Parahyangan Legal Competition, or PLC is a series of competitions initiated by the Faculty of Law, Parahyangan Catholic University. The series of competitions held are scientific writing competitions and legal debate competitions at the national level for higher education to accommodate young academics in voicing their opinions and expressing their thoughts on problems that occur in society. The Faculty of Law, 51¶¯Âþ itself routinely sends delegates through the Airlangga Young Yuris Youth Community Semi-Autonomous Body (MYMA FH UNAIR). This year, the delegation consisting of Elsa Ardhilia Putri (2019), Ika Putri Rahayu (2019), Apriska Widiangela (2019), and Angeline Irene Santoso (2020-official) managed to bring home the 2nd place achievement of the Scientific Writing Competition at the event.
On one occasion, they explained that their scientific paper had the title “Reconstruction of Laws Regarding Payment of Gender Equity Maternity Leave Wages: Application of Social Security Systems”. The title was motivated by the existence of the Maternal and Child Welfare Bill (RUU KIA) which extended maternity leave to six months. This policy formulation should be appreciated because it further protects the maternity rights of women workers in the context of realizing gender justice in the work environment. However, this has led to a polemic related to increasing the company’s financial burden to pay maternity leave allowances/wages. They assume that the policy of extending maternity leave does not guarantee the fulfillment of women’s rights in realizing gender justice. This is because the extension of maternity leave without being accompanied by reformulation of the system for payment of benefits/wages for rest will only burden employers.
They then also said that the preparations to participate in the competition took at least two months. According to Angel, as Apriska Widiangela is familiarly called, the essential preparation in participating in the scientific writing competition is mental preparation. “Because we are in the final semester, and we are also working on a thesis. When deciding to participate in a scientific writing competition, there are also considerations for our readiness to work on the competition and the thesis,” he said. They also explained that writing scientific papers needed support from various lecturers, starting from Dr. Lanny Ramli, S.H., M. Hum., Dwi Rahayu Kristianti, S.H., M.A., and Bagus Oktafian Abrianto, S.H., M.H., who assisted in discussing the building of the argument.
The delegates also had to go through various challenges, in fact, they never expected that they would proceed to the final round and had forgotten the announcement date. This is the first time they have participated in a scientific writing competition, whose final round was held offline. “To be honest, yesterday, when we wanted to present the final presentation of the scientific writing competition, we just prepared the ppt (PowerPoint) a few hours earlier. You could even say that the prepared ppt was very simple. Maybe because we are not disciplined with time management, and it should be a lesson for all of us,” said Iput, Ika Putri Rahayu’s nickname.
In closing, Elsa, the head of the delegation, advised not to be afraid to try. “Never be afraid to try, and never worry about being late. We try to participate in a scientific writing competition in the seventh semester with the intention of learning more about the topic. I think it’s a valuable and luxurious process,” he said at the end of the opportunity.
