South-East Asian Journal of Advanced Law and Governance (SEAJ ALGOV)

Academic Freedom Movement in Southeast Asian: Threat, Challenge, and It’s Implication in Indonesia

Satria Unggul Wicaksana Prakasa — 2024-10-31

This research focused on analyzing the debates and roles of academic freedom movement in Southeast Asian. The dynamics of protection related to academic freedom cannot be separated from its protection on the one hand and the threats accompanying it. The issue of academic freedom creates a threat to the academic community in producing knowledge, both within universities and those who are active as independent researchers, especially in Southeast Asian. Authoritarianism, in turn, has affected the worse situation of free expression, including academic freedom. In the current situation, the digital sphere has been targeted as well. This article will discuss the following questions: (1). What is the situation of the academic freedom movement and protection for the academic community in Southeast Asia? (2). How are efforts to maintain the movement of academic freedom in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, amid efforts to subjugate the campus by the state and the practice of authoritarianism? Using an interdisciplinary approach as a part of socio-legal research, this article argued that there is a strong relationship between the threat of academic freedom movement in Southeast Asian countries and the implications in Indonesia. The academic freedom situation in Southeast Asia has been shaped by the political and economic aspects of the region as well as in their respective countries. The role of independent and progressive alliances to struggle for their rights or to understand the role of professor unions in defending academic and scientific freedom. To what extent is academic freedom considered a strong pillar for democratic societies, including providing important scientific, economic, cultural, and social progress from which we may all benefit? This roundtable is also aimed to promote possible strategies in challenging democracy declines, affecting the shrinking civic space, and how academic resilience in the digital space is a keyword that should be strengthened in its social movement since this will be more complicated due to manipulating information and anti-science politics through systematic repression.

Indonesian Democracy: Democracy without the Public

Sugeng Bayu Wahyono — 2024-10-31

Since its independence, the Republic of Indonesia has been a democratic and unitary state. However, democracy has had its ups and downs and been influenced by the characteristics of the leaders from the era of President Soekarno, New Order, to the reform era. This study employed the reflective method to analyse the political phenomena of contemporary Indonesia, based on empirical facts and academic information. This study discusses the issue of democracy. Instead of the role of the middle class or global political constellation, it focuses on the failure of the political process to shape the public, a prerequisite for implementing democracy. This research reveals that three strategic social institutions in the dynamics of contemporary Indonesian politics, namely religion, bureaucracy, and educational institutions also fail to shape the public. It leads to formal, procedural, and less substantive democracy in Indonesia. Therefore, the people need a democracy literacy movement through various strategic social and political institutions.

The Politicizing of Judicial Independence: Cases and Controversy in Indonesian Constitutional Court’s

Idul Rishan — 2024-11-26

The Constitutional Court has been the target of several political attacks over the past three years, each with its tactics and goals. The politicization of the court by the government poses the greatest danger to its independence. This study combines qualitative analysis with socio-legal study methodology. According to this study, the court gets politicized in two ways. The first type is extrajudicial, which indicates that political actors acting outside the court system constitute. The second type is intra-judicial, which involves the major actors in the legal system. In this case, the major actors are the judges of the Constitutional Court. This study also elucidates the way certain components with a legal component and others with a socio-political component resulted in the politicization of the independence of the constitutional court.

Presidential Power in the Formation of Cabinet Posture after the State Ministries Law 2024

Beni Kurnia Illahi — 2024-12-28

The President has the authority to determine the structure of the government under him as part of the President’s prerogative rights as regulated by Article 17 of the 1945 Constitution. Ironically, the Government and the House of Representatives insisted on changing the substance of Law No. 39 of 2008 concerning State Ministries through a swift amendment resulting in the enactment of Law No. 61 of 2024. One significant change in the new regulation is the removal of the limitation on the number of state ministries. It is necessary to examine how the constitutional mandate and the Law on State Ministries limit the president’s power in designing the cabinet posture in Indonesia. Second, what are the implications of unlimited presidential power in forming the cabinet posture from the administrative law and state finances perspective? This research uses normative juridical legal research with a descriptive nature and a prescription form. Based on the research, there are 4 (four) priority
issues, first, the rise in the number of ministries will have an impact on the state budget’s ability to finance it, implications for the apparatus and infrastructure that will run government administration, further complicates the coordination function and authority between ministries, and the increasement is not in line with the government’s spirit to simplify the state institutions and regulations.

The Notion of Public Participation in the Making of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (PERPU) in Indonesia

Al Yasir — 2024-12-31

After the Constitutional Court Decision Number 91/PUU-XVIII 2020, public
participation must be present in every legislative formation. As one of the regulations in Indonesia, PERPU has the same hierarchy and content material as the Law. Therefore, it is also important to question the opportunity for public participation in the PERPU formation process. In order to obtain answers to this study, this research uses normative legal research with a statute approach and conceptual approach. This research shows that in the formation of PERPU there are two processes that must be passed, namely first the process of formulating and determining PERPU by
the President and second the process of submitting to the DPR for approval or not. Public participation can be present in both processes but has different doses. In the first process, public participation is only in the form of information provided to the public regarding the reasons for the ‘compelling urgency’ of the PERPU stipulation by the President. Meanwhile, in the second process, public participation is presented when the PERPU is submitted and the discussion stage is carried out by the DPR level I and II. As for the implementation of public participation in the formation of PERPU in both processes, it can utilise technology, because PERPU is an emergency regulation and races with time constraints in its formation, technology can be an option used.