VP opens international symposium on constitutional complaint

Vice President’s Palace. “The Indonesian Constitutional Court is one of the busiest constitutional courts in the world whose main task is conducting judicial reviews,” said Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the opening of International Symposium on Constitutional Complaint today at the Vice President’s Palace, adding that Indonesia has amended its constitution for four times since its Independence Day.

The Vice President further hoped the symposium attended by participants from different countries become a hub to share experience and best practices in handling constitutional complaint.

According to him, any country in the world does not want the spreading democracy develop into uncontrolled democracy. “That is why we need constitution to warrant democracy remain on its path,” he said.

Other points to consider, Mr Kalla added, are issues surrounding human rights and the freedom of the press which are closely related to constitutional complaint. “There should be a clear guideline telling which issues that could be brought to the Constitutional Court or the Supreme Court,” he said.

The international symposium is a forum for court chairmen, judges, academics and legal practitioners to support democracy as it ensures constitutional guarantee. The participants are coming from Algeria, Afghanistan, Philippine, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, South Korea, Russia, Thailand, Timor Leste, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Indonesia as the host country. The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) speaker Zulkifli Hasan and the Indonesian Constitutional Court (MK) also attended the event.