The Preamble of 1945 Constitutions as Post-Colonial Normative Expression and Its Contextuality (A Politics of Law Analysis)

Abstract

The proclamation of Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945, marked Indonesia's transition from being a nation as an imaginary community to being a state as a legal-rational community. For the first time, the Indonesian have the authority to form the rule of law independently, apart from the intervention of the colonial nation. The fierce spirit of anti-colonialism was immediately reflected in various legislative products, including the 1945 Constitution. The opening part of the 1945 Constitution, which is often regarded as the highest source of value in the Indonesian legal system, reflects a thick post-colonial spirit. During the colonial period, the legal system was built on hegemony, by placing indigenous people as The Other in their own homeland. They are labelled as third-class identities, under other national groups. This mentality is then tried to be reversed after independence. The values of independence, perpetual peace, and social justice are presented clearly into the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution. The Preamble of the 1945 Constitution inherited the anti-colonial spirit and immediately became a manifesto of resistance to colonial domination. However, the process of value petrifaction of the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution should not be considered as complete when that text was announced. The real challenge actually happened today, decades after Indonesia's independence. The injustice and hegemony relation that still occurs throughout the world ideally awakens the Indonesian to continue to contextualize anti-colonial values in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution.