Strong civil society needed in Jakarta

Bambang Nurbianto and T. Sima Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta is where all reforms begin as the city is home to critical observers, critical students and critical activists of non-governmental organizations. Unfortunately, the city's political system is the most undemocratic in the country.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso is the most powerful governor. Unlike his counterparts in other provinces, Sutiyoso has the final say on policies from provincial up to subdistrict levels.

In other provinces, subdistrict heads are elected directly by the people. But that's not the case in Jakarta, where officials, as well as district heads, mayors and regents are appointed by Sutiyoso.

Jakarta has local councillors in the level of province, municipality and subdistrict. But the municipal and subdistrict councils do not have political supremacy, while most provincial councillors seem to have been coopted by the governor.

Experts blame Law No.34/1999 on Jakarta as the special capital administration, which gives extraordinary power to the governor.

The law is in addition to Law No.22/1999 on regional administrations, which is widely known as the Regional Autonomy Law.

Based on Law No.22, regional autonomy is centered in the city and regency, therefore both mayors and regents have overall authority in their own regions. The governor only has a coordinative function in the territory.

However, according to Law No. 34, Jakarta's autonomy is centered at the provincial level. Therefore, the governor has extraordinary power under which, if he wants, he may delegate authority to the five mayors of North, West, Central, East and South Jakarta, and to the regent of the Seribu Islands.

Revision of Law No.34/1999 has been proposed to the House of Representatives and it has agreed on one crucial point, that is to allow direct gubernatorial elections.

However, there are many other articles that also need revising to make Jakarta more democratic. The current articles on the election of mayors, regents and members of the municipal council (Dekot) and subdistrict councils (Dekel) should also be amended as the election process is not in line with democratic principles.

Based on Article 20, paragraph 2 of Law No. 34/1999, the five mayors and the regent in Jakarta are appointed by the governor and should be approved by the City Council.

Article 26, paragraph 5 of the same law says that members of the municipal council, taken from each district in a municipality, are elected by the City Council. While Article 27, paragraph 2 rules that members of subdistrict councils are elected by heads of community units (RW).

It means that Jakarta is allowed to ignore Law No.4/1999 on the status and function of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House of Representatives (DPR) and the city or regency councils (DPRD). This law stipulates that all members of the council are elected during general elections.

The revised law on Jakarta as the special capital administration should also reduce the power of the governor and give more power to the mayors and the regent as well as municipal and subdistrict councils, whose members should be directly elected by the people.

According to Tubagus Haryo Karbiyanto, an activist from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), the centralistic power held by the governor causes various problems, particularly because the governor does not feel it is necessary to consider people's aspirations when making policies.

"Therefore, we often find the policies made by the city administration are not in line with what is needed by the people," Tubagus said, referring to frequent demonstrations to oppose policies made by the city administration.

Tubagus said the governor never listened to the demands of the people as their protests would not affect his position. "Therefore, he prefers to approach the 85 members of the City Council."

It is sad to say that the councillors often seem to side with the governor instead of the people.

This condition has forced the people to find a way to express their demands by staging street demonstrations.

One non-government organization that often demonstrates in the city is the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) led by Wardah Hafidz. UPC has often protested policies made by Sutiyoso that are considered to be disadvantageous to low-income people. It also protested the administration's lack of preparedness when huge floods hit the city earlier this year and victims were more or less left to fend for themselves.

In one UPC rally, the protesters met with a group that was demonstrating in favor of Sutiyoso. When Wardah accused the people of being paid by Sutiyoso, a man armed with a machete angrily chased her. She managed to escape, but some of Sutiyoso's supporters beat several other demonstrators with sticks.

The biggest demonstration against Sutiyoso took place on Sept. 11 during the gubernatorial election. Thousands of people, including students, rallied in front of the City Council building to reject Sutiyoso, whom they considered incompetent.

Despite the strong pressure, Sutiyoso won, thanks to President Megawati Soekarnoputri's support for him. Megawati, who is also chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), ordered the 30 city councillors in her party's faction to vote for Sutiyoso.

PDI Perjuangan Jakarta had earlier nominated several party figures as gubernatorial candidates. However, Megawati rejected them and ordered the faction to support Sutiyoso, a former Jakarta military commander who was recently named a suspect in the July 1996 bloody attack on PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

The reelection of Sutiyoso is a fitting example of the failure of reform in Jakarta and proof of the lack of democracy here.

While Megawati argued that she gave the controversial order to elect Sutiyoso in her capacity as the leader of PDI Perjuangan, the law allows her, as president, to interfere in the gubernatorial electoral process.

According to the Jakarta gubernatorial electoral regulations made by the City Council and governmental regulation (PP) No. 151/2000 on the procedure for gubernatorial elections, the gubernatorial candidates should be "discussed first" with the President before their names are admitted for election.

This is exactly what happened in the New Order era, when all elected governors were subject to president Soeharto's approval, although some councillors said it was unlikely that the president would reject a governor elected by the council.

It is clear that many laws and regulations should be improved in order to promote democracy here. The House has agreed to revise them, but the process will obviously take time. In the meantime, civil society should empower itself and join forces to fight for a more democratic Jakarta, even though this will not be easy, especially as many are apathetic toward and depressed with the stalled reform process.