Funding problem still confronts special session

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)