MK is unable to get out of the pro-power legal framework

Constitutional Law Expert at the Indonesian Jentera College of Law (STH), Bivitri Susanti, said that the rejection of the PHPU presidential election application proves that the Constitutional Court (MK) is unable to leave the legal framework designed to perpetuate power. This is the impact of the decision not to revise the Election Law after the 2019 Presidential Election.

“The Election Law will usually be revised after an evaluation of the process of holding previous elections,” said Bivitri, quoted from a video on his official Instagram (25/4).

Bivitri suspects that there was no revision of the Election Law because the legal framework was favorable, so it was agreed not to change it. Not only that, the ASN Law and legislation related to regional head officials also attempt to perpetuate power. So if the Constitutional Court moves only to follow the flow and framework, substantive justice will not really be achieved.

“They have to jump a little to the construction of constitutionalism, which can be done by the MK.” At first, I and many other people had hopes that MK would be able to get out of that cage, but apparently he couldn’t,” he added.

Furthermore, he is worried that the practice of nepotism and abuse of power has become commonplace after the Constitutional Court’s decision 90 regarding the age limit for presidential and vice presidential candidates. According to him, this is a big threat to democracy and a rule-of-law country like Indonesia. He also hopes that all parties will continue to criticize the policies and decisions of leaders to build democracy and the rule of law.

“Because this is an important sign that there are institutional problems that are not going well, which cannot be approached with institutional approaches,he concluded. “But we also have to be able to read political actors and their relationships to influence the running of institutions like the Constitutional Courtrt. []