One of the Government’s witnesses taking oath to testify at a formal judicial review hearing of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health, Monday (1/29/2024). Photo by MKRI/Ifa.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another formal judicial review hearing of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health (Health Law) for case No. 130/PUU-XXI/2023 on Monday, January 29, 2024. The case was filed by the Joint Secretariat of Health Profession Organizations.

The hearing had been scheduled to present the Government/president’s witnesses Mushtofa Kamal and Anis Fuad. Mushtofa Kamal is a doctor who works as a national staff of WHO Indonesia. He said WHO Indonesia had provided written inputs in the form of an online spreadsheet that the Ministry of Health provided on March 17, 2023 and on the website partisipasisehat.kemkes.go.id.

“I personally attend three meetings on March 15 and 16, 2023 for public hearing of the [health] bill at Grand Sahid Hotel. I also attended a dissemination of the bill on March 20, 2023 in JW Mariot Hotel,” he revealed.

He further explained that many experts and members of the public attended the meetings and provided inputs both on site and online. The meetings were not only on site, but were also open to the public online through Zoom.

“The process was more or less this way: Health Ministry representative first delivered a presentation of the existing draft for 30-45 minutes, then moderator gave the on-site attendees the opportunity to express their views, inputs, and/or questions to the presenter,” he said.

He revealed that he did not feel any different treatment to the attendees. The meeting was also moderated well since all of the questions posed on the Zoom chat were discussed. “There was limited time in those meetings, but the Health Ministry’s representatives always said that the attendees or the public could always give their inputs online on the Health Ministry’s website partisipasisehat,” Kamal explained.

The next witness, Anis Fuad, a lecturer at the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Population Health of the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing (FK-KMK) of Gadjah Mada University, said that as an academic and researcher in digital health, health information systems and telemedicine are among the topics studied, researched, and taught at the department.

“I participated in online public hearings on March 15, 16, and 18 on health information systems and telemedicine through Zoom. This was followed by offline dissemination of telemedicine content on March 29, 2023 at Artotel Mangkuluhur Jakarta Hotel. My participation in those events was accompanied by letters of assignment from the leadership of the Center for Health Policy and Management (CHPM UGM). In addition to providing oral testimony both online and offline, I also submitted inputs related to health information system in writing on partisipasisehat website,” he explained.

Anis also said that one of his inputs was included in Article 190 of the Health Law, which stipulates that hospitals shall implement an information system. He also said that the health bill had not mentioned anything about this mandate.

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The Joint Secretariat of Health Profession Organizations, which consists of five medical and health professional organizations, filed a formal judicial review petition of Law No. 17 of 2023 on Health (Health Law) to the Constitutional Court (MK). The five organizations are the executive boards of the Indonesia Doctors Association (PB IDI), the Indonesian Dental Association (PDGI), the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNI), the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI), and the Indonesian Pharmacists Association (IAI) as Petitioner I-V, respectively.

At the preliminary hearing on Thursday, October 12, legal counsel Muhammad Joni conveyed that the Petitioners are medical personnel who have been directly affected and have an interest in the formation of the Health Law. The new Law has also changed and replaced norms regarding the institution of councils, collegiums, and disciplinary ethics councils without formal procedure that ensure meaningful participation.

Moreover, continued Joni, Article 451 in Chapter XIX on Transitional Provisions abolished all collegiums that are the “hearts” of professional organizations and are not government organs nor owned by the Government. The Law has arbitrarily abolished all legal entities of collegiums by enacting Article 451 of the Health Law, which reads, “When this Law comes into force, the Collegium established by each professional organization shall continue to be recognized until the establishment of Collegiums as referred to in Article 272 established under this Law.” This, the Petitioners argued, is in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of association.   

Formally Defective

The Petitioners believe the Health Law is formally defective as the DPD (Regional Representatives Council) did not participate in discussing the Health Bill. The absence of the DPD’s considerations is against the lawmaking procedure as prescribed in Article 22D paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.

Therefore, in their petitum, the Petitioners ask the Court to declare the Health Law unconstitutional and not legally binding.  

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Muhammad Halim
Translator  : 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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