City Council withholds approval of bylaw draft

City Council withholds approval of bylaw draft

JAKARTA (JP): After a heated debate, the City Council
postponed the enactment of a city bylaw on the establishment of
subdistrict councils following a vote during a plenary meeting on
Friday evening.

Of the 65 councillors attending the plenary session, 39 of
them supported delaying the enactment of the bylaw, while the
other 26 took the opposite stand in the vote which ended at 8:20
p.m.

The other 20 city councillors were absent from the meeting for
various reasons, including a number of members who are on the haj
pilgrimage.

According to councilors who supported a delay in the enactment
of the bylaw, legalizing the draft would violate existing Law No.
34/1999 on the administration of Jakarta as the capital of
Indonesia. The law gives community unit (RW) heads the power to
determine members of local subdistrict councils without having to
involve the heads of neighborhood units (RT).

The councilors said the draft bylaw proposed RW heads discuss
the candidates for the subdistrict councils with the RT chiefs.

The plenary meeting ended without setting a new date to
further discuss the draft.

The draft was proposed by the councilors and Friday's plenary
session was scheduled to be the final one before its enactment.

According to the draft bylaw, the elected members of the
subdistrict councils would have the right to raise questions and
share opinions with the City Council. They would also be given
the power to nominate candidates for the planned mayoralty
councils based on the aspirations of local residents.

The members of the subdistrict councils would also be obliged
to give suggestions to subdistrict heads in their respective
areas on day-to-day administrative affairs, and help explain
their subdistricts' policies to local residents.

"Each member of the subdistrict council will receive about Rp
100,000 (US$13) per month for their services," the city
secretary's assistant for administrative affairs, Ma'mun Amin,
told reporters after the meeting ended.

Jakarta has five mayoralties, which are divided into 43
districts and 265 subdistricts, with 2,527 RWs and 28,894 RTs.

The final bylaw draft had been cut down to eight chapters and
21 articles, compared to the original draft which contained 10
chapters and 27 articles.

The draft stipulates that each RW in a subdistrict be
represented by a respected figure in the community on the
subdistrict council. Candidates must be willing to leave their
current jobs and must meet several qualifications, including a
minimum of a junior high school education, be at least 21 years
of age and have resided in their respective RWs for at least
three years.

The city administration allocated more than Rp 1.4 billion in
the 2000 city budget to finance the activities of the subdistrict
councils.

The vote was taken on Friday after endless arguments among the
council's factions about whether to pass the draft.

The plenary meeting began at 9:30 a.m. and was scheduled to
end at 3 p.m., with Governor Sutiyoso to deliver a speech.

The meeting was extended until the evening to accommodate
debates among several councillors, particularly members of the
Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and the
United Development Party (PPP), who insisted that the draft must
not be passed.

The majority of the other factions in the council were ready
to pass the draft. The Golkar Party faction expressed willingness
to approve the draft, but suggested the enactment of the bylaw be
delayed if possible.

"We need a transition period before we enact this bylaw since
we have to introduce the proposed subdistrict councils to the
citizens," said Sugeng Suprijatna of the Golkar Party faction.

According to members of the PDI Perjuangan and PPP factions,
Law No. 34/1999, which outlines the establishment of the
subdistrict councils in Jakarta, was undemocratically enacted by
the House of Representatives.

They said the House hastily deliberated the law without asking
for input from city councillors or the city administration.

"We will deliver a petition to the House to amend the law,"
Hizbiyah Rochim of the PPP faction said.

PDI Perjuangan also based its rejection of the draft bylaw on
the fact that political party members were not allowed to
represent their parties, as stipulated in Article 5, Clause 3 of
the draft.

"We are entitled to about 40 percent of the seats on the
councils because we won the June 1999 elections," said PDI
Perjuangan faction chairman Audy Tambunan.

Councillor Syamsuardi Botan of the National Mandate Party
(PAN) faction, who chaired the draft formulation team, regretted
that some factions had rejected the draft, saying they had wasted
money and time.

"It will take a long time if we want to amend the law by
delivering a petition to the House," he said. (nvn)