Constitutionalism in a post-colonialism state: Socio-cultural and historical perspective of Indonesian constitution identity

Abstract

Since the establishment of Indonesian State, the idea of constitutionalism has increasingly existed and demanded a change values as a move towards good state administration. However, building a tradition of constitutionalism as a sustainable effort cannot be executed simply by relying on the text/editorial of a constitution alone. In other words, the success of developing a constitutionalism culture within government administration is also significantly determined by the willingness of every element of the society and the state organizers in the effort to understand the content written in the text of a constitution. The effort to understand the contextually of ideas in the constitution is to seek an identity underlying the creation of a constitution. This is clearly correlated with Indonesian historical aspect as a colonized country. Historically, the substance of colonial state administration system would affect the identity of Indonesian constitution as a post-colonial state, which then created an identity of Indonesian constitution along with the legal implications that accompanied it.