Council won't judge Sutiyoso's performance

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Political analysts said that city councillors, who would accept City Governor Sutiyoso's accountability speech, would base their assessment solely on political considerations rather than the administration's performance.

"They will use only political factors and Sutiyoso's personal standing to evaluate his accountability," Mulyana W. Kusumah said in a discussion organized by the Center for Jakarta Studies (PPJ) last Saturday.

Mulyana, who is also a member of the General Elections Commission, said the councillors did not see lax security and public order in the city as a reason either to accept or reject him.

He claimed street crime, in which the perpetrators used armed weapons, had increased during the administration of Sutiyoso.

"There were also conflicts between different ethnic groups in the city. Street rallies in the city were the most numerous in the city's history," said Mulyana, who is also a criminologist at the University of Indonesia.

Former minister for regional autonomy Ryaas Rasyid agreed with Mulyana that both parties, those who favored and opposed Sutiyoso, would use political factors, instead of his administration's performance.

"They simply said Sutiyoso was the right choice without giving sufficient reason," Ryaas, who is a professor at the state Institute of Administration Science, said.

He criticized Sutiyoso's administration for its poor management of public transportation, water supply and education.

Sutiyoso, who will end his tenure in October this year, has been sharply criticized for his poor performance in handling several problems in the city, including public transportation, security, public order and flooding.

The governor, who delivered his accountability speech two weeks ago, admitted that he had failed to handle the problems, but blamed poor public discipline as the cause of the problems.

The United Development Party (PPP) faction chastised Sutiyoso for not apologizing to the public after failing to deal properly with the floods.

"Sutiyoso was not honorable as he failed to apologize to the public after the floods," PPP faction spokesman Yusuf A.R. said as he read his party's general overview on the accountability last Wednesday.

The City Council will hold a plenary session on Aug. 12 to determine whether to reject or accept Sutiyoso's accountability. If it were rejected it would rule out his reelection chances.

PPP, which has 12 seats on the council, was reportedly split. Half of its councillors supported Sutiyoso while the remainder supported City Secretary Fauzi Bowo as the next governor.

Besides PPP, councillors of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which has 30 seats on the council, were also reportedly divided over the issue. Some 12 councillors, led by the party's city chapter chairman and council deputy chairman Tarmidi Suhardjo, committed themselves to rejecting Sutiyoso's accountability.

But all of those indicating rejection were predicted to be still less than a majority of the total 84 councillors.