Bonatua Silalahi (Petitioner) conveying his judicial review petition of the North Sumatera Law at the preliminary hearing, Wednesday (8/14/2025). Photo by MKRI/Ilham W.M.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — The Constitutional Court (MK) held the preliminary hearing for the formal judicial review of Law No. 8 of 2023 on the North Sumatera Province on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. The case No. 134/PUU-XXIII/2025 was filed by Bonatua Silalahi, an academic and author of the history of the Batak Kingdom.

At the hearing, Silalahi stated that the enactment of Law No. 8 of 2023 disregarded the historical study of colonial legacy and the territorial map of Batak lands. He argues that the academic paper accompanying the bill failed to meet the requirements of Article 43 of Law No. 13 of 2022, which mandates philosophical, juridical, and sociological analyses. He considered the historical section to be overly brief, referring only to Emergency Law No. 24 of 1956 and Law No. 10 of 1948, without delving further into Batak history up to the period of Dutch colonial.

Silalahi stressed the importance of avoiding the use of colonial maps. He argued that the academic paper did not include an analysis of Dutch documents that described regions such as Singkil, Alas, and other Bataklanden as “territories conquered by Aceh.” In his view, this omission allowed Law No. 8 of 2023 to perpetuate colonial maps without correction, potentially triggering conflicts over identity and perceptions of territorial boundaries.

He also presented historical records, from the journey of Mendes Pinto in 1540, who mentioned that part of the Batak territory was under the Kingdom of Aceh, to the visits of William Marsden in 1772 and John Anderson in 1823, which showed that almost the entire Batak region enjoyed independence. However, Dutch colonial policy later returned part of the Batak territories to the status of Aceh’s conquered lands.

“The academic paper fails to meet the standards set out in Law No. 13 of 2022, where Article 43 requires every bill to be accompanied by an academic paper containing philosophical, juridical, and sociological studies. In this case, I find the historical section to be too short, as the law only examines Emergency Law No. 24 of 1956 and Law No. 10 of 1948 without exploring Batak history more deeply up to the time of Dutch colonial. The absence of historical analysis removes the philosophical foundation and local identity from the formation of this law. This law should have disregarded colonial maps, given that the academic paper contains no analysis of Dutch documents that categorized Singkil, Alas, and other Bataklanden as ‘territories conquered by Aceh.’ As a result, Law No. 8 of 2023 on the North Sumatra Province perpetuates colonial maps without correction, creating identity conflicts and disputes over territorial boundaries,” Silalahi said.

Before Deputy Chief Justice Saldi Isra (panel chair) and Constitutional Justices Ridwan Mansyur and Arsul Sani, Silalahi petitioned the Court to declare that the Law on the North Sumatra Province (Law No. 8 of 2023) is unconstitutional and thus not legally binding.

Responding to the petition, Justice Ridwan Mansyur advised the Petitioner to clarify his legal standing. “I have yet to see any explanation here that demonstrates you have the legal standing to submit this petition. Likewise, regarding the issue of loss, you have mainly outlined events you experienced personally, but without providing a convincing explanation that you still possess the authority or legal standing, as well as the connection between the loss suffered [and this petition],” he explained.

At the end of the hearing, the panel gave the Petitioner 14 days to revise the petition, which must be resubmitted no later than August 26 at 12:00 WIB.

Author       : Utami Argawati
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Andhini S.F.
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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