Contravention of ethics’ code done by the chairman of the Constitutional Court (MK) faced a lot of criticism. The strong response from various legal academics incorporated in the forum of dean of law and chief of law higher education (STIH) and Muhammadiyah university in Indonesia insisted Prof. Dr. Arief Hidayat, SH, MS to resign as Chief and judge of MK. This was conveyed to the media on Monday (05/02) at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY).
Dr. Trisno Raharjo, S.H., M.Hum as the chief of dean forum of law faculty, chief of STIH and Muhammadiyah universities in Indonesia stated that being the Chief of MK is a very honorable and reputable. “MK is one of the institutions having a role in judicial power practices in Indonesia. However, maintaining integrity of not to break the law for judge of constitution is a big responsibility. Thus, every matter involving the chief of MK will affect toward lack of public trust such as violation of ethical code conducted by prof. Dr. Arief Hidayat, SH, MS as the chief justice, “said Trisno, the dean of the Faculty of Law in UMY.
Trisno added that academics which violate ethics’ code of MK judge is unjustifiable because it has harmed integrity as a judge. “It has proven that that two violations of ethics done by the Chief of MK in the period of 2016-2017. The first violation was done by Arief Hidayat in 2016 by giving a special message to the Deputy Attorney General to provide guidance to a prosecutor in the State Attorney of Trenggalek. For the second offense in 2017, Arief Hidayat met with members of House of Representatives (DPR) Commission III of the Republic of Indonesia at the time re-nominate as a Constitutional Judge, “said Trisno.
He also said that the Ethics Council of MK has imposed sanctions on the Chief of MK. “As a benchmark for repeated ethical errors, the ethics’ sanction deserves to be a contemplation for Chief of MK that a judge is must be honest and fair. No matter how small mistakes or violence given a sanction is big issue of integrity and public trust to the Constitutional Justice. The attitude of nationality should be shown by the Constitutional Justice that the sanction of ethics is a big warming for law enforcement in this country “he stated.
“Based on the facts of violation, we, represent of all the PTM and STIH to maintain the honor and marwah MK of RI as a respectable institution and has a function (The Guardian of Constitution). In addition, in returning public trust toward MK related to the ethics of MK chief who is considered not to have integrity and not reflect as a citizen as regulated in Pasal 24C ayat (5) UUD 5 about Constitutional Justice must have integrity and good personality, citizens that control the constitution and state administration and not concurrent as state officials, “explained Trisno.
