Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat delivering a speech at a speech contest for SMA/SMK/MA students in Pontianak at Tanjungpura University, Saturday (10/14/2023). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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PONTIANAK (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court and Tanjungpura University of Pontianak held a constitution speech contest for SMA/SMK/MA students at Theater 1 conference building of Tanjungpura University on Saturday, October 14, 2023. The contest was attended and opened by Constitutional Justice Arief Hidayat, who was assisted by Secretary-General Heru Setiawan, and Tanjungpura University Rector Garuda Wiko.

In his opening speech, Justice Arief Hidayat revealed that the Court had collaborated and held the same contest with the Law Faculty of Universitas Sebelas Maret and the Surakarta Government, in which village chiefs participated. “In 2013, the Court with Universitas Sebelas Maret and the Surakarta Government held a speech contest between village chiefs in Surakarta. It was opened by [President Joko Widodo], who was Solo mayor at the time,” he said.

He also explained why the Court engages in such activities despite of its field being related to the Constitution. “In order for the Court to introduce the Constitution, to raise people’s nationalism through the awareness of the Constitution, as well as to implement the Constitution, the Court disseminate information through many ways, including constitution debates and speech contests on the Constitution. The Constitution is the basis of the state while the Pancasila is the state’s ideology,” he said.

In addition, he explained that the Court’s authority includes judicial review of laws against the 1945 Constitution, deciding authority disputes between state institutions, deciding the dissolution of political parties, and deciding disputes related to the results of general and regional elections.

“Beside the authority, the Court also has an obligation to provide a legal opinion related to the DPR’s allegation of constitutional violations by the president and/or vice president (impeachment),” he added.

Furthermore, he talked about the requirements to become a constitutional justice, which is one of the most demanding professions in Indonesia.

“Neither the president nor the minister are required to acquire a doctorate. However, constitutional justices must have a doctoral degree in law, which is the highest prerequisite. The second is statesmanship, whether the justices are truly statesmen/women or not can be seen from the Court’s decisions,” he said.

The speech contest had 74 registered participants, and only 50 were selected in the administrative stage and attended a briefing with Justice Arief Hidayat on Friday, October 13. The jury will select 10 finalists in the preliminary round to go to the final round.

Secretary-General Heru Setiawan, Tanjungpura University rector Garudo Wiko, Tarumanegra University law professor Tundjung Herning Sitabuana, and high school curriculum and assessment analyst of the West Kalimantan Provincial Education and Culture Office Jumadi completed the jury panel for the final round, while Tanjungpura University Law Faculty dean Sri Ismawari was the coordinator for the jury panel. Winners of the speech contest among SMA/SMK/MA (senior high school) students were Kariah from SMAN 10 Pontianak at 1st place, Beatrik Eriska from SMK LKIA Pontianak at 2nd place, and Intan Aulia Rahma from SMAN 3 Pontianak at 3rd place.

Author       : B. Panji Erawan
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
Translator  : Najwa Afifah Lukman/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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