Chiefs support mayoral candidate

BOGOR: Sixty-eight subdistrict chiefs of Bogor municipality threw their weight behind Diani Budiarto, Bogor Mayor's assistant for development affairs, who is running for mayor for the 2004- 2009 term, ignoring a call from incumbent Mayor Iswara Natanegara that as civil servants, they must not support any candidates.

"We are not challenging Pak Iswara's call for civil servants to not support candidates. We are supporting Pak Diani because our other candidate, City Secretary Deddy S. Hamdan, lost in a Golkar convention to candidates Helmi Sutikno, director of city tap water company PDAM Tirta Pakuan, and TB Tatang Muchtar, deputy speaker of City Council," Eko, Situ Gede subdistrict chief in West Bogor, said on Friday.

Bogor councillor Iwan Suryawan of the Justice Party (PK) regretted the subdistrict chiefs' action.

"I'm afraid that the subdistrict chiefs' performance will decline if their candidate loses in the election. Civil servants should remain independent," he said. -- JP