Reinhold Bocklet, vice president of the Bavarian Parliament, has received the long-standing Indonesian constitutional judge, Dr. Harjono, and further high-ranking representatived from the Indonesian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights on July, 5th 2012.

The delegation from the most populous Muslim nation and Southeast Asia’s largest democracy visited Munich and Karlsruhe from July 1st – 7th 2012. By invitation of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, they have learned about the justice system and the federal structure of Bavaria and Germany. The Indonesian delegation group was accompanied by the former German constitutional judge Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bross.

“Unity in diversity and the principle of subsidiarity are the leading principles of the German state”, said vice president Bocklet. However, the German federalism faces a three-fold challenge: It has to integrate the European union, to balance the division of competencies between the federal and state government and to renegotiate the federal states’ financial equalization.

According to Harjono, the exchange of views and information with the experienced politician on a European and German level are very useful for the Indonesian Constitutional Court. He explained that after the fall of Soeharto in 1998, the decentralization of competencies has enabled and sustainably secured democratization in Indonesia. Harjono emphasized that the control mechanisms and the cooperation between executive and legislative in a federal state were particularly important for a federal state. Indonesia still lacks this democratic culture which becomes clear in the deficient cooperation between the ministries and the House of Representatives when it comes to elaborating legal drafts in accordance to the constitution.

Further dialogue partners in Munich were the president of the Bavarian Constitutional Court, Dr. Karl Huber, the Head of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Mr. Guenter Schuster and representatives of the bar association. In Karlsruhe, Dr. Harjono and the delegation have met Prof. Dr. Vosskuhle, who is the president of the German Constitutional Court, Attorney General Harald Range, the president of the Supreme Court, Prof. Dr. Klaus Tolksdorf and the president of the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe, Prof. Dr. Christine Huegel.

For a long time, the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Indonesia has been supporting the establishment of constitutional structures in Indonesia. The cooperation with the Indonesian Constitutional Court and further constitutional institutions aims to provide knowledge and to strengthen the position of these institutions in politics ans society.