223 印尼弹劾事件体现出法治的作用

223 印尼弹劾事件体现出法治的作用

Experts Debate Constitutionality of Indonesian Impeachment¹
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 legislative² 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 opposition³ politicians, upset with President Wahid's performance, tried to bring 10)corruption charges against him. The courts 11)dismissed the charges, but politicians decided⁴ 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 accounting⁵ 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 vice⁶ 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 impeaching⁷ 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 precedent⁸. "The parliament is essentially⁹ 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 assessment¹⁰ 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

 

1 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

2 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 impeaching   

v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的现在分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议

参考例句：

8 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？