New councilors members elect factions chairmen
JAKARTA (JP): New city council members serving the 1997-2002 office term have elected the factions' chairmen after their installation last Friday.
Golkar elected M.U. Fatomy Asaari, who served the council for the 1992-1997 office term, as chairman of the party's faction, on Saturday, while councilors HMU Djajanto, Soeparmo and Tarman Azzam were elected as the faction's deputy chairmen.
The United Development Party (PPP) elected councilor Achmad Suaidy as the faction's chairman, while Rusydi Hamka, who is currently head of PPP's Jakarta branch office, is proposed to become one of the council's deputy speakers.
The council's speaker will be elected in a plenary session tomorrow before being sworn in Friday.
The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction is chaired by its only member, Lukman F. Mokoginta, while the Armed Forces faction is chaired by Brig. Gen. Edy Waluyo, who is tipped as a strong candidate for the council's speaker.
Golkar proposed to chair three out of the council's five commissions and two out of the three deputy speaker seats. Rusydi lamented this proposal yesterday, saying that with only one PDI member serving the council there should only be two deputy speakers from the PPP and Golkar.
"There should be a dialog with other parties before determining who should chair the council commissions and who should be elected as deputy speakers," Rusydi told The Jakarta Post.
"Golkar just can't do whatever it wants because of its major election win. There should be a balance in the council, otherwise it will create absolute majority instead of democracy. This is not good," Rusydi said.
Golkar has proposed two of its members -- Sugeng Suprijatna, who was also the council's deputy speaker in the previous term, and HM Ade Supriatna -- as the deputy speakers for the 1997-2002 term.
Golkar also proposed councilor Amarullah Asbah to chair Commission C on financial affairs, Ali Wongso H.S. Commission D on development affairs and Nitra Arsyad Commission E on welfare affairs. All of the councilors served the council in the previous office term.
In the 1992-1997 office term PPP, Golkar and PDI were represented by only one deputy speaker respectively.
Golkar's proposal to assign Amarullah to Commission C means that it wants to take over the commission from PPP. Rusydi was also against this plan.
"We still want commission C. If Golkar wants to chair it too what's left for us?" asked Rusydi.
Previously, out of the council's five commissions, two were chaired by PDI councilors and the remaining three by ABRI, PPP and Golkar.
In the May 29 general election, the three political parties competed for the council's 60 seats. The remaining 15 council seats were reserved for the Armed Forces who did not vote.
PPP won 20 council seats, Golkar 39 seats and PDI one seat.
Lukman said he would ask the council to allow PDI to form a team, whose members include the party's members, to help him handle his duty.
At least one member of the team would be assigned to be present at the commissions' meeting to record any issues discussed by the councilors.
The team members, he said, would not have the right to voice their opinion at the meeting.
Lukman said he wanted to become a member of the council's Commission D on development affairs. (ste)