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223 印尼弹劾事件体现出法治的作用
Experts Debate Constitutionality of Indonesian Impeachment
Stephanie Mann
Washington
24 Jul 2001 19:56 UTC
Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly, which elected Abdurrahman Wahid president 21 months ago, voted him out of office on Monday. Observers say the assembly's decisive action shows it is 1)carving out a more powerful role for itself.
Indonesia's 2)legislature was considered a 3)rubber stamp body for more than three decades, while former president Suharto ruled. Jeffrey Winters, a 4)specialist on Indonesian politics at Northwestern University in Chicago, says the former leader got whatever he wanted from the legislature. "Indonesia had 32 years under Suharto in which the 5)executive branch went completely unchallenged," Mr. Winters said. "The 6)parliament never 7)initiated a single piece of legislation, and it never blocked a single piece of legislation from Suharto."
Mr. Suharto was forced out in 1998 and the country held its first democratic elections in four decades the following year. George Washington University professor Alasdair Bowie says, since then, several political parties have been jockeying for power in the parliament. "Parliamentarians have shown themselves to be even more active and aggressive in their relationship with the executive branch as the months have gone by, so there really has been a fairly dramatic change in the role of the legislative part of the government in 8)comparison with the period under Suharto," Professor Bowie said.
Indonesia's political system includes two 9)deliberative bodies - the People's Consultative Assembly, also called the MPR, and the parliament. The parliament is responsible for day to day lawmaking and makes up part of the larger MPR, which decides broader constitutional issues and elects the president. There is disagreement, however, on what process should be used for the removal of a president.
The latest crisis began when opposition politicians, upset with President Wahid's performance, tried to bring 10)corruption charges against him. The courts 11)dismissed the charges, but politicians decided to go forward with their own impeachment hearings in the assembly, the MPR. The process was set to begin August 1 and was expected to take several weeks, with Mr. Wahid providing an accounting of his 12)presidency and assembly members debating and voting on it.
When President Wahid refused to provide that accounting, the parliament called a special session of the MPR and ignored his executive 13)decree declaring the session 14)illegal and ordering it closed. The assembly voted overwhelmingly to dismiss Mr. Wahid and replace him with the vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Professor Winters was in Jakarta at the presidential palace when Mr. Wahid issued his decree and at the assembly hall during the vote. He says the MPR, as the highest body under the constitution, has a 15)mandate from the people through elections to choose the president and to remove him. "The decision made by former President Wahid, the decree, really handed this MPR the 16)ammunition they needed to finish the job and finish it quickly, because they had been groping about for exactly what was the constitutional basis of their special session. And it really wasn't clear. But when he declared the MPR frozen, which was a clear 17)breaching of the boundaries of his constitutional power, he violated the constitution and that opened the door for their actions," Mr. Winters said.
But Donald Emmerson, an Indonesia specialist and professor at Stanford University, says the procedures for removing a president 18)stipulate a 19)timetable that was not followed. "There are no provisions in the constitution for impeaching the president" Mr. Emmerson explained. "And to that extent, I suppose you could say that this represents a kind of 20)usurpation of power on the part of the parliament and the larger body in which the parliament sits, the assembly. On the other hand, in 1978, the assembly adopted rules whereby in effect, the president could be removed by a vote of the assembly. And so, you could argue that the most powerful body in Indonesia has laid down the procedures that it has been following this year, although under the exact timetable that those 21)procedures required, one would have wanted to wait until the first of August for this decision."
Professor Emmerson notes those procedures say the president should be given one month to present his case to the assembly before it votes on his 22)impeachment.
Both Mr. Emmerson and Alasdair Bowie say the MPR appears to be making up the rules as it goes along. Professor Bowie says the assembly's dismissal of President Wahid, without holding hearings, sets a troubling precedent. "The parliament is essentially saying, 'Well, in our opinion, you haven't done a good job, and so you're no longer president.' And that's troubling because in the future, presidents may be held accountable on the basis of public opinion ratings or on the basis of the state of the stock market, or what have you," Professor Wahis says. "And it's not at all clear to me that the constitution gives parliament the right to make that assessment on its own."
Professors Bowie, Winters and Emmerson all agree that Indonesia's system of government has flaws and needs reform. Mr. Bowie says the parliament and the assembly are not 23)representative of the general Indonesian population, but instead represent an 24)elite 25)segment of society watching out for its own interests. Mr. Winters also says the country's constitution itself is poor, but under the existing system, he says this 26)transition went according to the rules.
Professor Emmerson says many questions of constitutional 27)interpretation are expected to be addressed next year, when the assembly is scheduled to meet and make 28)amendments to the 29)constitution.
(1) carve out 雕刻,开拓,创业
(2) legislature[5ledVIsleItFE(r)]n.立法机关, 立法机构
(3) rubber stamp n.橡皮图章, 无主见的人, 照常规的批准, 刻板文章
(4) specialist[5speFElIst]n.专门医师, 专家
(5) executive[I^5zekjJtIv]adj.实行的, 执行的, 行政的n.执行者, 经理主管人员
(6) parliament[5pB:lEmEnt]n.国会, 议会
(7) initiate[I5nIFIEt]vt.开始, 发动, 传授v.开始, 发起
(8) comparison[kEm5pArIs(E)n]n.比较, 对照, 比喻, 比较关系
(9) deliberative[dI5lIbErEtIv]adj.协商的
(10) corruption[kE5rQpF(E)n]n.腐败, 贪污, 堕落
(11) dismiss[dIs5mIs]vt.解散, 下课, 开除, 解职 vi.解散
(12) presidency[5prezIdEnsI]n.任期
(13) decree[dI5kri:]n.法令, 政令, 教令v.颁布
(14) illegal[I5li:^(E)l]adj.违法的, 不合规定的
(15) mandate[5mAndeIt]n.(书面)命令, 训令, 要求vt.委任统治
(16) ammunition[AmjJ5nIF(E)n]n.军火, 弹药
(17) breach[bri:tF]n.违背, 破坏, 破裂vt.打破, 突破
(18) stipulate[5stIpjJleIt]v.规定, 保证
(19) timetable[5taImteIb(E)l]n.时间表
(20) usurpation[9jU:z:`peIFLn,-s:-]n.篡夺
(21) procedure[prE5si:dVE(r)]n.程序, 手续
(22) impeachment n.弹劾, 指摘
(23) representative[reprI5zentEtIv]n.代表adj.典型的, 有代表性的
(24) elite[eI5li:t]n.精锐, 中坚分子
(25) segment[5se^mEnt]n.段, 节, 片断v.分割
(26) transition[trAn5sIF(E)n, trB:-]n.转变, 转换, 跃迁, 过渡, 变调
(27) interpretation[Int:prI5teIF(E)n]n.解释, 阐明, 口译, 通译
(28) amendment[E5mendmEnt]n.改善, 改正
(29) constitution[kRnstI5tju:F(E)n; (?@) kRnstE5tu:FEn]n.宪法, 构造, 体质, 国体
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