Lampung's draft budget under fire

Oyos Saroso HN, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Activists and the Lampung provincial legislative council clashed on Wednesday after the activists said the province's 2002 draft budget allocated more for the bureaucracy that it did for the poor.

The discussion turned into serious bickering when a number of activists lambasted the council, accusing a number of legislators of colluding with Governor Oemarsono to give a bigger portion of the budget to the bureaucracy and local officials.

Legislative council deputy chairman Mochtar Hasan stormed out of the meeting after 300 students and activists representing 36 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) condemned both the provincial administration and the legislative council.

The students and activists were received by a number of legislators, including Mochtar Hasan, after they staged a demonstration at the legislative compound, demanding major changes to the draft budget.

The demonstrators threatened to occupy the legislative building unless their demands were met.

"Both the local administration and the legislative council have no sense of crisis. The governor has proposed to allocate 70 percent of more than Rp 450 billion of the draft budget to finance the bureaucracy and local officials while some of the people have turned to tiwul (a cassava-based food) instead of rice because of the soaring prices of basic commodities," Imam, a student demonstrator, said.

Rice prices have risen to Rp 3,700 per kilogram from Rp 1,500.

Ahmad Julden Erwin, spokesman for the NGOs, questioned the provincial administration's development policy as it had only allocated 30 percent of the budget to development programs.

Erwin also criticized the legislators' high take-home pay, saying it was not feasible to receive such high amounts when the legislature did not function optimally.

"Of course, a legislator's gross salary is only Rp 4 million per month but, with numerous allowances, he or she will receive a total of Rp 24 million per month," he said.

Idhan Djanuawardana, coordinator of the Center for Development Studies, called on the legislature to cut its budget, allowances and facilities provided for the governor.

"The governor has received too many allowances and facilities that reflects a life-style which is too far above local people's living conditions," he said.

The demonstrators said they would keep returning to the legislature compound until the legislative council made changes to the budget.

Abdul Hakim, Muzakir Noor, both of the Crescent Star Party faction, and Raden Muhammad Ismail of the Indonesian democratic Party of Struggle pledged to listen to the demonstrators' demands during the deliberation of the draft budget.