Council to proceed on bill despite protest from PDI-P

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)