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)