PKB bans councillors from overseas visit

Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

The National Awakening Party (PKB) has banned its legislators in the East Java provincial legislative council from going to Europe for comparative studies.

The province's party branch threatened to remove its councillors who defy the ban.

The decision was made during a meeting of the 32-member PKB faction in the legislature on Monday. At least 24 legislators from the party attended the forum.

"We have fully agreed to prohibit our members in the council from taking part in the planned trip abroad," PKB faction chairman Fathorrasjid said.

The council has unveiled a controversial plan to make comparative studies in several European countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

It would involve at least 100 legislators from Commission B for economic affairs and Commission E for people's welfare.

The plan drew condemnations from analysts and activists as well as other community members, who accused the legislators of being extravagant with state money, while East Java needs funds badly to help victims of recent floods and landslides in several regencies there.

"The monetary crisis is still upon us. In East Java, we are facing problems with refugees from floods and landslides and also poverty," said Fathorrasjid, whose PKB is the largest faction in the council.

"We have taken all factors into consideration, which led us the decision to prohibit our members from participating in the overseas trip."

A similar ban was also issued by the National Mandate Party (PAN), which has four councillors in East Java. The party warned them of removal should they try to breach the order.

Meanwhile, participants from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has yet to decide whether to go ahead with the plan or not. "Not all comparative studies abroad are bad. There should deliberation before taking a stance," Saleh Mukadar of PDI Perjuangan said.

At least Rp 2 billion was allocated in the province's 2002 budget for comparative studies by local legislators.

Council Speaker Bisjrie Abdul Jalil insists that overseas comparative studies are urgent for legislators and that the trip has been planned a long time.

Last Thursday, Commission B invited German Ambassador to Indonesia Hermann Sausen to brief the would-be visitors on small- and medium-enterprises in his country.

It turned out, however, that Sausen advised the East Java legislators to cancel their trip to Germany, where they would hold a comparative study on tobacco plantations.

"To learn about tobacco, you should go to Turkey or Greece, not to Germany. We don't have any tobacco plantations. We have only tobacco-processing and auctioning sites in Bremen," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Also, the French ambassador to Indonesia is scheduled to give similar presentations to the East Java councillors on March 14.