Bill on Yogyakarta deliberated

YOGYAKARTA: The Yogyakarta provincial legislature has set up a 17-member special committee to deliberate the bill of the province's special status.

Herman Abdurrahman, appointed to chair the special committee, said here on Tuesday his committee was open to any input from the public in the next two months, while bill was being deliberated.

"We are given two months to complete the job but basically it's not the deadline," Abdurrahman told The Jakarta Post, adding that additional time would be necessary if it the committee's work was not completed.

It has been a public polemic that Yogyakarta which is a Javanese sultanate, a student city with the prestigious Gadjah Mada University and a tourist destination, should be regulated.

The bill stipulates that the gubernatorial position should be given to the sultan as many have proposed that the sultan should be a symbolic leader while the provincial administration should by run by governors elected by the provincial legislative council democratically.

The bill will be handed over to the central government to be submitted to the House of Representatives to be read before it will be endorsed. --JP