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.