Bill on Yogyakarta deliberated

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