NGOs slam City Council

JAKARTA: Two non-governmental organizations slammed the City Council for being unprofessional in the way it assessed the accountability speech of Governor Sutiyoso.

A media release, which was sent by Pusat Pengkajian Jakarta (Jakarta Research Center) and Jakarta Government Watch to The Jakarta Post on Monday, stated that the city councillors were not serious in reading the governor's accountability speech and made no effort to verify the data contained within it.

"What's funny is that some of the councillors have already said they would reject it although they haven't yet read it. Councillors from the Indonesian Mandate Party Faction (F-PAN) and the Justice Party (F-PK) have stated that they will reject it as they've already done during the last four years of Sutiyoso's term," it said.

The media statement, which was signed by chairmen of both organizations, M. Taufik and Mu'arif Ambary, claimed that the councillors would rely simply on prejudice as those who had rejected it previously would reject it this year and those who had accepted his previous accountability speeches would accept it again this year.

The two organizations urged the Council to thoroughly study the governor's speech before deciding to accept or reject it. --JP