To Face Geopolitical Dynamics, The Government Must Be Able to Unite National Power
Countries in the world are now facing an economic crisis, including Indonesia. The trade war between the United States (US) and China is predicted to be the root cause of the economic crisis in the world.
In facing this condition, policymakers in a country must be able to consolidate with national power to deal with the complexity of geopolitical dynamics.
This was conveyed by the former Governor of the Republic of Indonesia National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), Budi Susilo Soepandji during a scientific discussion topic, “State Stability in Current Economic Challenges” at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia (FHUI), Depok (10/18/2018) yesterday.
In addition to Budi Susilo Soepandji, this discussion also presented Constitutional Law experts and the former Chairperson of the Republic of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court, Jimly Asshiddiqie, and lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Indonesia Fithra Faisal Hastiadi.
This discussion was held in the framework of the 94th Anniversary of FHUI, which was a legacy from the Higher School of Law or Rechtshoogeschool, the first law college in Indonesia.
“Campus community, namely lecturers and students must remind policymakers that changeable decisions will lead to an uncertain atmosphere. And this has the potential to cause a crisis,” said Budi Susilo.
Budi added, currently the international world is still praising Indonesia’s economic conditions. However, Indonesia still cannot be complacent because there are important lessons from history in the archipelago.
“In the past, the Dutch East Indies was the number 10 economic power in the world. However, the Dutch East Indies, which had a colonizing political system, was ignorant of the threat of Japanese conflict with the power of the United States, Britain and its allies, it provided the momentum of the struggle for the nationalists, “he added.
Meanwhile, Jimly Asshiddiqie reminded the importance of understanding constitutional law in an emergency, so there was no confusion in various circles.
Jimly gave an example, when the earthquake occurred in Palu, there was controversy about whether or not the natural disaster to be declared as a national disaster.
According to Jimly, this does not need to happen because Indonesia already has its own law that regulates emergencies. In this case, based on the law, natural disasters are categorized as civil emergencies.
“However, the one who has the right to determine an emergency or not is the president. The president may declare an emergency, as the head of state. “, Said Jimly.
Furthermore, Jimly said, normal law cannot be applied in an emergency. Likewise vice versa, emergency law cannot be applied under normal circumstances.
“That is not fair,” said Jimly who also wrote the Emergency Constitutional Law book.
On the other hand, Fithra Faisal Hastiadi emphasized that Indonesia should be wary of trade wars between the United States and China.
“As conveyed by President Joko Widodo regarding the Game of Thrones film, all will be affected,” continued Fithra.
In the context of the threat of an economic crisis, Fithra reminded that rupiah depreciation was actually only a symptom. While the root of the problem lies in an unbalanced trade balance with imports that are higher than exports.
