Council to proceed on bill despite protest from PDI-P

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council vowed on Friday to proceed with the deliberation of a bill on the council's internal rules, despite protests from the local chapter of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

According to council speaker Edy Waluyo, the completion of the rules was a "tradition" and the "moral obligation" of current councilors to allow the next elected City Council time to concentrate on other tasks.

He said discussion of the bill was part of the council's scheduled agenda and had been started three months ago.

"The new councilors will face an abundance of tasks. Without this fundamental regulation, the councilors' other important tasks could be neglected," Edi said.

He said the new councilors would have to elect a speaker and members of commissions and permanent committees and then decide on the city's regional representatives to the People's Consultative Assembly.

"If they first have to create the council's internal rules, they will have no time to do the other tasks, which have to be completed in a relatively short time," he said.

"They therefore should consider that we need more than three months to pass the bill on the internal rules."

But Edy said the future councilors would have the right to review the regulation if necessary.

On Thursday, chairman of the Jakarta chapter of PDI Perjuangan, Roy BB Janis, opposed the agenda of the current councilors, saying they had no right to make such a regulation.

Janis, whose party members are expected to dominate the council, worried that the ruling would limit the tasks of the next council members.

"Their job will be made useless, as we will reject the rules, which, we think, are full of political concerns," he said.

He said his party believed the regulation was part of efforts to stop the their party leading the council, adding that this is against the law.

Janis was referring to an article in the bill stating that the council speaker would be elected by the councilors.

He said the idea was not in accordance with the internal rules of the People's Consultative Assembly and the House of Representatives, which all stated that the council chair would be allocated to the party gaining the largest number of seats.

According to councilors Nitra Arsyad of Golkar and Chudlary Syafi'i Hadzami of the United Development Party (PPP), PDI Perjuangan's appeal was improper.

Nitra said that PDI Perjuangan should learn from the experiences of the General Elections Commission (KPU), which he said has worked too slowly because there are very few practical rules.

"It takes a long time for KPU to even determine simple things, such as the material of the ballot boxes, due to a lack of regulations. We want to avoid such cases in the council," he said.

Chudlary said that the proposed internal rules "will indeed help PDI Perjuangan and other councilors smooth out their tasks." (ind)