Sutiyoso has no sense of crisis: Councillor

Sutiyoso has no sense of crisis: Councillor

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City councillors condemned Governor Sutiyoso on Tuesday for
making a 10-day visit to Madrid, Athens and Amsterdam as part of
a sister city cooperation program, despite the tense security
situation and difficult economic conditions here.

"I think the visit is not an important one. It should have
been postponed due to the situation here," councillor Syarifien
Maloko of the Crescent and Star Party said.

Syarifien, who is also deputy chairman of the council's
Commission A for administrative affairs, considered that the
sister city cooperation program was really not that crucial,
given the city's current situation.

He said that Sutiyoso, who departed on Monday, had also
ignored the council's own instructions, issued last week to ban
city officials from leaving the city, due to increasing anti-U.S.
sentiment here.

"City officials have been banned from leaving the city, while
the governor has made a trip overseas. He has no sense of
crisis," Syarifien remarked.

Meanwhile, councillor Binsar Tambunan of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle said Sutiyoso had ignored the letter
from the Ministry of Home Affairs that had asked the governor to
reduce the trip to one of a week's duration.

"The Minister of Home Affairs is the President's assistant and
(Sutiyoso's) superior. Morally, he should have obeyed the
request," Binsar, who is also a member of the council's
Commission A, said.

He also said the council would question the origin of the
funds allocated for the trip and the results of the visit.

The 2001 city budget allocated Rp 175 million (US$17,500) for
the governor's domestic and foreign trips and Rp 5 billion for
city officials' trips.

An employee at Singapore Airlines' ticketing office here said
a one-way, business-class ticket to Madrid cost US$2,612 and the
round-trip cost US$4,760.

She said a one-way, first-class ticket to Madrid was US$3,842,
while the round-trip was US$6,697.

During the visit, the governor was accompanied by his wife,
two senior city officials and a group of 10 Betawi (indigenous
Jakartan) dancers.

City spokesman Muhayat acknowledged that the Rp 175 million in
funds allocated for the trip would not be sufficient to cover the
governor's expenses.

"If there are insufficient funds in the allocated budget, the
governor should make up the difference himself or take it from
another budget allocation," Muhayat said, without mentioning what
that might be.

He added that according to the relevant government regulation,
the governor was entitled to fly business-class.

He said the expenditure for the two officials who accompanied
Sutiyoso for the trip had been taken from the city budget, while
that for the dancers had been taken from the budget of the city's
cultural agency.

Sutiyoso departed on Monday evening for Madrid to meet city
officials and present an Indonesian artistic performance in the
city's theater.

He plans to leave Madrid for Amsterdam on Thursday to inspect
a plant greenhouse, before departing for Athens on Saturday to
sign an agreement with the local administration. He is expected
to return on the following Wednesday.