Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mohammad Mahfud MD. (Image via Fajar Online)

Quoting Mahfud's dissertation, UGM Prof: Omnibus law is elitist and authoritarian

Law Professor at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Maria S. W. Sumardjono, called out the Law No. 11 of 2020, famously known as the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, referring to it as an elitist, orthodox, and authoritarian product of the Indonesian law. Maria also quoted the 1993 dissertation of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam), Mohammad Mahfud MD.

Maria's statement is recorded into a 1.28-minute video which was uploaded by Mahfud on his Twitter account, @mohmahfudmd, on 8 November. On the video, Maria, claiming to be Mahfud's supervising lecturer when writing the dissertation, said that the Job Creation Law is within the typology of elitist and orthodox law.

She also claimed to still remember correctly Mahfud's dissertation. Why the Job Creation law is deemed orthodox, elitist, and authoritarian? Maria said that the Job Creation law is used as an instrument to do the one-side bidding of the government. Furthermore, she asserted that Mahfud himself wrote it so he should keep his word. Maria added that the Job Creation law does not protect, but coerce.

Included in the video, Mahfud commented and gave some notes. He admitted that it was his 1993's dissertation used by Maria on the orthodox and elitist nature portrayed by the Job Creation law. Mahfud said that as his theoretical framework, he had brought up General Election and Local Government law. The Coordinating Minister said in his dissertation that elitist and orthodox law could come from an authoritarian government.

On the other hand, Mahfud warned that his dissertation also slipped in some recommendations. One of which is the formation of the Constitutional Court (MK) which was done already. MK exists to accept judicial review. Moreover, Mahfud also recommended revamping political configuration to be more democratic.

To Maria, Mahfud reminded her to remember that during 1993, there was no Job Creation law. Ratified by the People's Representative Council (DPR) on 5 October, the Job Creation law sparked protests from workers, students, and civilians, in fear of the law to side more to the investors than people and destroy the environment. Hence, mass demonstrations occurred in various areas, some of which ended up in clashes.

Indonesian people also noticed discrepancies in Job Creation law's page number that keeps changing since 5 October, followed by mistakes in some of its articles. Some experts even claimed that the Job Creation law is formally defective. The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), responded by allowing people to file a judicial review to the MK. On 2 November, Jokowi then signed the law.

Source: https://bit.ly/35bPZbZ