Legalized vote-buying?

With the debate about Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's annual budget speech due to enter the voting stage later next month, some perennial issues such as vote-buying, graft, bribery and corruption are once again becoming hot topics of public debate and speculation among Jakarta's citizenry. After all, whether rightly or wrongly, public observation and personal knowledge gained over the past decades has convinced most Indonesians that vote-buying is standard practice in political procedures in this country, and in the capital city in particular.

Sadly, it must be said that the city officials, both in the administration and in the legislature, or City Council, have only themselves to blame for this lamentable state of affairs. Last week, for example, Azas Tigor Nainggolan, who is the chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta), a non-governmental organization, revealed to the press that a number of councillors had been offered Rp 35 million (US$3,500) each in return for accepting Governor Sutiyoso's budget speech, scheduled for March 27.

Naturally, Sutiyoso has denied the allegation. Downplaying the April vote as a "regular event", the governor said that he would not bother suing the "slanderers". And even if his speech is rejected by the council, it would take more time and effort to oust him from his post. In such an event, an independent team would be set up comprising officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, observers and academicians to evaluate the rejection.

No doubt, the initial rejection and subsequent acceptance of his budget speech for 2000, after some revision plus the provision of sedans for councillors, is still fresh in the governor's mind. In any case, Sutiyoso makes no bones about the Jakarta city administration having allocated additional fees for the councillors, using money taken from the target surplus of the city vehicle tax revenue because "the city bylaw states that giving the money is legal".

As indeed it does. According to this particular city bylaw, the city police, the Jakarta Military Command and City Council are entitled to 1 percent of the tax revenue surplus because they are considered to play a vital role in increasing the city's revenue. This, though, is a sensitive point that is sure to become a bone of contention and a subject of much criticism from the public once it becomes widely known.

What, after all, is so exceptionally vital about the accomplishments of a city councillor that he or she is worth a monthly payment that is way beyond the income of the average Jakarta citizen? Besides their monthly salaries, which is Rp 7 million plus allowances, councillors are given extra honorary fees for attending certain sessions. These can reach amounts that can be considered as extravagant by the standards of the average Jakartan -- as much as Rp 50 million for attending events such as the governor's budget speech. This is not to mention other benefits such as private housing and cars.

With all this in mind, Jakarta's citizens are bracing themselves for October, when Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to deliver his accountability speech to close off his five-year term as governor of Jakarta. Rumors and speculation are already rife, given the fact that Governor Sutiyoso is eyeing a second term in office notwithstanding his external indifference on the matter.

Be that as it may, it is not quite fair to blame the governor alone for the state of affairs in the Jakarta City Council. The councillors too must share the blame, since after all it is they who pass the city's laws and bylaws. It is within their authority and it is their responsibility to prevent any regulations, laws and bylaws from being passed that do not take the public's interests at heart. Not until this is achieved can the Jakarta City Council pride itself on being a genuine instrument of reform.