People have less trust in councillors

YOGYAKARTA (JP): People in Yogyakarta and its neighboring Central Java towns place less trust in their representatives at the local legislative councils, a survey reveals.

But the councillors played down the poll results, claiming that they had performed well.

The survey was conducted by Yogyakarta-based Parliament Watch Indonesia (PARWI) from November 2000 to April this year in seven regencies and municipalities in Yogyakarta, Magelang and Boyolali.

Using a sampling method, the parliament watchdog picked 150 respondents consisting of councillors, government officials and ordinary people who had to answer four questions: 1. whether councillors have fought for people's aspirations; 2. whether current regional regulations as the council's output have met people's aspirations; 3. whether the council has exercised its controlling function to its full strength; and 4. whether the council was ready to face regional autonomy.

"Concerning the first question, more than 86 percent of the ordinary people and 64.6 percent of local officials in Yogyakarta mayoralty said that the councillors 'sometimes' fought for people's aspirations. This response was echoed by 80 percent of people and 60 percent of executives questioned in Bantul regency," Yauri Gautama, PARWI's head of monitoring division, said in a discussion held by the provincial chapter of Indonesian Young Generation for Development (GMPI).

"In contrast, 86.6 percent of Yogyakarta provincial legislators and 91.7 percent of Bantul legislators claimed they had fought for people's aspirations," Yauri said.

Responding to the question whether local regulations have met the people's demands, 72.2 percent of Gunung Kidul people and 64.9 percent of local executives there said 'less', he said.

More than 78 percent of Gunung Kidul councillors said 'yes', however.

Yauri said the bylaw on Drugs and Narcotics was the only legal output of Yogyakarta's provincial legislature.

"However, people gave no response to the bylaw. It indicates that the legislators lack knowledge of their constituent's needs," he added.

Yauri said that the legislators, the executives and local people surveyed shared the same response to the third question.

Most residents, executives and legislators in the eight areas, minus Sleman and Bantul, answered 'not sufficiently'.

Most of the Sleman and Bantul respondents who said yes were councillors.

The research also concluded that the majority of the respondents said that the council was not sufficiently prepared to face regional autonomy. But the councillors surveyed expressed their optimism, saying that they were prepared for autonomy. (23)