East Java legislators under fire over trip

Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

The East Java provincial legislative council apparently will go ahead with planned overseas trips this month despite the threat of sanction by political parties.

Some 35 members of the provincial legislature's Commission B on economic affairs and Commission E on social affairs are preparing for trips to several possible European countries, including France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The purpose of the trips is to carry out comparative studies.

Busy with their numerous legislative tasks at home, the two commissions have yet to decide which countries they will be visiting for their studies.

"The leadership of the legislature has instructed the two commissions to determine their destination countries, what fields they will study and how the programs will benefit the people of East Java.

"It is impossible for the legislature to cancel the trips because they have already been included in the 2002 budget," Bisjroe Andul Jalil, chairman of the provincial legislative council, said here on Monday evening.

The legislature has allocated Rp 2 billion to finance comparative studies for 100 legislators in the 2002 fiscal year.

The 35 legislators, each of whom will receive Rp 20 million to finance their overseas travel, have invited several travel agencies and ambassadors to meet with them and share ideas on the planned trip.

However, Dja'far Shodiq, a legislator from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said it was better for his Commission E to visit Malaysia to tour that country's detention camps, where many illegal Indonesian workers have been detained.

"Such a visit would have significance, instead of visiting European countries," he said.

The provincial legislature is currently involved in several important tasks, including the deliberation of East Java Governor Imam Utomo's accountability for the implementation of the 2001 budget, the supervision of the Surabaya-Madura bridge project and the supervision of the troubled agribusiness market project in Sidoarjo.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Awakening Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) have banned legislators from their parties from taking part in the trips, threatening to impose sanctions if they ignored the ban.

PAN also has threatened to its four legislators on the two commissions from the legislature should they take part in the overseas trip.

"We can understand the aims of comparative studies, but so far we cannot see any advantages from the several comparative studies the legislature has conducted both at home and overseas. Meanwhile, thousands of victims of the recent disasters that hit the province are in need of humanitarian aid," he said on Tuesday.

In 2000, the legislature came under fire for a comparative study it conducted in Batam, Riau, with many of the legislators taking the opportunity to visit Singapore.