City Council lacks vocal members, M. Ritonga says
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)