PAN councillors told to reject governor's speech

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City councillor Sambudi Bakri of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said that the party chairman, Amien Rais, had instructed PAN members on the City Council to reject Governor Sutiyoso accountability speech for the 2001 city budget due to his poor performance.

"It (the instruction) comes directly from the chairman," Sambudi told reporters on Friday, referring to Amien who is also the People's Consultative Assembly speaker.

Sambudi, whose PAN faction is the second largest on the City Council with 13 seats, said the administration's poor performance in managing city-owned firms was one of many reasons to reject the budget speech.

Another PAN councillor, Tjuk Sudono, also confirmed the plan to reject the budget speech.

Tjuk, a member of the council's Commission D for development affairs, said that many development projects listed in last year's budget had not materialized.

"It's obvious that the administration has failed to make a good plan," he said without naming the projects.

The 2001 budget reached Rp 8.9 trillion (US$941.8 million). Seventy percent of the budget was used for routine spending while the remaining 30 percent was allocated for development expenditure.

Tjuk claimed that his faction's stance was decided by the party after listening to the aspirations of the people, mainly its constituents.

"We listen to our constituents in our branches in community units and organization wings, such as workers' unions and also affiliated groups such as Muhammadiyah Muslim organization," he said.

A similar claim was also made by councillor Ugiek Soegihardjo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the largest party on the council, saying that his faction also listens to the public.

"However, we still have to make our own judgment. We'll evaluate the governor's performance objectively," said Ugiek, who is also a member of the council's Commission B for economic affairs.

PDI Perjuangan's 30 councillors still have differing opinions on Sutiyoso's accountability. Some of them are likely to accept it but many have made sharp criticisms of the governor.

Another party that plans to reject the accountability report is the Justice Party, which only has two seats on the council.

The process of the council's acceptance or rejection of the governor's budget report has been criticized by many observers as neglecting public participation.

It will be determined by only 85 councillors who they said would have "a secret deal" with Sutiyoso.

The Rp 17.8 billion budget allocation in the 2002 budget for the council's sessions -- including the session to discuss the budget speech -- was seen as a part of the deal to make the councillors accept the report.

So far, public rejection or acceptance of the budget report, including that of non-governmental organizations, has not been officially addressed by the council.

The council will hold a plenary session next Friday to hear the final stance of the council's 11 factions.

Voting will be conducted should there be a split within a faction.

Sutiyoso desperately needs the council's acceptance of his budget report to enable him to be reelected for a second term in October's gubernatorial election.