Golkar to lead three council commissions

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council announced yesterday that the ruling Golkar faction is to chair three of its five commissions.

The decision was signed by the council speaker Edy Waluyo on July 31 after a plenary council meeting.

Golkar will chair Commission C for city revenue, Commission D for development affairs and Commission E for social welfare. The three commissions are considered the most influential.

The other two commissions -- Commission A for administration affairs and Commission B for economic affairs -- are to be chaired by the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction and the United Development Party (PPP) faction respectively. No commission chairs were allocated to the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction due to its poor election performance. It is represented by only one councilor.

Commission C is chaired by Amarullah Asbah, Commission D by Aliwongso H. Sinaga and Commission E by Soeparmo, while Commission A is chaired by Hotma Tambunan and Commission B by Djafar Badjeber.

The chairman of the PPP faction, Achmad Suaidy, welcomed the decision yesterday, saying it was fair.

Suaidy said Golkar deserved to chair three council commissions because it won 39 seats in the May 29 general election, seven seats more than in the 1992 general election.

Of the 75 City Council members, 39 are from Golkar, 20 from PPP, 15 from ABRI and one from PDI.

Suaidy said the decision was taken based on a barter agreement between the Golkar and PPP factions. Golkar took over the chairmanship of Commission C, which had been held by PPP for several terms.

He said that in return for handing over the commission to Golkar, PPP was being allowed to hold the secretaryship on one of the other Golkar commissions and the deputy chairman position on the third.

The representatives on the Golkar commissions are H. Saud Rahman, the secretary of Commission D, and H. Afif Hamka, the deputy chairman of Commission E.

Golkar also took two of three deputy council speaker seats after the other three council factions compromised with Golkar. The third went to PPP.

On Monday the three other factions still opposed Golkar's proposal. They said there should be only two deputy speakers following PDI's poor election showing.

In the previous council, PPP, Golkar and PDI were each represented by one deputy speaker. (jun)