NGOs demand Sutiyoso's ouster

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

About 100 protesters from several non-governmental organizations rallied on Monday in front of City Council to demand the councillors recommend Governor Sutiyoso's dismissal.

The protesters claimed the governor was not fit to continue in office because of his status as a suspect in the violent attack on the Jakarta headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) on July 27, 1996, and his inability to alleviate poverty in the city.

Edi Saidi of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), which coordinated the rally, said Article 18 of Law No. 22/1999 on the city administration stipulated that the City Council could recommend the dismissal of a governor.

"A governor can be dismissed if there is a crisis of confidence. This has widespread support among the public, relating to a case in which he is involved," he said.

The police reopened the July 27 case early last month and named Sutiyoso as one of 12 suspects. They submitted the governor's case file to the Attorney General's Office along with the case files of the 11 other suspects, but late last month the office returned the files and asked the police to submit Sutiyoso's case file separately.

Sutiyoso was the Jakarta Military commander when the attack on the PDI office took place. According to official reports, five people were killed, 149 injured and 23 went missing in the attack.

The protesters on Monday also criticized Sutiyoso's policies toward the city's poor.

"Sutiyoso aggressively demolished our homes and evicted pedicab drivers and street vendors from the capital during his first term between 1997 and 2003," Rasdullah, a pedicab driver who took part in the protest, said.

Rasdullah, who tried but failed to qualify for the 2002 gubernatorial election, said more than 87,000 families in 40 kampongs across the city had been affected by the evictions. That figure does not include the some 22,000 pedicab drivers and 51,000 street vendors who have lost their jobs because of Sutiyoso's policies, he said.

Councillors Posman Siahaan of the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party faction and Soleh Rachman of the National Mandate Party met with the protesters.

The meeting quickly ended when the protesters attempted to force the councillors to sign a statement saying they supported Sutiyoso's dismissal, which the councillors refused to sign.