program Supriyono.

Furthermore, Justice Arief said that the era of rapid change requires constant state vision and mission, as set forth in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution. In simple terms, he compared the progress of the world amid uncertainty and complexity to VUCA (the 1990s’ military term standing for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, also referred to as “fog war”). He said all components of the nation, especially higher education, should become a catalyst for the massive development of the noble values of Pancasila, local wisdoms, and the original cultures of the Indonesian archipelago Nusantara.

“Pancasila must still be taught in universities through application in drafting laws that are characterized by Pancasila. For the youth in this room, let’s narrate on social media with content that strengthens the ideology of Pancasila. This is our duty because [higher education] is the foundation of Pancasila, the center of civilization in maintaining Pancasila and the cultural customs of the nation,” he explained before Secretary-General Heru Setiawan and 100 participants.

Author       : Sri Pujianti.
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Tahlitha Laela/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.

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