Councilors reveal why they function as 'rubber stamp'

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the city council admitted on Tuesday that for years the council had functioned only as a rubber stamp for the city administration's policies as they always agreed with whatever the administration had already determined.

Head of the Golkar faction Fatommy Asaari said that this could be clearly seen in the deliberation process for the city's annual budget drafts. Head of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction Lukman Mokoginta and secretary of the United Development Party Helmy A.R. Syihab echoed Fatommy's remarks.

Fatommy said that in making any decision the administration never took into consideration the councilors' opinions, suggestions or criticisms.

"So it was a waste of time if we stubbornly defended our opinion as the administration would go ahead willy-nilly with its own policies," he said.

He cited as an example the process in the deliberation of the budget where the council was frequently "forced" to agree with the draft already prepared by the administration.

"For that reason, we are grateful that in the review for the 1998/1999 budget the Golkar faction was brave enough to propose a Rp 4.5 billion (US$562,500) increase in the allocation of the social safety net program. The proposal, the first ever made in such a deliberation, was accepted by the administration," he said.

Lukman reiterated that it used to be a kind of taboo for the councilors to make a proposal to change the draft even if only a cent was involved.

"So this is the first time in history that the administration has accepted the councilors' proposal for changes to the budget," he added.

During a plenary session on Tuesday the council approved the review of the 1998/1999 budget, which was raised by Rp 4.5 billion to Rp 1.75 trillion.

On the basis of the review the funds for the safety net program set aside by the city administration reached Rp 264.5 billion.

He hoped that in the future the administration would be more accommodating to the council's proposals.

Separately, Helmy said that Law No. 5/1974 on basic principles of the city administration actually includes the councilors' rights to question, to seek information, to change the administration's legislation, to express opinions, to show initiative and to investigate matters of concern.

In reality, however, this could not be executed due to the absence of detailed instructions on their implementation, he said.

"For instance, if we want to question certain policies or ask for information on certain things, we have to go through long and arduous procedures, including the limitation of questions to only five, which should be raised by councilors from different factions through our speaker after prior discussion in a meeting.

"There is a similar procedure for seeking information and expressing our opinions," he said. (ind)