REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – About 20 vice ministers in Second United Indonesia Cabinet will soon be non-active following the verdict of Constitutional Court (MK) on the position of the vice ministers. The position would remain empty until the revision of Presidential Decree on vice ministers position, the Spokesman of MK, Akil Mochtar, said.

“We can say it is status quo,” Mochtar said on Tuesday.

While the position is empty, the presidential decree on the appointment of vice ministers should be revised as the Article 10 of Law No. 39/2008 on State Ministry sets vice ministerial posts as jobs for career based officials violates Constitution of Indonesia.

The explanation of the article was unconstitutional because it caused law uncertainty, MK said. On the verdict, the Chairman of MK, Mahfud MD, granted half of the petition.

The Constitutional Judge, Ahmad Sodiki, said the position of vice minister did not violate constitution, but the mechanism of the appointment disregard Constitution of Indonesia.

If the position was set as jobs for career based officials, he continued, the position was not included in ministerial organization. “It violates Article 28D (1) of Constitution of Indonesia,” Sodiki said.

The expert on constitutional law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said based on MK’s verdict, the vice ministers were not allowed to be active. Yusril added that the vice ministers were exist until the new presidential decree.

“They cannot do any activity related to their position,” Yusril said.

Yet, government assessed MK’s decision strengthened the vice minister legal position. “MK admits firmly that President has the exclusive right to appoint vice minister whether the laws are available or not,” the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet of Politics, Law, and Security, Bistok Simbolon, said.

The Director of Litigation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Muliamin Abdi, said there would be no replacement of vice ministers as President would have only revised the term of office of the related vice ministers. “The vice minister positions can go ahead. There is no problem,” he said.

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