Rights has been used repeatedly as a reference for justices to make their consider-
ations for deciding such cases as the case of the Corruption Court (Article 12 ( 2 )),
the case of former president Abdurahman Wahid (Article 21 ), the case of Agus
Miftach and the case of the Human Rights Court (Article 29 ( 2 )).
The Constitutional Court consists of nine justices: three presidential appointees,
three Supreme Court appointees, and three House of Representatives appointees.
The term of office of judges is five years and they can be re-elected for another
term. The current chief justice of the Constitutional Court is Professor Mahfud
MD. He is down-to-earth and he is well known as having the courage to alter laws
deemed inconsistent with the 1945 constitution and defended by political elites.
The former National Awakening Party politician and defence minister is also
credited for his rigorous efforts to promote transparency in the Constitutional
Court, as started by his predecessor, former chief justice Jimly Asshiddiqie, who,
like Chief Justice Mahfud, has a penchant for media exposure. When two court
judges, Akil Mochtar and Arsyad Sanusi, were implicated in bribery allegations
while handling a local election dispute in 2010 , Chief Justice Mahfud personally
assisted the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in investigating the scan-
dal. Chief Justice Mahfud also encouraged the public to participate in safeguarding
the institution’s integrity by reporting any corruption they knew of to the court.
In 2011 , the chief justice reported a General Elections Commission (KPU)
official for allegedly masterminding the falsification of Constitutional Court docu-
ments from a 2009 electoral dispute that resulted in the appointment of a politician
to the House of Representatives. Critics say that, as chief judge of the Consti-
tutional Court, Mahfud should talk less to the media. He should be able to control
his penchant for public comment on every political and public issue. It seems that
he enjoys his status as a newsmaker or perhaps celebrity. However, his supporters
rebut that, saying that Mahfud is brave to talk to the media because he is clean and
smart and has no political interest. His public comments are needed not only to
educate the public, but also to get the attention of public policy makers and
persuade them to do the right things for the country. There is speculation that
Chief Justice Mahfud will be a presidential candidate in the 2014 elections.
During the 2009 corruption, which the media labelled the battle between
the lizard (i.e. the Corruption Eradication Commission – KPK) and the crocodile
(i.e. the Police), the Constitutional Court played wiretapped conversations
obtained from the KPK, which demonstrated that the bribery charges involving
the two KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, were
engineered. The Constitutional Court made an outstanding breakthrough in
Indonesia’s legal history. As a result, nine Police officials, escorting the chairman
of the Constitutional Court, resigned. The wiretapped conversations allegedly
involved Anggodo Widjojo (the younger brother of the suspect, Anggoro Widjojo,
who had escaped to Singapore), and implicated several top officials at the
National Police and Attorney General’s Office (AGO). The recordings verified