City postpones installation of military chiefs
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has abruptly postponed the installation of four of the five military members who were scheduled to be appointed to the city's top positions on Monday.
The abrupt decision was announced to the media on Friday evening by city office spokesman Kamaludin Santos.
Kamaludin, however, refused to give any comments about the reason for the postponement.
"Just wait," was all he would say to the reporters' questions.
According to Kamaludin, there would be eight, not the earlier announced seven, new senior officials installed in a ceremony to be conducted by Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall on Monday morning.
But the positions for the new officials were slightly different from the positions which had been announced earlier by a reliable source in the city administration.
Only three of the new posts are identical to the old posts. These three are the heads of the city's social and political affairs directorate, the city-owned market management PD Pasar Jaya and Jakarta's development finance controller (BKPMD).
In the new version of appointments announced by Kamaludin, the other five posts include the head of the city office of the Ministry Cooperatives and Small Enterprises and directors of four city-run hospitals.
Out of the eight new officials, only one, Dody Sudarno, will be from the military. Sudarno will chair the city's social and political affairs directorate.
Kamaludin refused to comment about Dody, but a source in the city administration said that Dody was a colonel from the Jakarta Military Command.
Previously, the governor was scheduled to install seven new officials, five of whom had military backgrounds, for the city administration's senior posts.
The five ABRI members were to chair the city's social and political affairs directorate, the city land transportation agency, the city sanitary agency, the city parking agency and the civilian defense unit's provincial headquarters.
The two civilians were to chair the city-owned market management PD Pasar Jaya and the development finance controller.
On Thursday, Sutiyoso even defended the appointment of the five military members, saying that it had been processed a long time ago.
The governor, who met the media several hours before Kamaludin issued the revised appointment plan, did not mention anything about the abrupt postponement.
According to Kamaludin, on Monday the governor will install Albert Napitupulu as head of BKPMD, Syahrir Tanjung as the new chair of PD Pasar Jaya and Samsul Hilatana as head of the city office of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises.
Sutiyoso will also install Zulrasdi Djaias, Umar Wahid, Abdul Chalik Masulili and Martin Bimbuain as directors of Haji Hospital in East Jakarta, Pasar Rebo Hospital in East Jakarta, Koja Hospital in North Jakarta and Tarakan Hospital in Central Jakarta, he said. (ind)