Sutiyoso shifts blame to subordinates

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governor Sutiyoso who is under fire for his administration's poor handling of the recent floods has blamed his subordinates, saying they were unresponsive and lacked the professionalism to deal properly with severe floods.

After talks with flood victims in Kuningan in South Jakarta Saturday, Sutiyoso told the media that despite almost all subdistrict chiefs in Jakarta being university graduates, they were underqualified.

"As we cannot meet the expectations of the public when it comes to handling floods, we ask volunteers and other non- governmental organizations to help us deal with the problem," he said at the news briefing, which was also attended by Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi and Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar.

Minister Achmad also acknowledged his subordinates' shortcomings in assisting flood victims. "In most cases, our health teams only assisted patients who went at our posts," said Achmad in reply to complaints by flood victims.

"If I find there was incompetence in dealing with flood problems, I will not hesitate to dismiss those involved," said Sutiyoso in reference to members of his administration at the discussion.

During the meeting, flood victims protested that the government did not do enough to help them.

Sarmidi, a resident of Cililitan subdistrict in East Jakarta, said that the flood victims in his area had yet to receive any kind of support or donations from the city.

"We are only receiving food and other support from non- governmental organizations, students and private individuals," Sarmidi said during the meeting in Kuningan, South Jakarta, which was organized by Government Watch (Gowa).

Petrus, a resident of Makasar subdistrict, East Jakarta, criticized the subdistrict's councils, known as Dewan Kelurahan, for doing nothing to cope with the floods.

"Our homes have been inundated with floodwaters for more than 21 days; today, my house is still filled with water up to 30 centimeters deep -- but, the council has yet to visit us," said Petrus.

Kelik Waluyo, a resident of North Cipinang Besar subdistrict, East Jakarta, also criticized the slow response of the health monitoring posts, which were established by the city administration's health division to cope with the flood victims.

"The posts must be more responsive to reach out to the flooding areas -- not just to wait for the flood victims to swim through the floodwaters to get to the posts," said Kelik.

In response to residents' complaints, Governor Sutiyoso urged residents not to be reluctant about reporting irregularities.

"I will impose a reward and punishment mechanism; no one will be excluded if they are proven guilty," Sutiyoso pledged, admitting that most in the city administration were not qualified to deal with large-scale calamities like flooding.

He also emphasized that his priority would be to deal with officials' irregularities in responding to the floods.

Although there have been no reports of Sutiyoso's strict measures to the city administration's personnel, some of whom have been found hoarding money and material intended for flood victims, public anger has been everywhere.

The city administration has allocated Rp 50 million to each flood-affected subdistrict to help flood victims across the capital.

But there have been allegations of irregularities in the distribution of funds meant for flood victims.

According to Ministry of Health data, as of Friday, 15,019 flood victims were staying in temporary shelters in the capital.

Twenty-two people had died of flood-related diseases -- mostly diarrhea, upper respiratory infections and dengue fever.

Besides health problems, many schools had to close due to the flooding. About 660 school buildings were reported to have been at least partly damaged by the floods, while 62 schools have been used for shelters for the evacuees.

"We have allocated Rp 120 billion to rehabilitate the damaged schools and provide school items, including books and uniforms for the students," Sutiyoso said.

Malik Fajar added that his ministry had also provided Rp 2.1 billion to help restore all material damages, so that schools could return to normal operation.