Truant councillors slammed

Truant councillors slammed

Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan

Almost all 45 members of the East Kalimantan legislative council
had yet to return to work on Friday, more than a week after the
end of the Idul Fitri holidays, a development that sparked
protests from activists.

Only several councillors appeared at their offices in the
provincial capital of Samarinda. But they stayed there only a few
hours and returned home.

However, activities at the council's secretariat have begun to
resume normally with many of the staff having been at work since
Monday.

The government had warned civil servants and other state
officials to cut their salaries should they fail to come to work
on Monday, the end of the official nine-day holiday.

But there seems to be no punishment imposed against the truant
council members.

As most of the councillors were lazy coming to the office,
local people could not voice their grievances and aspirations to
the council.

The councillors even appeared to be reluctant to work during
the Islamic Ramadhan holy month, but ironically they received a
Rp 15 million (US$1,764) Idul Fitri bonus each.

The Jakarta Post observed that the rooms of the council's
faction and commission offices and its leaders were empty.

A staff officer at Commission C said many councillors were
still in their hometowns celebrating Idul Fitri.

Most of the 45 councillors hail from outside Samarinda and
each receives a Rp 2 million monthly allowance to stay in the
province's capital city.

Deputy council speaker Kasyful Anwar As'ad said many
councillors still had personal jobs to do, so they could not
return to work as yet.

Or, many of them were yet to return to Samarinda from their
hometowns, where they were busy preparing for political campaigns
of their parties ahead of the 2004 elections, he added.

Kasyful admitted that during the month of Ramadhan from Oct.
26 to Nov. Dec. 24, and one week after Idul Fitri, the
councillors were generally reluctant to work.

However, he promised the council would be able to complete
their unresolved tasks before the 2004 elections.

Local anticorruption activists protested the absenteeism of
the councillors, saying they failed to set a good example for
other state officials, their constituents and other people at
large.

"They (the councillors) are paid by the people. Imagine
hundreds of billions even trillions of rupiah are being spent for
the activities of the legislative council. But now they are
proven of performing poorly," said Achmad Basori, director
executive of the Concern for State Wealth (PKN).

He said the move thwarted people from expressing their
aspirations.

"If the governor or executive staff officials do not go to
their offices, the legislative council is the staunchest critic
of them," he said.

Basori threatened to file a class action suit against the
councillors if they continued skipping work next week.

"I will make public the names of those too lazy to work, so
their constituents will not vote for them in the 2004 elections,"
he added.