Thu, 02 Aug 2001

Activist says councillors plan overseas trips

JAKARTA (JP): City councillors are again planning to travel overseas -- this time to Japan and Argentina -- to engage in comparative studies in disaster and garbage management, following their controversial trip to Los Angeles last month, an activist said on Wednesday.

Muhammad Taufik from the Jakarta Study Center (PPJ) told reporters that councillors of Commission A for administrative and legal affairs will conduct a comparative study on disaster management in Tokyo, while those of Commission D for development affairs will go to Buenos Aires for a comparative study on the management of garbage.

A source in the City Council confirmed Taufik's statement, saying that some councillors from Commission A would depart on Aug. 10 and their colleagues from Commission D on Aug. 19.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz Matnur, a member of Commission A, when contacted over the phone by The Jakarta Post at first said that he did not know about the trip to Tokyo.

He later admitted that Commission A planned to visit Tokyo to study the country's approach to disaster management.

He said that it was important to set up a disaster management plan for the city as suggested by the Agency for the Study and Application of Technology (BPPT).

BPPT together with the City Council, conducted a research into disasters in the city.

The expert, according to Abdul, recommended that the councillors visit Tokyo as a model of a city which has succeeded in its management of disaster.

Abdul stressed that it was mandatory for the city to develop a disaster management strategy, with the understanding that the term "disaster" covered social conflicts such as riots and student' brawls, which are a common occurrence in Jakarta.

Councillors from Commission D were not available for comment regarding the planned trip to Argentina.

Earlier reports said that Jakarta produced 25,000 cubic meters of garbage, but 2,000 cubic meters could not be transported to the city's garbage dump in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, due to the shortage of garbage trucks.

The City Council reportedly has allocated Rp 6 billion (US$ 600 million) to finance foreign trips by the councillors this year.

Several foreign trips have been made by the city councillors despite criticism from the public that the trips were a waste of tax payers' money.

Last month, as many as 15 members of Commission C for budgetary financial affairs went to Los Angeles for a comparative study on taxes.

Previously, the councillors from Commission E for social welfare had earlier visited Mexico City in Mexico for a comparative study on education and social welfare.

Reports also said that some councillors from Commission B planned to conduct a comparative study in Paris. (04)