Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra chairing a material judicial review hearing of Law No. 12 of 2011 on Lawmaking, Wednesday (11/8/2023). Photo by MKRI/Fauzan.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The eighth hearing for the material judicial review of Article 7 paragraph (1) letter b of Law No.12 of 2011 on Lawmaking (P3 Law) was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 in the plenary courtroom.

The hearing agenda was supposed to be the testimony of experts presented by the Court. However, due to health reasons, they were indisposed.

“We contacted the two experts, but due to health reasons they cannot be present today. Therefore, the session to hear their testimonies as requested by the Court will be postponed,” Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra said.

The Court announced that the hearing was postponed until Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 11:00 WIB to hear the Court’s experts.

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Lawmaking Law Does Not Prescribe TAP MPR

At the preliminary hearing, the Petitioner of case No. 66/PUU-XXI/2023—represented by chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra and secretary-general Afriansyah Noor—asserted that with the amendment of articles regulating the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) in the 1945 Constitution, the removal of the elucidation as an integral part of the basic law, means there has been a fundamental change of the MPR as the only institution that exercises the sovereignty of the people and is the “highest state institution” and at the same time as the embodiment of “all Indonesian people.”

The Petitioner believes regulating MPR decrees has saved the state during at least three constitutional crises. First, the temporary MPRS issued a decree that prohibited Marxism and Leninism after the G30S (30 September Movement) of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) rebellion in 1965, after previously Supersemar-bearer General Soeharto dissolved the PKI on March 3, 1966. Second, the MPRS issued a beshickking (ordering) stipulation to establish the Supersemar-bearer as the acting president of the Republic of Indonesia after President Soekarno was dismissed by the MPRS in 1967. Third, the MPR issued a decree regarding the president’s accountability through memoranda I and II that could dismiss the president. This provision made the impeachment of President Abdurrahman Wahid legal and constitutional. Fourth, the MPR issued Decree No. VII/MPR/1973 on absence of the president and/or vice president, which was used as to impeach President Soeharto and swear in President B.J. Habibie before the Chief Supreme Justice, when the MPR was unable to convene due to the monetary crisis of 1998. This decree made the resignation of President Suharto and the swearing-in of Vice President BJ Habibie as his successor legal and constitutional.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR            : Andhini S.F.
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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