Institutionalizing Indonesia’s Indigenous Legal Purpose “Pengayoman” As the Presidential Institution’s Guiding Principle

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary relevance and constitutional positioning of the indigenous legal principle of pengayoman as a normative foundation for strengthening the Indonesian presidency in the post-Reformasi era. Focusing specifically on the President’s constitutional powers—namely the oath and mandate under Article 9, the clemency and amnesty mechanisms under Article 14, and the human rights guarantees under Articles 28A–28J—the study analyzes how pengayoman operates as a protective function embedded within these provisions. Using a juridical-conceptual approach complemented by a socio-legal perspective, the research reconstructs the genealogy of pengayoman from Soepomo’s integralistic state philosophy and Sahardjo’s 1960 Banyan Tree emblem and evaluates its normative relevance within Indonesia’s current separation-of-powers framework. The analysis demonstrates that although constitutional amendments have redistributed authority and strengthened checks and balances, the President’s protective mandate remains inherent and legally traceable within explicit constitutional norms. However, the absence of a statutory instrument systematically regulating the presidential institution has caused pengayoman to persist only symbolically rather than operationally. To address this gap, the article proposes two concrete mechanisms for incorporation into a forthcoming Presidential Institution Act: (1) codifying the President’s protective function through clear obligations to uphold human rights, ensure proportional use of clemency and amnesty powers, and issue periodic protection-oriented governance reports; and (2) embedding pengayoman as a guiding principle in the Act’s general provisions to bind presidential discretion to constitutional accountability. These recommendations aim to transform pengayoman from a cultural-historical value into a functional normative standard for democratic executive governance.