Edy Waluyo named as new speaker of City Council

JAKARTA (JP): The 75 new councilors elected Brig. Gen. Edy Waluyo of the Armed Forces (ABRI) as City Council speaker for the 1997-2002 office term in a plenary session yesterday.

The choice of 52-year-old Edy as new council speaker was greeted by all council members and city officials.

"I thank Jakartans, ABRI leaders and God for this honor. I promise to carry out my duties with full responsibility," said Edy, who was promoted from colonel to brigadier general last April.

He said Jakarta had many complicated problems. "The most urgent problem to solve is how to prepare the city and its human resources for the coming free-trade era," Edy said.

Besides electing Edy to replace former speaker M.H. Ritonga, who was also from ABRI, the councilors also chose three deputy speakers: two from Golkar -- Sugeng Suprijatna and M. Ade Suraprijatna -- and one from the United Development Party (PPP) -- Rusydi Hamka.

One day before their election, ABRI, PPP and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) opposed a Golkar proposal to take two of three deputy speaker seats.

In the 1992-1997 office term, PPP, Golkar and PDI were each represented by one deputy speaker.

Yesterday's session, which was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., was postponed until 10 a.m. without a clear explanation. The session was chaired by the oldest councilor, HW Sriyono, and the youngest, Ali Imran Husein.

PPP and ABRI only submitted their written proposals for the election of the new council speaker and deputies yesterday, just before the start of the session. Golkar and PDI submitted their proposals Monday.

"Golkar members got an extra deputy speaker seat from PDI, which only has one councilor this term," said Rusydi Hamka, who is also chairman of PPP's city chapter, after the session.

"What could we do?" he said, adding that his party, which strongly opposed Golkar's proposal, could not fight alone without the support of ABRI.

Chairman of Golkar, Fatomy Asaari, said the faction's strong determination to have two deputy speaker seats was in anticipation of the city's rapid development. "That was the reason behind our proposal," he said.

When asked whether the proposal was made because Golkar won this year's general election, he said, "No. This is not about who won the election, but there's a need to prepare for upcoming challenges."

Chairman of ABRI, Sumekar KW, said the council's four factions made a unanimous decision to have three deputy speakers after a meeting on Monday evening.

"That's what we call (political) dynamism. A decision is made after a smooth discussion. That's part of the political arts," he said.

He said ABRI wanted three deputy speakers on the council after considering people's interest. "With more deputy speakers, the council's executives are expected to work much faster," Sumekar said.

When asked whether there was pressure on his faction to accept Golkar's proposal, he said, "No. The decision was made after a thorough discussion."

Sumekar's remark was far different from his earlier statement, which said that the vacant deputy speaker seat left by PDI could not just be taken over by Golkar and, ideally, there should be only two deputy speakers, from PPP and Golkar.

In addition to the proposal for two deputy speaker seats last Friday, Golkar also proposed to chair three of the council's five commissions, including Commission C on financial affairs, which was previously chaired by PPP.

Fatomy of Golkar said the proposal was still negotiable. "There are still discussions to determine commissions' chairmen, deputy chairmen and members," he said.

In the May 29 general election, the three political groups competed for the council's 60 seats. The remaining 15 council seats were reserved for ABRI members who did not vote.

PPP won 20 council seats, Golkar 39 seats and PDI one seat. (ste)