Sutiyoso advances smoothly

Sutiyoso advances smoothly

Sutiyoso's route to the Jakarta governorship (again) is now distinctly possible after the Jakarta Provincial Legislative Council accepted his accountability speech on a vote on Monday.

Despite demonstrations staged by both those supporting and against Sutiyoso, things ran as predicted: Sutiyoso cleared the hurdles.

Everybody has to respect the fact that Sutiyoso, the incumbent governor, has been able to continue his candidacy at the first stage with Fauzi Bowo as the vice gubernatorial candidate. The decisive stage will occur next month.

Councillors who accepted Sutiyoso must feel that the retired lieutenant general managed the capital city properly.

Anti-Sutiyoso voices from non-governmental organizations and other groups said that Sutiyoso had failed to perform. The point now is, does Sutiyoso deserve to lead Jakarta again? The answer could be yes or no.

If the Jakarta governor is elected via the council rather than a direct election, we will not have a governor who can fulfill the people's wishes.

In line with the recent development whereby the President will be elected directly (by the people) in 2004, we do hope that governors, mayors and regents will be directly elected by the people in the future.

In such a way people could be sure of leaders' accountability. We should be patient, as improving the system needs time.

-- Warta Kota, Jakarta