Disadvantaged citizens demand budget revision

JAKARTA (JP): More than 1,500 disadvantaged people, including hundreds of pedicab drivers, staged a rally in front of the City Council on Monday, demanding that it revise the 2001 City Budget which was considered extravagant and neglectful of the people's real needs.

Organized by the Non-governmental Organizations' Coalition for Budget Transparency (KOTA), hundreds arrived in pedicabs from five mayoralties causing heavy traffic congestion on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta.

The group's representatives, including Wardah Hafidz of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) and Zoemrotin K. Susilo of the Indonesian Consumer Institute Foundation (YLKI), were received by six councillors from the Council's Commission C for budgetary affairs.

In pressing their demands, the group even "detained" the councillors, asking them to approve a revision.

Commission C chairman Amarullah Asbah agreed but maintained that the council could only start to review the budget in April.

"The council leadership will meet tomorrow, we will convey your demands to them," Amarullah of the Golkar Party said.

The city budget appropriation hit the headlines when the city purchased 55 sedans at a total cost of Rp 5.5 billion (US$550,000) last month for councillors despite the fact that they already each received a subsidy of Rp 75 million for the purchase of vehicles.

During a dialog with the councillors, Zoemrotin burst into tears upon hearing the statement by councillor Gafar Malik that it was acceptable for the councillors to receive the Hyundai sedans.

"The cost of purchasing the sedans was less than one percent of the remainder of the 2000 City Budget. It's for all of us," Gafar of the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction, claimed.

Zoemrotin regretted the councillor's statement, saying that the councillors had no sensitivity and no sense of crisis whilst people in the city had to struggle everyday with public transportation.

"The council should have made it a priority to improve public transportation, instead of purchasing the sedans for the councillors," she said in tears.

KOTA demanded the council complete the revision of the 2001 budget by April.

"If the budget is not revised by April, we will campaign and urge people not to pay property or vehicle taxes," Zoemrotin added.

Difficult

But Councillor Amarullah told reporters that the demand would be difficult to meet as the budget had been adopted in accordance with the law.

KOTA took the view that the city budget which amounted Rp 7.49 trillion was unbalanced since Rp 5 trillion or 67 percent of it was allocated for routine expenditure while the remainder was for development.

It questioned several duplications on the budget, such as the collection of property taxes which was specified twice (Rp 62 billion and Rp 5 billion) and the cost of civilian security guards (Rp 1 billion and 11 million).

There was also question marks concerning the Governor's allowance for clothing (Rp 40 million), health (Rp 78 million), official residence maintenance (Rp 480 million) and transportation (Rp 175 million).

The group regretted the small amounts allocated in the budget for poor people, such as nutrition improvement which amounted to just Rp 925 million, disease prevention Rp 5.6 billion, poverty alleviation Rp 650 million and social rehabilitation Rp 1.43 billion. (jun)