NGOs demand Sutiyoso's ouster

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.