UNS — The Judge of Constitutional Court (MK) RI Prof. Arief Hidayat reminded the students of Faculty of Law (FH) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta not to use the law as a commodity or, worse, put it for sale.
He delivered the message in the Guest Lecture “The Role and Challenges for MK in Achieving Democratic Law and Politics” held online and offline from FH UNS Hall and through the Zoom Cloud Meeting, Friday (3/12/2021).
“I reminded the Law students, never make law your commodity when you work as an advocate, notary, and other careers in the future. Do not put law practice on sale!” Prof. Arief stated.
Prof. Arief shared the reminder because, he explained, the legal system in Indonesia has its source on the God Almighty that is in line with the theocracy theory applied by Indonesia. The theory promoted by Thomas Aquino and Agustinus bases its legal system on God’s sovereignty. Meaning that fundamentally, a theocracy state belief that a country was established because of God, and therefore, their government must be run, and the law is developed by upholding God.
According to Prof. Arief, proof that Indonesia is a theocracy state can be observed in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution that written: “By the grace of God Almighty…..”
Recognition of God is also written in the Preamble of every Law and MK ruling read in the proceeding. Prof. Arief believed that the recognition of God in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution makes Indonesia be a liberated country and survive with its diversity to this day.
“Thus, the source of law in Indonesia is not secular. The desire of the Indonesian people to be free and establish a country was achieved with the Grace of God Almighty. This is a religious nation so that I stated, the source of power in Indonesia is from the theocracy theory,” he added.
He gave an example of his time serving as the Chairman of MK in 2015-2017. Prof. Arief admitted that every time they read MK rulings in proceeding with the other eight MK judges, they also asked for forgiveness from God if their rulings had any shortcomings.
“My personal experience and Chairman of MK, when reading the ruling, in my heart, because I am a Muslim, always asked for forgiveness and apologized if the nine judges in MK in deciding, make a mistake,” he concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Y.C.A. Sanjaya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti