Special Autonomy in IKN: An Analytical Review of Laws and Regulations

Through the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly on August 18, 2000, there was an agreement to make the second amendment to the 1945 Constitution, namely on the content of Articles 18, 18A, and 18B concerning the status of special and privileged regions. At least, after the amendment to these articles, there are several regions that are special and privileged, such as: Aceh, Yogyakarta, Papua, and Jakarta—then, a nomenclature new in IKN, namely Nusantara and further explained through Article 1 number 2 of Law Number 3 of 2022: “The State Capital is named Nusantara and hereinafter referred to as the Nusantara State Capital is a special regional government unit equivalent to a province whose territory becomes the seat of the State Capital as stipulated and regulated by this Law”.

A 'specialty' and different from the usual granting of 'special' and 'privileged' status to the regions mentioned previously is re-emphasized in Article 5 Paragraph (3) which states that: “Except for other regional government units, only national-level general elections are held in the Nusantara State Capital.” Indeed, its formation is intended in the course of a mandate for the continuity of the new capital for the Republic of Indonesia. But it should be noted that its implementation should not contradict the principles that have been built and implemented in Indonesia.

Clearly, as mentioned in the 'considering' point, one of the foundations for the formation of this Law is Article 18 paragraph (1) and Article 18 (2) of the 1945 Constitution as the constitutional basis for the formation of this Law. It is necessary to review whether the formation of this Law is in line with the meaning of the basic law that is the foundation in the context of the implementation of special autonomy in Indonesia.

That, the existence of the 1945 Constitution in the 'considering' point does not fully answer the constitutionality of IKN—in principle. Regarding the constitutional basis used in the Law, it has provided a separate shift towards the placement of the 'Nusantara Capital City Authority' as an institution equivalent to a ministry (Article 4 Paragraph (1) point b), which has never existed in the constitutional practice of this republic. Thus, the placement of this 'equivalent' thing is a new practice that has violated the constitution as the highest legal norm.

In principle, regional governments, as the basis in the 'considering' section through Article 18 Paragraph (1) and Paragraph (2), even if recognized as regions with the granting of 'special' or 'privileged' status, have never had a form or practice that makes them equivalent to a ministry. This means that the new legal event in state administration practice in this Law has far violated a number of provisions that were not carried out in previous state administration practices and are never mentioned in the constitution.