Eight dissident councillors face dismissal from party

Eight dissident councillors face dismissal from party

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A man is worth his words, so the saying goes. When eight of 16
city councillors from the Democratic Party failed to abide by the
party's written agreement with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)
to cast their votes for PKS councillor Ahmad Heryawan for the
council speakership, they will have a price to pay: recall and
possible dismissal from the party.

The chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Democratic Party,
Husein Abdul Azis, told The Jakarta Post on Monday that a
preliminary internal investigation within the chapter showed that
the eight councillors cast their votes for other candidates
during the speakership election.

"It was against the party's instructions. They will face
recall since they have crossed the line," he said, without naming
the eight councillors.

"We have suspended all of the party's 16 councillors for a
week to give time to the party to further investigate the case,"
he said.

He added that the party might consider expeling the eight
councillors, which he referred as "the deadwood", of the party.

Husein said the party could not tolerate such a wrongdoing
because its 16 councillors had signed the agreement to support
the PKS at the council.

The Democratic Party, which earned 16 seats at the council,
had promised to throw its weight to PKS, which won 18 seats. With
34 votes on paper, the coalition was expected to bring some
changes in the council, especially with the PKS campaign to fight
corruption, collusion and nepotism.

In reality, Heryawan lost dramatically to councillor Ade
Surapriatna of the Golkar Party, who is serving his fifth tenure.
Ade garnered 42 votes while Heryawan only got 30 votes.

Ade claimed that he had not received any official notice from
the Democratic Party about the suspension.

"Of course, it will affect the day-to-day activities in the
Council ... we have to reach a quorum in our hearings," Ade told
the Post.

"We will seek clarification from the faction about the issue.
If they fail to present it during the council's meetings, we will
simply consider them absent."

Husein said the party's chapter has prepared its other members
to replace the dismissed councillors.

He also said that the Democratic Party's city councillors
would "bear the brunt of the blame" if SBY-JK lost in the second
round of the presidential election, referring to front-runners
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Muhammad Jusuf Kalla.

He made his statement when Susilo and Kalla were leading with
70.15 percent to Megawati and Hasyim's 29.85 percent of the total
773,786 votes in the provisional vote counting in city at 7 p.m.

PKS chairman Hidayat Nurwahid had said earlier that his party
would not withdraw its support from Susilo in the presidential
election runoff despite the incident.

"The incident will not reduce the party's support toward the
reform issue brought by Susilo's camp. We want to show that our
support was not based on power-sharing but on the same mission
and vision for a better future for the country," he said.