Two W. Java councillors want to return gift, but unable to

Two W. Java councillors want to return gift, but unable to

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Two West Java provincial councillors from the Justice Party
have wanted to return controversial gift money of Rp 250 million
(US28,000) each from the provincial administration, but are
unable. And they were even criticized by their peers.

Councillors Yudi Widhiana Adhia and Reza Nasrullah said on
Friday that as they could not return the money, they had used the
money to buy basic staple foods and donated it to poor people.

Yudi said the money had come from the routine budget, out of
which West Java's civil servants get paid.

"Besides, it shows a lack of sense of crisis," he said.

But Yudi and Reza's initiative to return the money, and raise
public attention to it drew criticism from their peers.

Councillors said that since 2000, the West Java administration
had made a cash payment of Rp 250 million to each of its 100
members. But when two of them donated their gifts last week,
councillors criticized them for making public this tradition.

"It's OK if they want to donate it to charity, but don't let
that subsequently become a problem for other members," said
chairman of the United Development Faction at the West Java
legislative council, Kurdi Moekri.

According to him, neither of them had objected when
councillors agreed to ask for the gift.

Ahmad Saelan of the Mandate Star and Justice faction --
comprising councillors from the National Mandate Party, the
Crescent Start Party and the Justice Party -- confirmed Kurdi's
statement and said the gift was meant to help councillors buy a
plot of land on which to build a house.

According to him, previous councillors received a land plot
complete with a house.

"So our request is reasonable. We see it as a token, after all
members of the council don't get a pension," he said.

West Java legislative council speaker Eka Santoso of the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said councillors agreed
to ask for a gift a few months after they took office in 1999.

"It's a tradition; previous councillors often received gifts
in the form of land as a token from the government," he
explained.

He said that councillors should have received land too, but
later asked for money instead.

Regarding the amount of Rp 250 million, he said it was arrived
at after they had asked developers the price of 500 square meters
of land. The developers however refused to be paid in
installments. "So instead of land we asked for cash."

Eka admitted the funds had come from the province's routine
budget, as there were no other available sources.

Constitutional expert of the University of Padjadjaran Indra
Perwira said Jakarta should be stopping abuses of state funds in
the regions.

"Earlier abuses of state budgets have not been followed up,"
he said, referring to the purchase of a Toyota Crown car for
council chief Eka. The car was paid for with state money
originally allocated to assisting victims of natural disasters.

A consortium of non-governmental organizations in Bandung and
West Java lambasted the gift as a proof of collusion between the
provincial administration and the legislative council.

The consortium, with members such as the Bandung Economic
Development, the Humanika Foundation, and the Bandung Muslim
Reform Forum, called on the West Java prosecutors' office and the
police to investigate the disbursement of the gift money.