Official denies plan to build new costly crisis center
Official denies plan to build new costly crisis center
JAKARTA (JP): City administration spokesman Muhayat denied
here on Saturday that the administration would develop a new
crisis center or improve its current crisis control center
(Pusdalsis), which would cost billions of rupiah.
"We never had such a plan. Some people have offered equipment
for the center, but we have no plan to buy it," Muhayat told The
Jakarta Post.
Muhayat was commenting on the city councillors' statement
recently that they would reject the city administration's plan to
buy electronic equipment for the crisis center.
"It's better to have spent hundreds of millions of rupiah on
foreign trips than to build a crisis center which would cost
billions of rupiah," the City Council chairman Edy Waluyo told
reporters.
But Muhayat noted that the city did not need any new equipment
for its Pusdalsis. "We think that our equipment is sufficient. We
have no plan to buy the electronic equipment which reportedly
costs billions of rupiah," Muhayat said, adding that the city
administration also had no plan to build a new crisis center.
He revealed its current crisis control center (Pusdalsis) on
the 22nd floor of the city administration building on Jl. Merdeka
Selatan, Central Jakarta, was only used for occasional events,
such as a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly.
He said the center's television monitors, which were built two
years ago, could be used to monitor rallies or demonstrations on
the city's main streets or to anticipate potential riots.
The City Council's Commission A, dealing with legal and
administrative affairs, made the statement recently after they
conducted what they claimed was a comparative study in Tokyo and
Beijing.
During the study, some 18 councillors of the commission
visited Tokyo's crisis center and its fire headquarters to study
disaster management.
The councillors, which were charged US$2,115 each for air
fares and five-star hotel accommodation, spent most of their time
visiting tourist sites in the two cities.
The 2001 City Budget has allocated Rp 12 billion (US$1.3
million) for the councillors' domestic and foreign trips. More
than half of the fund has been spent.
They admitted that their trip's results could not be applied
in Jakarta, but claimed that they still needed such comparative
studies to increase their knowledge.
Separately, the chairman of the urban division of the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute Tubagus Karbyanto questioned why the
Commission A councillors should study disaster management.
"They are supposed to study legal aspects or administrative
affairs. Of course, the trip was useless for them, as well as for
the city as they've admitted," Tubagus told the Post. (jun)