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.