Thursday, January 13, 2011

Impeachment : a Myth or a Fact ?

                                      Chief Justice: Mahfud (Right) - Deputy A. Sodiki (Left)

On 12 January, the Constitutional Court has passed a decision that makes it much easier for the House of Representatives to make inquiries to the government, which may lead to the impeachment of the President and/or Vice President.

The Court annulled Article 184(4) of the Legislative Bodies Law No 27/2009 which stipulated that inquiries can be made if a meeting is attended by by 3/4 of the members and agreed by 3/4 of the attendance, and decided that 2/3 would be sufficient.

The Court's decision was made in response to the Judicial Review requested by some members of the House of Representatives and citizens on the grounds that the above Article was contradictory to the Constitution of 1945 which ruled that the meeting's quorum should be 2/3.

I hope that members of the House would use their rights wisely and only based on the laws, regulations and very best interests of the people of Indonesia, and not merely based on their selfish political goals.

I also hope that the President and Vice President would work properly much harder, smarter, based on the laws, regulations, and the best interests of the people so that they would not be impeached.

For details, please read the following articles :

- Court Cuts House Threshold Level for Impeachment (The Jakarta Globe)
- MK Nyatakan Jumlah 3/4 Kuorum .... Inkonstutusionil (Mahkamah Konstitusi)


Photo: Courtesy of Mahkamah Konstitusi

24 comments:

Ferdinand said...

Sebenernya biarpun udah beberapa kali denger berita ini aku masih belum mudeng yg dimaksud Impeachment ini hhe..

Emank intinya apa toh Sob???

Unknown said...

I strongly agree with these changes
because without revision. can ravaged this country

Anonymous said...

Negeri ini
aneka cerita ya Pak :)

Ria Tumimomor said...

and again, we can only hope for the best from our goverment... Pfff... *MISSION IMPOSSIBLE*

Jolly Princess said...

Well, I am for good governance. Hopefully no public officials should undergo this proceedings.

colson said...

A head of state's impeachment is an 'ultimum remedium" - extremely serious. These kind of procedures may paralyse a country's government for a long time. For instance cases like the Monica Lewinsky affair (Bill Clinton)don't justify impeachment. The members of Parliament should indeed be extremely cautious.

On the other hand: two thirds in stead of three quarter of the votes is an improvement as long as the MoP act responsible.

Unknown said...

@Ferdinand,
Impeachment sering diterjemahkan sebagai Pemakzulan yaitu tindakan untuk menjatuhkan presiden/wakilnya dari kekuasaan karena dianggap telah melakukan pelanggaran berat.
Presiden kita yang pernah dijatuhkan dengan cara ini adalah Gusdur yang dianggap menyalah gunakan kekuasaan.

@Wisata Murah,
Impeachment should only be used as last resort after other legal efforts have been made but failed.
Because in order to develop our country, we need a very strong, stable, honest, very smart leader.

@Cucuharis,
Walaupun keadaannya demikian tetapi sebagai warganegara kita wajib membantu memperbaiki keadaan
misalnya dengan menulis pemikiran kita dalam blog.

@Ria/The Dream Catcher,
Although it may seem like a "Mission Impossible" but as citizen we must be positive and try to help efforts for improvement.

@JP,
Thank you for your sympathy. Our country is like your country when it after Marcos was overthrown.

@Colson,
I agree that impeachment should
be an 'ultimum remidium' or final resort when every other legal efforts failed.
Because basically we need strong, honest, stable, and very smart president.

Unknown said...

Reviews are very interesting. The life of democracy in Indonesia was more qualified and better. President and Vice President vowed to work with straight. He does not have to worry about having impeachment.

Unknown said...

Hi Herdoni,
Let us hope that the president and vice president would always work properly according to constitution, laws, regulations, for the very best interests of all the people of Indonesia.
That way, there is no need for impeachment.

julicavero said...

i dont think it's gonna be a real one..not at all. The politic power has a real power to change all desicion.

sawali tuhusetya said...

keputusan MK saya kira kok ndak ada hubungannya dengan pemakzulan, mas harry. anas urbaningrum pun bilang bahwa keputusan MK itu bukan ancaman bagi rezim yang kini tengah berkuasa, meski bisa juga dimaknai sebagai warning buat penguasa agar benar2 amanah dalam menjalankan roda kekuasannya agar ndak gampang dimakzulkan.

Unknown said...

@Julicavero,
The fact that the president has been twice elected by more than 60 % of people's vote, and his Democrat Party has the largest number of seats
in house of representative would make it very difficult for other parties to initiate impeachment.

@Sawali,
Anda benar putusan MK tsb adalah tentang kuorum bagi pengajuan hak bertanya oleh DPR.
Kita punya pengalaman waktu DPR mengajukan hak bertanya tentang keterlibatan Presiden Gusdur dalam kasus penyalah gunaan Bulog dulu.
Berdasarkan hasilnya, DPR putuskan pemberhentian Gusdur dari jabatan dan menganti dengan Megawati.

T. Khairil Ahsyar said...

berkunjung dimalam hari...

Unknown said...

Khairil Ahsyar,
Terima kasi atas kunjungan dan komentar anda.

Nice Veloso said...

Happy New Year all year long. Everything to go right for the people of Indonesia.

r10 said...

Impeachment sulit dilakukan, tapi Gus Dur telah mengalaminya

Semoga selanjutnya yg kena Impeachment adalah "presiden" PSSI :p

Yari NK said...

I'm not sure whether impeachment will introduce improvement to the corrupt systems or not. Usually we only think of how to impeach the president but we often fail to see the impacts after the impeachment. Do the downsides outweigh the upsides or vice versa? Considerations must be made extra carefully to the possible fullest details before things go worse out of hand that is irreversible...

Anonymous said...

Ya sih Pak. Kita harus tetap punya harapan dan turut membangun negeri ini.

Oh ya, jika berkenan silakan mampir lagi. Ada yg anget banget di blogku :)

Unknown said...

@Nice Veloso,
Happy New Year to you too. I hope that everythin is okay in Brazil.

@R10,
Impeachment terhadap Nurdin Halid?
Ha ha ha ha

@Yari,
I agree that everyone should consider every aspects very carefully before thinking whether or not to impeach a president.
Like you said our experiences show that we were only able to impeach but failed to find a good replacement.

Great to see you again Yari.

Unknown said...

Cucuharis,
Mudah2an para politisi akan berpikir dan bertindak demi kepentingan terbaik bangsa dan negara Indonesia.
Saya pasti mampir ketempat anda tapi nanti malam. Maklum, weekend.

boyin said...

impeachment wouldn't solve the problem, we need strong and clean candidate that could encourage people to do revolution. But at this time we must to wait as no strong candidate visible on the surface so far.

Unknown said...

Hi Boying,
You are right, at this time impeachment would not solve our problems. We do not have a better replacement.

Unknown said...

AS we don't have a president in NZ, this sort of thing wouldn't come up. But we are considering the republican issue here, quietly and slowly. It could come up one day!

Unknown said...

Hi Peter/Kiwi,
I am glad to hear that there has been talks about becoming a republic in New Zealand