Eight dissident councillors to face dismissal

Eight dissident councillors to face dismissal

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 did not comply with
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 had a price to pay: facing recall
and even dismissal from the party.

The Jakarta chapter chairman 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 suspended all the party's 16 councillors for a week to
give time for the party to further investigate the case," he
said.

He added the party might consider to expel 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 could not be reached for comment if the Democratic Party's
suspension would affect the day-to-day activities of the council.

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.

PKS reported on Sunday that it also discovered hundreds of
posters saying "We are PKS Jakarta supporters. We refuse
presidential candidates from the military since reforms are
civilian movements".

"The posters, which were claimed on behalf of PKS supporters,
hinted that there has been a plot to divide the party's
supporters," said PKS Jakarta chapter chairman Triwisaksana.