Council recommends regent's removal

Council recommends regent's removal

Temanggung Regental Council recommended on Tuesday that President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dismiss Temanggung Regent Totok Ary
Prabowo for alleged graft.

The council also stressed that as the
regent has been mired in controversy, if he remained in power,
conflict among Temanggung civil servants and residents would
prevail.

The recommendation was issued after an emergency meeting held
at Temanggung Regental Council on Tuesday. The meeting was held
in response to massive protests against the regent for two
consecutive days. The meeting became tense when a group of
protesters put a bier containing the effigy of a corpse inside
the council building. Hundreds of protesters also
assembled inside the council building compound, adding to the
tension during the meeting.

The meeting, led by council speaker Bambang Soekarno of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who is also
Totok's rival, wound up with the Temanggung council agreeing to
send the recommendation letter to the President through the
Central Java governor.

However, some 150 protesters were still dissatisfied with the
decision and they chose to leave Temanggung for Semarang, the
capital of Central Java, on the same day to step up pressure on
the governor to speed up the dismissal of Totok, who became
regent on July 23 two years ago.

Totok, a Golkar Party cadre, has been the center of
controversy after he was accused of embezzling state money in the
general elections last year. He has also gained notoriety for
firing and rotating civil servants for unclear reasons.

Resistance mounted on Friday last week when he installed 78
new officials in his administration to replace those who resigned
in January. The installation sparked huge protests on Monday.
(JP/Suherdjoko)