Experts, politicians differ on new city structure

Experts, politicians differ on new city structure

JAKARTA (JP): Experts and politicians agreed on Tuesday that a
new organizational structure of the city administration should be
trim and efficient, but they differed on the separation of the
administrative bureaucracy from politics.

Speaking in a seminar here, scientists Johermansyah Johan and
Sadly Abdul Jabar and constitutional law professor Harun Alrasid
viewed that bureaucracy should be separated from politics.

"Public services would be disrupted if political affairs
intervene in the bureaucracy," Johermansyah, who is a lecturer at
the state Administration Science Institute, said.

Councillor Maringan Pangaribuan, meanwhile, objected to the
separation.

"It's impossible to separate the bureaucracy from politics,"
Maringan, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan), said.

They were commenting on the proposed new structure of the city
administration that provides the city secretary with
administrative power. Under the new structure, the governor,
assisted by a vice governor -- instead of the current four, will
only deal with political concerns.

According to Johermansyah, political parties' factions in the
City Council could elect a governor and a vice governor from the
parties, but a city secretary and his or her subordinates should
be taken from the bureaucracy.

"The position of a governor and a vice governor is political,
while secretary and other lower-ranking officials are
administrative appointees," he said.

Sadly, who is chairman of State Administrative Institute, said
that only the governor and the vice governor should be
responsible to the council.

"If necessary, a governor should be authorized to dismiss the
city secretary without the council's approval. The governor would
be accountable to the council," he said.

Maringan said the proposed structure aimed at stripping the
governor's power as the province' chief, and this violated the
law.

He suspected that the new structure was proposed by elements
of the bureaucracy still dominated by the Golkar Party in order
to perpetuate its own existence.

He said the current city secretary Fauzi Bowo and the city's
development agency chief Bambang Soengkono are the treasurer and
deputy chairman of the Golkar Party's city chapter, respectively.

In August 2002, the council would elect a new governor as
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso would end his tenure.

Many believed that the next governor would come from PDI
Perjuangan as the party secured the majority seats with 30
councillors among the council's 85 seats.

On May 3, Sutiyoso proposed a bylaw to the city council on the
new structure of the city administration.

In Tuesday's seminar, experts and politicians agreed that
several city agencies could be merged or even disbanded because
they had no function, such as the agencies of forestry, mining,
agriculture and animal husbandry.

"But there should be no dismissals," Johermansyah, who is a
member of a team that arranged the new structure, said.

He said the city currently had 70,000 employees and 40,000
coming from the central government would be added to that, as a
result of the implementation of regional autonomy. (jun)