Tuesday, April 15, 2008
President: Legal Bodies, Law Enforcers must also Make Public Law-Conscious
Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked legal institutions and law enforcers in the country to give due priority to their task of making the public law-conscious in order to prevent violations of the law.

"In my view, if a citizen violates the law because he or she does not know his or her action is unlawful, then we too are responsible," Yudhoyono said in his address at the opening of a national legal convention on the 1945 Constitution as the constitutional grand design of the legal and political system at the State Palace here on Tuesday.

The head of state said he had asked the Attorney General’s Office, National Police chief, and other related institutions such as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to give priority to preventive measures through legal education in a wide sense.

"Lest we entrap people into violating the law," the president said, adding that all parties in the country should wholeheartedly abide by the 1945 Constitution and other existing laws and regulations.

Commenting on efforts to improve the national legal system, the president said the 1945 Constitution had been amended four times during the first five years of the reform era.

"The amendments were made in the first five years after the start of the reform era following the changes in the national leadership," Yudhoyono said.

Meanwhile, Law and Human Rights Minister Andi Mattalata said on the occasion some of the main topics to be discussed at the convention were related to the development of a national legal and political system that reflected the implementation of the mandate of the 1945 Constitution.

"The national legal convention is being held in observance of the 50th anniversary of the National Legal Development Board (BPHN) as a unit in the Law and Human Rights Affairs Ministry," Mattalata said.

He said the 1945 Constitution was the convention’s theme because it was the most fundamental basis of law and therefore the values and philosophy it embodied should be preserved.

"We should create a national legal system which is not discriminative, make regulations that do not overlap and also create a transparent legal institution," the minister said.

He added that a sustainable and mutually-supporting national legal system would ensure that all state institutions moved in the same direction.