Councillors call on Sultan to spell out special status

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Members of the Yogyakarta provincial legislative council want a bill on Yogyakarta to spell out the province's special status in terms of culture and public administration.

The councillors said the bill, which is being deliberated by the provincial legislature before being submitted to the House of Representatives, should also detail the province's historical and sociological backgrounds, in order to provide a strong basis for the development of a future democratic administration.

"The essence of Yogyakarta's special status is respect for the province's traditional and cultural rights, in whatever form that people here choose to demonstrate these rights, while at the same time continuing the process of democratization.

"Despite the presence of two royal palaces, the sultanate and the Pakualaman (royal branch), Yogyakarta must adopt and develop a democracy in which the governor is elected and is held accountable by the public," Totok Daryanto told The Jakarta Post here on Friday.

The bill, prepared by a team led by Affan Gaffar, a political scientist from Gadjah Mada University, outlines the province's special status in terms of culture, education, tourism and public administration.

But the bill has angered some because it automatically gives the top position in the province to the royal family. And while many people loyal to the sultanate have expressed their support for the bill, many others, especially those from the political elite and migrants, have protested the bill. Some of these critics have proposed that to counter the position of governor earmarked for the royal family, a "prime minister" position be created to oversee the day-to-day running of the administration.

Totok said that both the sultanate and the Pakualaman deserved special status because they were national assets that had been integrated with the Indonesian unitary state.

"It is a historical fact that the two kingdoms were integrated into Indonesia following the country's independence in 1945, and Yogyakarta was later given special status in 1950. But neither the people or the royal families have enjoyed any special status under former president Sukarno or the New Order regime," he said.

According to its special status, the province should have a governor and deputy governor, two symbolic positions to be given to the sultanate and the Pakualaman, respectively.

"The province should also have an administration head serving a five-year term of office, and he or she should be democratically elected by the legislature," Totok said.

Ahmad Subagya, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) faction in the legislature, agreed that the symbolic positions would signify the special respect for the royal families.

"I'm also very much interested in the solution proposed by Pak Ryaas Rasyid (former minister of home affairs and regional autonomy). He said if the Yogyakarta governor was special, its provincial administration secretary had to be special too," he said.

Political observer Bambang Cipto of Muhammadiyah University in Yogyakarta said the controversy surrounding the province's top posts was the most crucial issue to be resolved by the bill.

Bambang, who said he was of the opinion that the person who oversaw the day-to-day running of the province should be democratically elected, suggested the Yogyakarta palace could be considered a political enclave, that had separate authority from the province's top executive. In this case, the sultan's position in relation to the central government would be right below the president.