Constitutionalization of the Political Party: Impressions of Indonesia

This article aims to analyze the background that leads to the constitutionalization of political parties in Indonesia. As known, when Indonesia became an independent country in 1945, soon after the independence, political parties have appeared. However, the existence of these political parties has not been regulated in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The new situation came when there was a change in authoritarian government regime which was marked by the collapse of new order power to the democratic government regime in 1998. The Indonesian government made an amendment to the 1945 Constitution, one of which is that the new thing regulated in it was about political parties. This policy marks a shift in the assessment of political parties where previously it was more positioned as a private institution, now political parties are considered public institutions. There are at least two main objectives for the inclusion of regulations on political parties, that is to ensure that all activities of political parties do not conflict with the principles of Indonesia as a democratic state based on law, and in order to prevent negative state intervention on political parties which can violate the rights of citizens to associate, gather and express opinions.