Councillors to present views on Sutiyoso

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council's factions will hold a plenary session on Wednesday to present their views on Governor Sutiyoso's accountability speech for his five-year tenure as governor.

But even if all factions find fault with his accountability report, this will not necessarily lead to the demise of Sutiyoso's political career.

Next week, Sutiyoso, whose term ends in October, will give his response to the factions' views. The factions' final stance, determining whether they will reject or accept Sutiyoso's report, is scheduled for Aug. 12.

If one of the factions rejects his report, all councillors will be required to vote either in an open session or by secret ballot.

Before the final decision is made, Sutiyoso will have the chance to make approaches to the councillors to weaken their stance.

Earlier this year, when Sutiyoso presented his annual budget, all factions criticized his speech. But after being lobbied, most of them changed their mind and accepted it. Only a few factions, such as the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Justice Party (PK) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB), insisted on rejecting the budget speech. An open vote was taken and Sutiyoso won the game.

PAN has 13 seats in the council, the Justice Party four seats while PBB has two seats.

This time, it is likely that the council will have to conduct a vote to decide whether to reject or accept the accountability speech.

The largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which has 30 seats, is split, while Golkar (eight seats) and the Police/Military factions (nine seats) support Sutiyoso.

Political pundits have predicted that around 40 of the council's 84 councillors might reject Sutiyoso's accountability report, which is not enough to prevent Sutiyoso from running for a second term.

If Sutiyoso's accountability report is accepted, he will be entitled to join the gubernatorial race, on Sept. 17 for the next five-year term.

On Tuesday, public pressure against Sutiyoso mounted as dozens of students staged a rally at the City Council, demanding the council reject the governor's accountability speech.

Students grouped under the Jakarta Student Executive Body also urged the councillors to drop Sutiyoso's candidacy for the next gubernatorial election.

"We also demand that President Megawati Soekarnoputri not intervene in the gubernatorial election," the students' spokesman, Sudarto of the University of Indonesia (UI) told reporters at the council building.

Sutiyoso, a former Jakarta Military Commander, they said had failed to handle urban problems, including floods, street children, a chaotic transportation system and the city's poor and homeless.

"Sutiyoso is still a suspect in the July 27 tragedy," Sudarto said referring to the attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party on July 27, 1996.

Ironically, the party's chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri now supports Sutiyoso's candidacy.