City Council vote to be private

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

In compliance with an existing standing order, the City Council will sit in closed-door session on Friday morning to elect its new speaker for the 2004-2009 term, despite suggestions by some members that a more transparent process be adopted.

"Personally, I would prefer a public session to ensure fairness. But, since the standing orders are there, we have no choice but to comply with them," said Ahmad Heryawan of the council's largest faction, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

He was referring to Article 57 of Law No. 22/2003 on the organizational structure of local legislative councils, which stipulates that the election of a council speaker should be carried out in accordance with the council's standing orders.

Article 101 of the standing orders states that any session held to elect an officeholder must be held in camera. By comparison, a session held to vote on an institutional matter may be held in public, he added.

Heryawan and Ade Surapriatna of the Golkar Party faction are being touted as the front runners to secure the speakership.

The race for the speakership race is set to be tight as, on paper at least, nine of the 11 factions on the council have divided up into two alliances to support one or the other of the two front runners.

On paper, Heryawan has the votes of at least 38 of the total 71 members of the council, with support coming from an alliance of the PKS, Democratic Party and National Mandate Party (PAN) factions. Meanwhile, Ade has 33 votes from the Nationhood Coalition, which comprises the Golkar Party, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Prosperous Peace Party, Reform Star Party (PBR) and National Awakening Party (PKB) factions.

Ade, who has been in a councillor for the last 20 years, and is also the richest councillor according to the Public Servants Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN), expressed optimism that he could beat Heryawan.

"We have a solid coalition ... not to mention that some votes from PAN will come to me," he asserted.

Meanwhile, the PDI-P and the Democratic Party factions have separately nominated their own candidates: Maringan Pangaribuan and Ilal Ferhard respectively. Previously, the Democratic Party had nominated Abdul Muthalib Shihab.

"But, we decided to replace him with Ilal, partly due to his communications skills. Jakarta, as the country's capital, needs a person who is familiar with international relations," said Johny Wenas Polii of the Democratic Party faction.

Ilal graduated from a university in the United States of America.

Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso said his administration would welcome the results of the election, whoever won.

"We hope that they can improve their performance, including arriving on time for hearings."

He has repeatedly complained about the council's poor productivity.

The previous council had left itself with more than 10 bylaws to pass in the month before its term ended in August.

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I-Box

Declared assets of speakership candidates

Ahmad Heryawan

Fixed assets: Land and buildings -- Rp 60 million Transferable assets: Vehicles, home appliances, etc.-- Rp 94.5 million Accounts receivable: Rp 14 million + US$ 1,900 Total assets: Rp 387 million and $1,900

Ade Surapriatna

Fixed assets: Land and buildings -- Rp 3.52 billion Transferable assets: Vehicles, home appliances, etc. -- Rp 2.27 billion Total assets: Rp 5.793 billion

Source: The Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN)