Sutiyoso's European tour

It was on Monday, Oct. 22, that Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso left the country for a 10-day visit to Madrid, Athens and Amsterdam, accompanied by his wife, Rini, and two senior city officials. Not surprisingly, under the circumstances, the trip drew immediate criticism not only from members of the City Council, but from the public as well.

"I think the visit is not an important one," councillor Syarifien Maloko, of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) commented. "It should have been postponed due to the situation here." In Syarifien's view the sister city cooperation program was really not that crucial, especially given the current situation in the country and in the city.

Besides, he said, by going on a foreign tour the governor was disregarding his own instruction, issued only last week, which bans city officials from leaving the city due to the rising anti- U.S. sentiment in Jakarta. "City officials are banned from leaving the city and the governor is making a trip overseas. He has no sense of crisis."

Syarifien's comments were concurred by councillor Binsar Tambunan, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), who said that by going overseas, Sutiyoso was also ignoring a letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs asking that the governor limit his trip to one week, instead of 10 days.

City spokesman Muhayat, told reporters the visit aims to strengthen cooperation between Jakarta and the three European cities. It was a long-standing invitation that had to be delayed and could only be undertaken now, because of the governor's tight working schedule, he explained. And why can't a governor of Jakarta go on a foreign tour while other officials, even city councillors for that matter, have gone on state-funded overseas trips?

With all due respect for the governor and his subordinates, Syarifien and Binsar are right. Governor Sutiyoso, of course, is always free to go on foreign tours -- provided, however, conditions permit and the means are there. At present it is difficult to say that conditions are ideal. The anti-American protests and threats to conduct sweeping operations appear to have let up for now, but there is no guarantee that they will not return.

The overall public security situation remains one of great concern for the average Jakarta resident, with the police failing to produce results on their promise to stamp out crime or at least to reduce it to a minimum. The rainy season is approaching and nothing seems to have been done to anticipate the danger of flooding, which means that Jakartans are likely to see more of the kind of chaos and traffic snarls that occurred recently. On a different plane, the city administration together with the city council must work hard to finalize the city budget by the start of December. In short, there is no shortage of problems and headaches for anyone who is concerned about security and order in Jakarta.

The official city budget allocates Rp 175 million (approximately US$17,500) for the governor's domestic and foreign trips this year. Admittedly, with a Singapore Airlines ticket, one way business class, from Jakarta to Madrid costing $2,612 and a one-way first class ticket $3,842 that may not be such a huge amount, even when one considers the fact that Sutiyoso visited Canada and South Korea in April, accompanied by his wife, two city officials and a troupe of Betawi local dancers. City spokesman Muhayat acknowledged it would not be enough to cover the governor's travel expenses this year. The interesting question, of course, is how he will make up the balance.

That, however, goes beyond the scope of this column. What matters for the present is the lack of a sense of urgency. This is, or should be, one of Indonesia's great concerns because it seems to prevail (almost) throughout our whole administration. As for Jakarta, let us just remember that it is not only the capital city, but also the main gateway to the country. President Megawati Soekarnoputri has expressed her concern over this country's image abroad. It is no exaggeration to say that Jakarta either makes or breaks that image.