PAN councillors told to reject governor's speech

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.