All legislation to be subject to review
All legislation to be subject to review
Kurniawan Hari, M. Taufiqqurahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The House of Representatives special committee currently
deliberating a bill on the Constitutional Court agreed to give
full authority to the planned court to review all legislation,
regardless of when it had been enacted.
The committee made the agreement after scrapping contentious
Article 56 in the bill, which stipulated that a request to
review legislation should be submitted no later than 90 days
after the law concerned had been enacted.
Deputy chairman of the special committee Zainal Arifin said
that with the deletion of the controversial articles, any
legislation considered to be controversial or out-of-date would
be subject to review by the Constitutional Court.
According to the bill scheduled to be endorsed before Aug. 17,
besides reviewing legislation, the planned Constitutional Court
had the authority to try disputes between state institutions,
electoral violations or crimes and misdemeanors committed by the
president.
The bill does not elaborate on what kind of misconduct could
be brought before the Constitutional Court.
The unclear definition of misconduct prompted legislator
Tjetje Hidayat Padmadinata of the Indonesian Nationhood Unity
(KKI) faction to question whether the action of Taufik Kiemas,
husband of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, in hugging dangdut
singer Inul Daratista, could be considered as misconduct.
"To me, Inul's gyrations are just healthy physical exercise,"
Tjetje said, referring to the dangdut singer's well-known
performance.
Meanwhile, the House committee is still divided over basic
requirements for Constitutional Court judges.
Some members insisted that the judges had to hold a law degree
from a renowned university while others felt that they should be
law college graduates. what's the difference?
Lawyer-turned-legislator Trimedya Panjaitan predicted that
there would be a debate on the educational requirement, linked to
the ambition of some legislators to promote associates to seats
in the Constitutional Court.
Legal activist Luhut Pangaribuan said that judges for the
Constitutional Court had to have a law degree because such an
educational background would equip them with the basic skills for
doing their job.
"What I see, looking at justices in the Supreme Court, is that
those with no legal background face difficulty in performing
their main tasks," he said.
University of Indonesia legal expert Harun Alrasyid said that
a law degree was a basic requirement.
He said, as an example, that judges would be tasked with
producing legal analyses, and therefore would require special
skills in handling legal matters.
The Constitutional Court will also have a disciplinary arm, to
handle judges violating its internal rulings and code of conduct.