City Council pressured to reject Sutiyoso
City Council pressured to reject Sutiyoso
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
About 500 demonstrators from various organizations protested on
Thursday in opposition to Sutiyoso's candidacy for the 2002 to
2007 term, increasing pressure on the Jakarta City Council to
withdraw their support for the incumbent governor.
The majority of the demonstrators came from the Alliance of
Betawi Non-Governmental Organizations (AOB) and the rest from the
Alliance of Jakarta's Students' Executive Body (BEM Jakarta).
"We oppose Sutiyoso's candidacy as he often divides Betawi
people into groups which oppose one against another. He tried to
use us against each other for his own political interests," cried
one of the demonstrators.
Komaruddin, another demonstrator, told councillors from the
United Development Party (PPP) faction, that thousands of Betawi
people would occupy the council building if Sutiyoso was
reelected.
Betawi are demanding the next governor be an indigenous
Jakartan.
Meanwhile, 30 representatives from BEM Jakarta met with
leaders of several factions of the council on Thursday to present
formal statements.
The statement listed three main points: Opposing gubernatorial
candidates from the military and the New Order regime; rejecting
Sutiyoso's candidacy; criticizing horse trading practices by the
councillors during the election process.
Sutiyoso, who is paired with city secretary Fauzi Bowo,
appears to be the strongest of seven pairs of candidates which
are currently before the president. The president, through the
home affairs minister, will return the list of gubernatorial
pairings to the city council to be further processed.
Such public pressure on the council to reject Sutiyoso will
likely snowball ahead of the gubernatorial election on Sept. 11
as many other groups are planning mass protests.
On Wednesday, a total of 49 non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) threatened to organize street rallies and establish a
people's stage near the council building to oppose Sutiyoso's
bid.
The NGOs say Sutiyoso does not deserve to be reelected as he
has a poor human rights records during his five-year term,
including the evictions of poor people from slum areas and street
vendors from where they do businesses.
They also called for the termination of the election process
as the council has been accused of frequently violating election
procedures which were drafted and approved by themselves.
The Justice Party (PK) will also deploy thousands of
supporters. The party, who have four councillors on the council,
oppose Sutiyoso's candidacy and blame him as the cause of rampant
gambling in the city.
"I confirm that we will deploy our members to oppose
Sutiyoso's candidacy. But we have not decided yet when we will do
it," PK councillor Muhayar told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
A minor incident occurred in the council building on Thursday
when a member of the Betawi Islamic Organization Association
(GOIB), established by Sutiyoso's supporters, was beaten up by a
member of the AOB.
Andi Soleh was hit in the face by a man known as Minan. Minan
could not accept that members of the GOIB were allowed to walk
about freely in the Council building while only some AOB
representatives were allowed to enter the building.
"If the security officers here did not expel them from here,
we will sweep this building," said another anti-Sutiyoso
demonstrator.
The deteriorating situation was calmed when police officers
convinced the AOB that the GOIB members had been expelled from
the building.