Secretary-General of the Constitutional Court M. Guntur Hamzah. Photo by Humas MK/Gani.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Secretary-General of the Constitutional Court (MK) M. Guntur Hamzah and Registrar Muhidin spoke at a focus group discussion (FGD) on the monitoring and evaluation of the Constitutional Court’s decisions on Saturday, October 10, 2020 virtually on Zoom. The event was organized by the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat General of the Constitutional Court in collaboration with the Center for Pancasila and Constitutional Studies of the Law Faculty of Jember University (UNEJ).

Guntur said the event was important to evaluate the implementation of the Court’s decisions. Although the public is aware of the Court’s decisions, the Court needed inputs from experts, scholars, and the public on their implementation. “The Constitutional Court’s welcomes this monitoring and evaluation program. The Constitutional Court would be very happy if this program becomes a national priority program of the Onward Indonesia Cabinet,” he said.

Guntur said the results of the program would be compiled by the Court. He added that the amendments to the 1945 Constitution means that the Constitution is supreme. “Not only [is there] the supremacy of the law, but above [it] is the supremacy of the Constitution, as the people’s sovereignty is implemented pursuant to the Constitution,” he said. He believed this to be the basis for this country’s constitutional supremacy, aside from the supremacy of the law. He added that in order to understand the implementation of constitutional supremacy, the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s decisions must be evaluated.

He said that among the Court’s decisions that granted, reject, and dismiss the petitions, the ones to be evaluated are the first. Since the Court’s inception, it has passed 2,740 decisions. As many as 1,353 of them are on judicial review cases, 26 on interagency dispute, 1,077 on general elections dispute, and 284 on regional elections dispute.

Out of the 266 decisions that granted the petitions, 62 have been evaluated, 48 of which have been implemented—34 in the first quarter and 14 in the second. Five decisions are still in the progress of being implemented—1 in the first quarter and 4 in the second. Two decisions were not implemented accordingly, all in the first quarter. Seven decisions were not implemented at all—2 in the first quarter and 5 in the second.

The Court’s Registrar Muhidin said that the monitoring and evaluation program was a valuable opportunity for the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat General of the Constitutional Court. He added that during the COVID-19 pandemic, court hearings are done online and in compliance with the existing health protocols. “Through the Constitutional Court’s website, [the public] can access anything they’d like to know about the cases,” he added.

Writer: Utami Argawati
Editor: Nur R.
Photographer: Gani
Translator: Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 10/22/2020 22:55 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian version, the Indonesian version will prevail.