Most councillors accept Sutiyoso's accountability

JAKARTA (JP): With a vote of 45 for and 37 against, the City Council on Monday accepted the revised annual accountability speech of Governor Sutiyoso, saying that the latter has shown significant improvement in his performance over the last 30 days.

The Council reached its decision in a closed vote at the end of a nine-hour plenary session at City Hall.

After the vote, several councillors told The Jakarta Post that the 37 councillors, who rejected the revised speech, consisted of all 27 council members from the PDI Perjuangan faction attending the meeting, all four members of the Justice Party faction, and six others, whose identities were not mentioned on the voting papers.

The council has 85 councillors from 11 factions.

The three absent councillors were all from PDI Perjuangan. Two of them were sick, while the other one, Santayana Kiemas, a brother-in-law of Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, was said to be on a trip to Singapore with Megawati.

Monday's session represents the final opinion of each faction of the City Council after Sutiyoso's first delivery of the speech before the council on June 5.

In a session concerning the same matter on Aug. 21, the councillors stunned the country when 68 of the attending councillors voted to reject Sutiyoso's accountability speech due to his perceived failure to provide detailed explanations to the councillors' questions.

Speaking to journalists after Monday's vote, PDI Perjuangan faction chairman Audi Tambunan said his faction had decided from the beginning to reject the governor's speech since they failed to see improvements in Sutiyoso's administration.

"Our faction completely rejects his speech. There has been no improvement at all," Audi said.

Meanwhile, Justice Party faction chairman Achmad Heryawan echoed Audi's opinion, saying that there was still rampant corruption in the administration, while gambling and prostitution had not been reduced at all.

"I cannot understand why the other factions have accepted the speech. Sutiyoso has failed in the running of his administration," Achmad said.

Sutiyoso, a 56-year-old retired three-star army general, has been in the position for more than 2.5 years, or half of the five-year gubernatorial term.

According to Law No.22/1999 on Regional Autonomy, councillors have the right to evaluate, accept or reject the speech and to submit the final outcome to the President as a recommendation.

Most of the council's 11 factions which voted to accept the governor's speech praised the progress made by Sutiyoso in the past 30 days, particularly his efforts to reduce public order offenses, improve public services and restructure the management of city-owned companies.

The pro-Sutiyoso factions also stated that the governor should be given more time, at least until the next fiscal year, to fulfil his commitment to improve overall conditions in the capital.

Sutiyoso, who looked relieved after the outcome of the vote, pledged that he would continue his efforts in these three areas and stated that he fully understood those who refused to support him, saying that it was a warning for him to work harder during the remainder of his term.

"This is proof that the councillors have regained their trust in my administration and I will continue all of my programs because the acceptance of my speech means that I must fulfil all of my commitments," Sutiyoso said.

"I have to make a list of everything that still needs improving and I will act on that as soon as possible. My priority will be to provide sufficient public services for underprivileged residents," he added.

Commenting on the fact that many Jakartans still reject him, Sutiyoso simply said that it's something normal.

"Out of almost 10 million Jakartans, some might be unable to see the improvements I'm trying to make," he said.

The plenary session was colored by anti-Sutiyoso protesters, including hundreds of becak (pedicab) drivers, staging rallies in front of City Hall.

The presence of the protesters, who had thronged the site since early morning, forced traffic police to temporarily close Jl. Kebon Sirih in front of City Hall for almost two hours.

By noon, police estimated that the number of protesters had already reached some 2,000 people from different groups, including the Jakarta Partners' Communication Forum (Fokorja), the Jakarta Residents' Forum (FAKTA), the Communication Forum of the 124 Victims of the July 27, 1996 Tragedy (FKK 124-27 Juli'96).

They all had one object: demanding that councillors reject Sutiyoso's speech. (dja)