Funding problem still confronts special session

JAKARTA (JP): With the Special session of the People's Consultative Assembly just three weeks away, an unforeseen snag has cropped up in the form of the government's failure so far to disburse funding for the crucial event.

Assembly Speaker Amien Rais said Minister of Finance Rizal Ramli had yet to sign a letter agreeing to the disbursement of funds from the State Budget.

"The Assembly Secretary-General Umar Basalim reported to me that the money for the special session has not yet been disbursed because the Minister of Finance had not yet given his approval," Amien told journalists on Wednesday.

But Amien insisted that this would not deter Assembly members from convening on Aug. 1, as they would find alternative ways of covering or cutting down on the costs.

He said he might ask each faction in the Assembly to chip in money to finance their own members attendance.

"The Assembly members could stay in their own homes and not in hotels, they could use their own cars for transportation, and each faction could also pay for the members' meals," he said.

"I think if we do that it will boost the public's regard for Assembly members," Amien further remarked.

More than half of the 700 Assembly members already live in Jakarta.

Earlier, chairman of the House of Representative's Commission IX on finance, Benny Pasaribu, played down the potential financial problem saying that it was simply an administrative snag.

He said that at a meeting with the director general of budgeting the government had agreed to provide some Rp 20.7 billion (US$1.9million) to fund the session.

However, the Ministry of Finance's Director General for Budgeting Anshari Ritonga said the Assembly had yet to propose the budget for the special session, and so the government could not disburse the funds.

"We've never received the budget proposal ... nobody has given a proposal to me," Ritonga said.

Separately, the Assembly deputy speaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Soetjipto, said factions would be ready to help finance the special session if necessary.

"If we have to, then what else can we say," he said.

In other preparations, police revealed on Wednesday that about 850 cadets from the National Police Academy (SPN), who have received a total of six months of police training, would be among the 42,000 security personnel deployed in the capital ahead of the event.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob said on Wednesday that the police cadets, due to graduate in the next fortnight, were originally scheduled to be stationed in provincial police headquarters across the country.

"However, I've asked for that to be postponed ... since the capital will be more in need of them. We will need their strength, skills and power for the Assembly Special Session," Sofjan told reporters on Wednesday.

"I believe this will be better than requesting other provincial police forces to send me reinforcements to provide security during the special session. The capital will be in safe hands." (bkm/dja/ylt)