New Kampar councillors installed
Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post/Pekanbaru
A student protest marred the induction of 45 councillors at the Kampar regental council on Friday.
In the noisy protest, hundreds of students demanded the councillors step up the fight against corruption and prevent the reinstatement of Kampar Regent Jefri Noer.
Grouped under the Kampar Students' Solidarity Forum (Formasi), they unfurled banners urging the new legislative members to have the courage to voice the aspirations of the Kampar people.
The leader of Formasi, Zulfahmi, said it was imperative that those being sworn in on Friday fight for the interests of the people they represented. "We urge the council members not to become involved in corrupt practices by misusing the people's money or misappropriating funds from the budget, and to uphold the supremacy of the law," he said.
The new members were also called upon to allot 20 percent of the regental budget for education, in line with the 1945 Constitution.
The inauguration of the new councillors, who were elected in the April 5 legislative election, was tarnished by corruption charges leveled against former Kampar councillors.
Thirteen of the 45 former Kampar councillors, who are being investigated in connection with a Rp 1.125 billion (US$125,000) graft case, were among the 45 new Kampar councillors installed on Friday.
But according to the head of the Kampar General Elections Commission (KPU), Nurhamin Nahar, the commission could not postpone or prevent the swearing in of the 13 councillors under investigation because they had yet to be tried in a court of law. "Only if they are pronounced guilty will their positions as councillors be considered legally void," he said.
The installation of the new members to the Kampar regental council was also colored by rumors that the Ministry of Home Affairs planned to reinstate Regent Jefri Noer and Vice Regent A. Zakir. Jefri Noer was fired as Kampar regent early this year to prevent unrest in the region, following his infamous slapping of a local teacher. The teacher was thrown out of a meeting by Jefri at Jefri's office early this year for questioning Jefri's policy on education, which resulted in a massive protest by teachers and students seeking the ousting of Jefri.
Jefri was eventually dismissed, but during a meeting recently in Jakarta with local Kampar leaders, officials at the ministry hinted that Jefri could be reinstated.
Anticipating Jefri's possible return to power, the students demanded in their protest that the newly elected councillors prevent his reinstatement.