Fate of city in the hands of uncritical councillors
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As the representatives of almost nine million people in Jakarta, the city's 83 councillors are expected to be of excellent quality to enable them to channel people's aspirations and to watch over the city administration.
They are often criticized for their poor performance, and they are not critical of the government.
In hearings with city officials, only a few councillors take part in discussions by asking sharp questions and criticizing unclear policies of the administration. Others just agree with the officials' explanations.
While most city administration officials are mostly university graduates or post graduates, many of the councillors have inadequate and unclear educational backgrounds.
Activists have cynically questioned how the councillors could possibly produce quality regulations, evaluate the governor's performance or choose a good governor in the next gubernatorial election.
Tubagus H. Kalbaryanto, head of the urban division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said the performance of councillors could improve if they really listened to and heeded people's aspirations.
"Although their education is not sufficient, it would not be a problem if they listened to their constituents and struggled for them. The public would respect them," Tubagus said on Friday.
Last year, almost all of the councillors took graduate and post graduate studies in political sciences and management, which were provided by private Tujuh Belas Agustus University and the Jagakarsa Economic Institute. Classes were held in the evening at the council's building on Jl. Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta.
There were 85 city councillors, but two have died.
According to the latest data from the City Council, 14 of the councillors are only high school graduates, the basic requirement for a city councillor.
Sixty-five councillors apparently went to university. Many of the councillors did not state the names of the university on their resumes, while some of them attended university but did not graduate.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has 29 councillors, but only 10 graduated from university. The rest attended university but did not graduate.
Only 14 councillors from the 11 factions graduated from local reputable universities and foreign institutions, while six councillors finished their post graduate studies.
Four councillors studied abroad, including Abdul Aziz Mathur of Justice Party, who went to Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and National Mandate Party's Agus Dharmawan attended the Christchurch Polytechnic in New Zealand.