Draft for setting up subdistrict councils approved

Draft for setting up subdistrict councils approved

JAKARTA (JP): After holding a series of meetings and making
significant revisions in the past few weeks, the City Council
passed the draft on the establishment of subdistrict councils
during a plenary session on Thursday.

Attended by Governor Sutiyoso, the session -- chaired by
Council Speaker Edy Waluyo -- approved the draft, making it a
city bylaw. The councilors expressed hope the new subdistrict
councils would help establish a transparent, democratic and
people-oriented administration at the subdistrict level.

"We have to pass the bill soon because people urgently need
such councils," councillor Pantas Nainggolan, secretary of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction,
told The Jakarta Post following the session.

The draft, proposed by the city administration in January,
originally faced stiff opposition from councillors of PDI
Perjuangan and the United Development Party (PPP), who argued
that the draft could not be enacted unless Article 27 of Law No.
34/1999 on the Jakarta administration was revised.

According to the councillors from the two parties, the article
states that subdistrict councilors are to be elected directly by
heads of the respective community units, or RWs.

After making several changes to the draft, including the
requirement that candidates for the subdistrict councils be
elected through a meeting attended by at least two-third of the
heads of families of neighborhood units, or RTs, members from the
two factions, along with their counterparts from the other nine
factions in the Council, agreed to pass the draft.

"The revised draft lays out democratic rules for recruiting
members for the subdistrict councils," PPP councillor Muhamad
Banang said, reading the final remarks of his faction during the
plenary session.

The idea to establish subdistrict councils in Jakarta was
first proposed earlier this year. However, the plan was put on
hold for "technical reasons".

The subdistrict councils, according to the enacted bylaw, will
consist of executive boards and members who are senior members of
their respective RTs, but not heads or organization members of
RWs and RTs.

Subdistrict council members will only be allowed to serve two
consecutive five-year terms.

The number of members of the subdistrict councils will be
equal to the number of RWs in the respective subdistricts.

Jakarta, with a population of some 12 million people, has five
mayoralties, 43 districts, 265 subdistricts, 2,612 RWs and 29,314
RTs.

Article 12 of the approved bylaw stipulates that the duties of
the subdistrict council members will include channeling the
aspirations of local residents, submitting suggestions and ideas
to subdistrict heads, informing the people about government and
subdistrict policies and naming subdistrict candidates for the
City Council.

The money to pay the members and fund the operations of the
subdistrict councils will come from the City Budget, with the
approval of the governor.

None of the city councillors or Governor Sutiyoso could give
an estimate as to how much money would be spent by the city for
the subdistrict councils.

"But one thing is clear, their salaries will not be under the
UMR," Sutiyoso said, referring to the government-set minimum wage
for workers in Jakarta, which is less then Rp 200,000 per month.
(bsr/44)