Floods, garbage excluded from speech

Floods, garbage excluded from speech

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to deliver his 2001
city budget statement on Thursday. The statement is expected to
highlight several successes over the last year, but avoid
failures.

The biggest and hottest issue will be the administration's
efforts last year to prevent flooding. This has been pushed to
the fore by the three-weeks of major floods that hit the capital
in late January and early February.

Despite sharp criticism of the administration's late response
in providing relief for flood victims, Sutiyoso will likely omit
the issue from his speech as the floods took place this year.

Another big issue in the city was the tension between Jakarta
and Bekasi over the Bantar Gebang garbage dump, which
accommodates most of the capital's trash.

Jakarta finally agreed to pay Rp 14 billion (US$1.4 million)
in compensation to Bekasi, and spend Rp 29 billion on making good
environmental damage in the vicinity of the 104-hectare site.

Just like the floods, the issue will most likely be omitted
from the governor's speech.

Sutiyoso is expected to concentrate more on the city's
security situation, which he will claim has improved despite the
hundreds of street rallies over the year. He is likely to claim
that the improvement is thanks to public order officers, who have
helped security officials maintain order in the city.

The public order operations, which received Rp 40 billion from
the city budget, were expected to boost the city's reputation in
upholding the law.

The governor's speech is also due to reveal increases in
Jakarta's revenue from city-owned firms.

However, cases of corruption involving city agencies and firms
worth Rp 179 billion last year, as reported earlier by the City
Audit Board, would likely also be deleted from the statement.

Sutiyoso will also discuss the Subdistrict Community
Development Program (PPMK). The administration had allocated Rp 2
billion each to 25 poor subdistricts spread over the city's five
mayoralties last year, but it was subsequently admitted that the
program had failed.

However, the city has launched the same program again this
year to help 267 flood-hit subdistricts by allocating Rp 250
million to each of them.

The city's 85 councillors are also expected to critically
question other issues before deciding whether to accept or reject
the budget speech.

Many doubt that the councillors will say "No" during next
month's council session as the budget has already been allocated
some Rp 17.8 billion.

Should Sutiyoso's speech be turned down, he still has another
month to revise it.

He has repeatedly said he is not afraid of his speech being
rejected.

"It's just a routine progress report. I hope it will be
objectively evaluated and not politicized," he said.