Commemorating the long standing relations between Indonesia and Germany, The Habibie Center and the Hanns Seidel Foundation Indonesia - working partners for over a decade – conducted a joint seminar on the “Significance of Constitutional Issues for Civic Education – Comparative Perspectives and Shared Experiences of Germany and Indonesia” on the 10th of November 2011. This seminar was organized within the framework of JERIN, the German-Indonesian weeks, the 12th anniversary of the Habibie Center as well as the 7th lecturer visit of former Federal Constitutional Court Judge, Prof. Siegfried Bross, to Indonesia. The German-Indonesian weeks aim to show best practices of the German-Indonesian cooperation. Regarding that, the Hanns Seidel Foundation Indonesia is proud to present its support for development of the Indonesian Constitutional Court, which had been initiated by Christian Hegemer, current Head of the Institute for International Cooperation at HSF. Among the speakers and panel participants were Dr. Harjono, Indonesian Constitutional Court Judge, Prof. Maruarar Siahaan, former Indonesian Constitutional Court Judge, Prof. Dr. Sofian Effendi, former Head of the Gadja Mada University (UGM) and Prof. Bross.

The seminar took off with welcoming remarks by the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia, Dr. Norbert Baas, who emphasized the roles of the constitutional court as independent body and human rights protector. Afterwards Prof. Bross in his speech explicitly described the attributes of a sound civic educated society and stressed out the significance of civic education in schools and families. He also mentioned the high responsibility of political parties and the media concerning the influence on forming the public opinion, especially of the younger generation. Indonesian Constitutional Court Judge, Dr. Harjono, then spoke about the challenges and problems of the Indonesian democracy since the fall of the Suharto era. Dr. Harjono however underlined the benefits of a solid democratic system which has to be continuously monitored by political institutions and the society.

In the following discussion which granted the participants to ask the panelists questions, Prof. Dr. Sofian Effendi spoke about the significance of governmental politics towards the society’s welfare which in his opinion was badly accounted for and thus would harm the solidarity of the Indonesian nation. If the welfare of the society was not realized and the public services were not improved, the trust of the society in the government would decline. Dr. Harjono added that the young Indonesian democracy is still in a phase of development in which several challenges have to be faced. He stressed out that reforms and changes have to be implemented first before bad judgments can be made. Prof. Bross concluded the seminar by saying that in order to avoid growing radicalism it is important to equally integrate all members of a nation into its society. Of great importance in this context are the basic cornerstones of democracy like free elections, political participation, basic rights and the possibility of constitutional complaints regarding human rights issues.

The lecture visit of Prof. Bross went on with further lectures at Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) in Yogyakarta, Universitas Hasanuddin (UNHAS) in Makassar and with the Jimmly School for Law in Jakarta.