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Calls mount for Anwar’s resignation as a Constitutional Court justice
Constitutional Court Justice Anwar Usman called the allegations against him “character assassination” that had almost destroyed his 40-year career as a judge.
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Then Constitutional Court chief justice Anwar Usman reads out a reading on a presidential election dispute at the court building in Jakarta on June 27, 2019. (JP/Donny Fernando)
Following the decision by the Constitutional Court’s ethics council to strip Anwar Usman of his position as chief justice, civil society organizations have called for his resignation as a justice.
The law and human rights council of Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Muslim organization, said that Anwar, who is also President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s brother-in-law, should be handed down a dishonorable discharge for his gross ethics violation that had led to a court ruling that favored the President’s son.
A three-member ethics panel, led by former chief justice Jimly Ashiddiqie, found Anwar guilty of influencing the ruling on a judicial review into Article 167 of the 2017 Elections Law that regulates criteria for presidential and vice presidential candidates.
But instead of dishonorably discharging him, as regulated in the court’s internal regulations, the panel only stripped Anwar of his chief justice position.
“We demand Anwar Usman resign from his post as justice to maintain the trust, integrity and honor of the Constitutional Court, and to restore public faith in the institution,” said Trisno Raharjo, the head of Muhammadiyah’s law and human rights council, in a statement on Tuesday.
In a controversial ruling last month, the Constitutional Court, led by Anwar, ruled to allow candidates under the age of 40, but with experience as elected officials, to run in presidential elections, opening the way for the President’s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, to run in the 2024 presidential election.
Only days after the ruling, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto named the Surakarta, Central Java, mayor as his running mate and registered themselves with the General Elections Commission (KPU) on a ticket supported by a coalition of political parties that currently back the Jokowi administration.
