Sutiyoso's European tour

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.