Give city's poor Rp 560b, councilor says

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the wake of criticism for receiving a financial windfall from the city budget, city council members suggested on Friday that Jakarta's emergency fund of Rp 560 billion (US$56 million) be used to help disadvantaged people.

"Since we are still facing problems related to poor people, (the city) can use the emergency fund to help them," Council Chairman Edy Waluyo told reporters at a year-end press conference.

Governor Sutiyoso, however, seemed reluctant to agree with the proposal, saying that the city administration had already allocated a fund for poor people out of next year's budget.

"But if the council suggested to use the fund, we could use half of it," Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall.

The 560 billion emergency fund, mostly taken from city budget surpluses, was originally allocated for natural disasters, such as flooding. For the past three years, the city has accumulated a surplus of Rp 400 billion.

This year's proposed budget allocates Rp 176 billion for building low cost houses and apartments, and Rp 94 billion for social welfare needs.

Edy of the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction said that the fund could, for example, be used to build low-cost apartments for the poor, including those forcibly evicted from their makeshift houses in riverbanks recently.

Thousands of people have been evicted and hundreds of houses located in riverbanks were demolished this year by city public order officers.

Non-governmental organizations, including the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), strongly criticized the evictions, which they said were conducted without giving enough compensation to the victims.

Komnas HAM said the compensation should be given to the victims, since the administration had allowed them to live along the riverbanks for years.

The administration once planned to build low-cost apartments, but could only provide for the land, and asked the central government to finance the construction of the apartment.

The council's suggestion seemed an effort to win people's hearts after being sharply criticized on the amount of funds allocated for its 85 councillors in next year's budget.

More than Rp 100 billion would be set aside for the council -- including allowances for trips, health, meetings and official wardrobes.

This year, the council has received 55 complaints, which were mostly related to the needs of poor people.