`Sutiyoso humiliates Jakarta residents'

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governor Sutiyoso has belittled Jakarta residents by saying that people are not ready to elect a governor directly, urban observers said on Friday.

His statement is humiliating for the people of Jakarta, many of whom are well-educated and well-informed of developments in the city, said Marco Kusumawijaya, an urban analyst.

"It is a strange statement. If the Indonesian people are ready to elect their president next year, why then are the well- educated and well-informed Jakartans not ready to elect their governor directly?" Marco told The Jakarta Post.

Next year, the Indonesian people are expected to elect their president directly. The House of Representatives is now deliberating the bill on the direct presidential elections expected to be approved this year.

Sutiyoso's statement was made on Thursday in a comment on the current revision of Law No. 34/1999 on Jakarta's special regional status as the capital city by the House of Representatives.

The most significant aspect of the revision is a change in the election procedure from an election held by and within the City Council to an election where the Jakarta residents elect their governor.

If the revision is approved, direct gubernatorial elections should be implemented next year.

Marco said that as the Jakarta people live in the country's capital, they are the most prepared to participate in direct gubernatorial elections.

A similar comment came from Ratna Sarumpaet, another urban analyst, who is also a noted playwright. She said it was not the Jakarta people who were not ready for a direct election, but Sutiyoso who was not ready to lose his position.

Ratna and Marco, are among those who campaigned for direct gubernatorial elections in the city last year as they no longer have confidence in the City Council to represent the people of Jakarta.

According to Ratna, the gubernatorial election in September 2002, where the City Council reelected Sutiyoso as the governor amid strong public protests, was further proof that a direct gubernatorial election was needed in the city.

Just before the September election, Sutiyoso expressed his agreement with the concept of a direct gubernatorial election, but not "at the moment".

Ratna said the gubernatorial elections conducted by the City Council as practiced so far had had a negative impact on the process of development in the city as the gubernatorial candidates would only lobby the 85 councillors.

"As we witnessed in the gubernatorial election last year, the people's aspirations were ignored by the candidates as they did not need them to become governor," Ratna, who nominated herself as a gubernatorial candidate, told the Post.

She also said direct elections could also minimize the practice of vote-buying by candidates because candidates who would want to do so would need to buy millions of people votes to win the gubernatorial post.

Sutiyoso was elected despite strong protests from tens of thousands of people who opposed his reelection.

She said a direct gubernatorial election in the city would become a good precedence for other regions as an effort to accelerate the democratic process in the country.