New Indonesia's Capital Law Sued to Constitutional Court

TheIndonesia.co - Former Advisor to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Abdullah Hehamahua along with 11 other people submitted a formal judicial review of the State Capital Law (IKN) to the Constitutional Court (MK). Based on the official website of the Court which was monitored in Jakarta, Thursday, February 3, 2022, the lawsuit filed by Abdullah Hehamahua and his friends was registered with Number 15/PUU/PAN.MK/AP3/02/2022.

The applicants named themselves the National Axis of State Sovereignty (PNKN). The Petitioner mentions several points of constitutional loss, among which the applicant is potentially harmed in reasonable reasoning which can occur if the IKN Law is enacted.

Not only that, as a former advisor to the KPK who has served for 10 years, Abdullah said he has made various efforts to reduce and even eliminate corrupt practices in Indonesia. In addition, applicant 1 also understands the gaps in the occurrence of corrupt practices in Indonesia, one of which is through physical development funded by the national budget (APBN).

"Moving the capital city from Jakarta to Kalimantan certainly requires massive development to support facilities in the new capital city," reads the applicant's statement.

He explained that the funds needed for the construction of new capital amounted to approximately IDR 501 trillion ($35 billion). Such large funds will open up opportunities for corruption, he said.

The applicant who had served as Deputy Chair of the State Administrator's Wealth Examiner (PKPN) in 2001, feels the need to provide advice or participate in the process of forming the IKN Law. The petitioner also intends to provide input on the efforts so that the development carried out in the new IKN avoids corrupt practices.

However, the process of drafting the IKN Law is so fast and tends to be rushed, and not transparent, causing the applicant's rights to be violated.

Apart from Abdullah Hehamahua, 11 other applicants for the judicial review were Marwan Batubara, Muhyiddin Junaidi, Lt. Gen. Mar (Ret.) Suharto, Major General TNI (Ret.) Soenarko MD, Taufik Bahaudin, and Syamsul Balda. Furthermore, Habib Muhsin Al Attas, Agus Muhammad Maksum, M. Mursalim R, Irwansyah and Agung Mozin.