Sutiyoso again survives budget hurdle

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid accusations of corruption and incompetence, Jakarta's Governor Sutiyoso has once again survived with his statement on last year's budget being approved by an open vote of the City Council on Friday.

During the council plenary session, 57 councillors voted in favor of the governor while 19 rejected his statement.

They had to hold a vote as the 76 councillors in attendance, out of the total number of 83, failed to reach a consensus during the session.

On Thursday, all factions had stated their acceptance of Sutiyoso's 2001 budget statement.

Before the vote, the council's 11 factions stated their final positions on the statement, with seven factions accepting it and the remaining four rejecting it.

According to the council's rules, should any faction reject acceptance of the budget statement, a final decision must be taken by voting.

Governor Sutiyoso, who attended the session from morning until it ended in the evening, thanked the council for its decision.

"We promised to make corrections and improvements in accordance with a number of notes we received from the factions," Sutiyoso told reporters after the plenary session.

The council's vote is believed to have slightly improved the governor's chances of being reelected for a second five-year term during the next gubernatorial election in October.

Despite accepting the budget statement, the largest party on the council, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), which has 29 seats, sharply criticized it during the session, saying that there were a host of valid reasons for rejecting it.

"But since the Governor's term has only a few months left to run, it would be useless to reject the statement. We can accept it," the faction's spokesman Agung Imam Sumanto said.

Agung, who is also the faction chairman, questioned the alleged corruption case involving the acquisition of 5.6 hectares of land in the former Kramat Tunggak brothel complex in North Jakarta, which reportedly caused Rp 26 billion (US$.6 million) in state losses last year.

He said the administration's policies on public order operations, health, drugs, parks, parking, and public transportation missed their targets and had failed to show any improvement.

The third largest faction, the United Development Party (PPP), also accepted Sutiyoso's budget statement although it criticized the governor.

"Our faction can accept the statement, but the governor should respond to our notes," the faction spokesman Ali Imran Husein said.

Ali said the development of the Pulogebang bus terminal in East Jakarta on land that formerly belonged to state-owned housing developer Perumnas, which had the potential to cause losses to the state, was among several issues that had been raised by the faction.

Besides the PDI Perjuangan and PPP, five other factions, namely the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police (with nine seats), the Golkar Party (eight seats), the National Awakening Party (three seats), the Unity in Diversity Party (one seat) and the Unity and Justice Party (one seat) also approved the budget statement.

Four party factions, namely the second largest party on the council, the National Mandate Party (PAN), as well as the Justice Party, the Crescent Star Party, and the United Party, with a total of 19 councillors, rejected Sutiyoso's budget statement.

PAN faction spokesman during the session, Nazamuddin, accused Sutiyoso of failing to eradicate corruption and collusion. Rather, these problems had actually gotten worse under his stewardship.

Nazamuddin also questioned the whereabouts of funds amounting to Rp 2 billion belonging to city-owned developer BPL Sunter.

Besides corruption, the faction also criticized public services provision, including public transportation and health, areas in which no improvements were apparent.

"Therefore, our faction rejected the governor's 2001 budget statement," Nazamuddin, who is also the faction chairman, said during the plenary session.

Separately, activist Tubagus H. Kalbaryanto condemned the councillors for accepting Sutiyoso's budget statement even though so many violations as well as alleged incidences of corruption had taken place during his tenure.

"Last year was the worst time for Sutiyoso's administration. He (the governor) carried out so many evictions of poor people and human right violations," Tubagus, who heads the urban division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, commented to The Jakarta Post.