`Sutiyoso humiliates Jakarta residents'

`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.