Councilors recruited neposticly 'should resign'

Councilors recruited neposticly 'should resign'

JAKARTA (JP): City Council speaker Edy Waluyo called on
councilors yesterday who obtained their seats nepotisticly to
resign.

But Edy said that he would be careful when approaching the
councilors he believed fell into this category.

Not all council members who happen to have familial relations
can be unfairly suspected of practicing nepotism, he said.

"If the councilors are performing well, why should we ask them
to leave. Moreover, the final decision on whether to sack or
retain councilors lies with their respective political factions."

Edy was responding to the escalating demands for the council
to "clean" itself of corrupt and nepotistic practices believed to
be rampant during the Soeharto administration.

On Wednesday, councilor Lukman F. Mokoginta from the
Indonesian Democratic Party alleged that nepotism was widespread
in the recruitment and promotion of council employees.

Edy also urged the city administration to see if any of its
projects were awarded to contractors who are the relatives or
friends of city bureaucrats.

"In the future, no corruption, collusion or nepotism should be
tolerated in city projects," he said.

Last week, the city-owned water company PDAM canceled a
cooperative agreement with two companies controlled by former
president Soeharto's eldest son Sigit Hardjojudanto and long-time
friend Liem Sioe Liong. PDAM chief Rama Boedi said the project
smacked of collusion.

Moslem scholar Nurcholish Madjid said Wednesday that reform of
the city administration could start with the revocation of the
law which states that the city council is part of the government.

The law has been widely blamed for the council's inability to
exercise its numerous rights to supervise the bureaucracy.

Nurcholish, better known as Cak Nur, said that the law was no
longer relevant considering the current spirit of reform.

"The council should be independent and the law abolished,"
Nurcholish told reporters after delivering a religious lecture at
the city hall.

One of the articles of 1974 Law No. 5 on Regional Governance
stipulates that the city administration consists of the governor
and the council.

Nurcholish said that the present city council was an "old"
product of former president Soeharto, and therefore the system
should be revised.

Commenting on Nurcholish's remarks, the council's deputy
speaker Ade Surapriatna said the council was of the same opinion.

"The law has created the impression that the council is only a
rubber stamp institution to legalize all the bureaucracy's
decisions," he said.

Mokoginta, the head of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction
at the City Council, said yesterday that the revocation or at
least revision of the law was a must.

"It must be revised in order to give the councilors better
leverage to express their views and improve their performance as
a supervisory body," he said.

The law lists the councilors' rights: to prepare a city
budget, seek explanations from the governor on certain issues, to
make statements on current issues, revise draft bylaws, propose
draft bylaws and investigate particular matters.

"But so far, only several of the rights have been exercised
freely," said Lukman.

He said that the administration had always prepared the budget
and the council always approved it. (ind/cst)