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)