Legal counsel Shaleh Al Ghifari conveying the petition’s revisions at a judicial review hearing of the ASN Law, Thursday (10/3/2024). Photo by MKRI/Bayu.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held another judicial review hearing for a petition filed by the Association for Elections and Democracy, the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of the Regional Autonomy, and the Indonesia Corruption Watch (Petitioners I-III) on Thursday, October 3, 2024. The material judicial review hearing of Article 26 paragraph (2) letter e and Article 70 paragraph (3) of Law No. 20 of 2023 on the State Civil Apparatus (ASN Law) against Article 1 paragraph (3), Article 28D paragraph (1), and Article 28D paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution was presided over by Constitutional Justices M. Guntur Hamzah (panel chair), Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, and Anwar Usman.

Legal counsel Shaleh Al Ghifari conveyed the revisions to the petition, including on the elaboration of legal standing as referred to in the Constitutional Court Regulations (PMK) No. 6 of 2005 and No. 2 of 2021 Article 4 paragraph (2); the articles quoting the Petitioners’ legal entities; as well as the reasons for the petition with a reinforced doctrinal arguments and reference to previous decisions to support the petition’s arguments.

“The Petitioners have clarified the relevance between the petition’s subject matter and practices in other countries, the elaboration of the KASN’s establishment as the subject matter, the strengths and weaknesses of KASN compared to BKN and PanRB, and the implications of the enforcement of the norms or the abolition of legal certainty on KASN,” Shaleh said of the case No. 121/PUU-XXII/2024 in the plenary courtroom.

Also read: Questioning the Absence of KASN Merit System Supervision under ASN Law

At the preliminary hearing on September 19, the Petitioners argued that Article 26 paragraph (2) letter d of the ASN Law is unconstitutional. Petitioner I believes that the abolition of supervision over the ASN’s merit system, principles, code of ethics, and code of conduct has created legal uncertainty. It has also abolished independent supervision over the neutrality of the organizers of the 2024 simultaneous regional election.

Petitioner I saw this as an urgent matter considering the resulting weakening of the bureaucratic system, which must be professional, has integrity, and follows meritocratic principles, so as to achieve good governance that is professional, free of corruption, collusion, and nepotism. Hence, as a person concerned about democracy and bureaucratic reform, especially related to the organization of clean and fair elections, Petitioner I has an interest in filing the petition. 

Meanwhile, as a supporter of regional autonomy, business development, central government, and the need for freedom of expression, Petitioner II believes that the articles being reviewed could potentially obstruct the free and just organization of regional elections. With the absence of independent supervision, civil servants are prone to be mobilized as partisans during elections. Hence, these practices should be prevented and dealt with wisely. 

Petitioner III believes that the removal of the ASN’s merit system, code of ethics and conduct, and independent supervision over ASN’s neutrality would result in prolonged exploitation of ASNs in partisan practices, which is politically-motivated and results in recruitment, promotion, or demotion that is similarly politically-motivated. This, it argues, is far from the principle of meritocracy and good governance that is directly related to the goals and work of Petitioner III’s organization.

Author         : Sri Pujianti
Editor          : Lulu Anjarsari P.
PR              : Raisa Ayuditha Marsaulina
Translator    : Yuniar Widiastuti, Rizky Kurnia C. (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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