Councillors' trips criticized

Councillors' trips criticized

PURBALINGGA, Central Java: The Purbalingga People's Movement
for Reform Today -- an alliance of non governmental organizations
(NGOs) here -- urged local councillors on Wednesday to provide
the public with a complete accounting of their recent trip to
Riau.

"We demand a transparent and concrete report because the
public needs to know the results of the trip, which cost hundreds
of millions of rupiah," one of the protesters, Antonk, said.

Yudhia, another activist, said that the councillors also had a
moral obligation to report the concrete outcomes of their other
trips to South Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggara.

Some councillors, however, turned a deaf ear to the demands,
saying there were no regulations that obliged them to report to
NGOs. --JP