NGOs slam City Council

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