New councilors members elect factions chairmen

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)