City Council lacks vocal members, M. Ritonga says

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council speaker M. Ritonga lamented yesterday the council lacked outspoken members courageous enough to respond to people's problems and express the response accurately.

Ritonga said in his end-of-year evaluation most councilors understood outspokenness, but were reluctant to be so for fear of being recalled.

Ritonga's five-year term of office ends in the middle of next year.

He said the term outspoken should be clearly defined because councilors and government officials might have their own understanding of it.

Ritonga said people usually believed outspoken councilors were good councilors.

Some wanted councilors to be responsive and outspoken, but other groups said being outspoken was unacceptable, he said.

Political observers believe that city councilors and House of Representatives members being outspoken, is still taboo in the current political climate.

The recall of some House members in the past could be cited as examples.

Ritonga said there must be agreement on the meaning of outspoken to prevent further confusion.

"In my opinion, outspoken is being able to communicate, identify and define the problem, with objective and accurate data".

He said accurate data was very important for councilors when responding to residents' complaints. "The data will prevent councilors from giving groundless statements, which will not only ruin their credibility but also humiliate the council as an institution," Ritonga said.

Councilors should also be objective in handling any problems, he said.

He also expressed regret and surprise that many people were still not well informed about the council's stance on the provincial regulation of liquor.

"Many people still believe the decree is just a tool to legalize the distribution of alcohol. The people think the City Council backs the spread and distribution of liquor by approving the draft bill," he said.

Several provinces have submitted to the government draft bills of decrees on the distribution of alcohol but the Ministry of Home Affairs decided to re-evaluate the decrees after waves of protests accusing the government of approving the sale of liquor which is prohibited in Islam.

Ritonga said he still got many protest letters.

"The public's misperception of the new decree should be corrected because the decree itself is intended to improve the previous decree on liquor and it will control the distribution of liquor better," Ritonga said.

This year the council received 82 delegations who protested, reported or asked about land and building disputes, workers' dismissal and other cases this year.

Of the 82 cases, 64 were solved, 11 passed on to him, five were being handled by the executives and two were being processed by the relevant council commission. (ste)