Draft on subdistrict councils submitted

Draft on subdistrict councils submitted

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the City Council team preparing for
the establishment of mayoralty and subdistrict councils have
submitted a draft of city bylaws on the establishment of councils
in the capital's 265 subdistricts.

"The team has decided to first deliberate on the establishment
of councils at the subdistrict level, because the members of
these councils will later have the right to determine the
composition of the mayoralty councils," team chairman M. Syarifin
Maloko said on Friday after submitting the draft to the City
Council.

Jakarta is divided into five mayoralties, 43 districts and 265
subdistricts. Based on a 1999 law, several districts located in
Pulau Seribu, or the Thousand Islands, off the Jakarta Bay will
be removed from the jurisdiction of the North Jakarta mayoralty
to form a separate regency.

Syarifin said the proposed bylaws submitted on Friday
stipulated that members of the subdistrict councils should be
nonpartisan.

"Civil servants, police and military personnel are prohibited
from becoming members of the local councils," he said.

According to the draft bylaws, members of the subdistrict
councils will have the right to ask questions of and give
opinions to the City Council and nominate members for the
mayoralty councils.

The team was founded in November to deliberate the
establishment of both subdistrict and mayoralty councils as
stipulated in Law No. 34/1999 on the administration of Jakarta as
the capital of Indonesia.

"Members of the councils will accept and channel the
aspirations of locals, empower them, give suggestions to the
respective subdistrict heads on day-to-day administrative affairs
and help explain their subdistricts' policies to local
residents," he said.

Syarifin said the proposed bylaws consisted of 10 chapters and
27 articles. (05)