Expert in state governance Prof. Jimly Asshiddiqie reminded the great role of judges throughout Indonesia to include in the Constitutional Court (MK) as a balancer of the executive and legislature, taking care of democracy and the Indonesian rule of law.
According to Jimly, this great role of the judiciary requires judicial independence so that it remains in the middle of guarding democracy and the Indonesian rule of law.
"In this era, the meaning of independence of the judicial power is more important than the history of independence of the judicial power," said Jimly in the launch of the book entitled "Independence of the Judicial Power" at the MK Building Hall, Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Saturday, April 18.
He conveyed the current state of Indonesia regarding the game of statehood which determines the life of the nation and the state, the factors are getting more and more complex. Where politics and economics are very powerful.
According to him, there was a period where every country determined everything, politicians plus economic people. However, politicians consider themselves very powerful, although behind the scenes, economic people, capital owners.
"This economy and politics have their own logic, how the judicial power must make decisions according to interests. This is common throughout history, it also happens all over the world," he explained.
Therefore, he said, judicial independence is the key word in facing political dynamics, especially now that his party has no one to counterbalance. So the truth is only decided between the rules of the majority, who is the most he decides.
In fact, said Jimly, the majority rule is not identical to justice.
He said that majority rules if it is a way of making decisions, then the democracy is formalistic, procedural democracy, so it needs to be balanced by minority rights, as a symbol of the substance of democracy.
"So if we want to reform democracy, the substantive minority right must have a voice. Who is voicing it, yes, nine judges, even five judges are enough," he said.
According to him, judicial independence is important because when Indonesian democracy is increasingly dominated by a majoritarian politics that collaborates with the economy.
"The point is the quality of democracy, the quality of our rule of law is in the hands of the judges," he explained.
Jimly highlighted the post-reform, "one roof" system of the Supreme Court, whether independence has been realized.
As a material for evaluation, the Constitutional Court as the most powerful branch of power in Indonesia, has a high court (PT), a high court of religion at the provincial level, and has a district court, a religious court and a PTUN court, all of which work depending on the signature of the Chief of the Constitutional Court.
With the power possessed by the Supreme Court, a command work culture is formed, in which subordinates make decisions based on the direction of their superiors. This culture, he said, must be reformed.
Jimly said that the judiciary is a balancer between the executive and the legislature. If the two big forces collaborate, there will be no more different income. If that happens, then the state will face civil society.
"This situation is more dangerous if the function of deliberative democracy, the function of formal aspiration channels do not function in supervision. Later, those who have different opinions in the public space, it will be more difficult to control the so-called social media," he said.
He gave an example of the demonstration that moved August 2025 was non-organic, really driven by collective awareness through the media.
"So in this era it is dangerous if there is no channel for people's aspirations, then he will move on his own without being controlled," he said.
Jimly said that the independence of the judicial power is a universal principle not just the common sense of judges.
"So let's control it not for the benefit of the world of the court, but for the interest of maintaining the quality of democracy and the rule of law," he said.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
