What's the money all for?

What's the money all for?

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has demonstrated his political
shrewdness by cutting by 40 percent the allowances allocated to
him under the annual city budget. From an initial Rp 9.47
billion, the governor's personal allowances budget has thus been
brought down to about Rp 5 billion plus. It is the governor's
right to use these funds as he sees fit.

This decision was made, in all probability, due to the angry
criticism that has just possibly been making his ears burn. The
fact is that critics and the media were justly surprised that the
governor should be getting such a huge annual allocation while
many programs concerned with public welfare have been left
unfinished or have been delayed due to a shortage of funds.

But while Sutiyoso has asked his deputy to follow his move,
the city councillors have said that they will not permit their
annual allocations -- totaling Rp 122.1 billion, including
stipends and allowances -- to be reduced. The councillors argue
that the governor receives a total remuneration and allowance
package that far exceeds what is allocated to each councillor.
The city has 85 councillors.

Aside from Sutiyoso's move, and the councillors' efforts to
retain their "rightful incomes", the 2003 city budget also gives
rise to another matter of concern to the public, namely, the
payment of even more allowances to the governor and the
councillors by various city agencies and the Jakarta
municipalities.

According to the 2003 draft budget, the governor and the
councillors together are to get additional allowances of Rp 43.95
billion a year, a preposterous amount indeed. Some Rp 24 billion
of this is to come from the City Youth and Sports Agency, Rp 10
billion from the City Education Agency, Rp 6 billion from the
City Social Affairs Agency, Rp 3.6 billion from the City
Empowerment Agency and Rp 350 million from City Population
Office.

Another Rp 254 billion is to be derived from the South Jakarta
municipality, Rp 317 billion from East Jakarta, Rp 208 billion
from West Jakarta and Rp 1 billion from the impoverished new
regency of Kepulauan Seribu. There is no explanation as to why
the Central Jakarta municipality is not participating in this
show of civic benevolence.

It would appear that the governor, the deputy-governor and
councillors are in the happy position of being able to enjoy
their good fortune without any obligation to account to the
public. And, unfortunately, the agencies and the municipalities
have never explained to the public why they are allocating so
much money to city officials and councillors.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), which
first revealed the extra allocations for the governor and the
councillors, said that the money was part of a conspiracy among
the Jakarta administration's elite to hoodwink the public.

This allegation is relevant, because both the city's executive
and legislative branches have been so reticent about the city's
financial affairs that not a single reporter is allowed to be
present, or to see or hear what is going on at the meetings.

The key to settling the issue to everybody's satisfaction is
transparency and openness. Now, both Sutiyoso and the councillors
have no other choice but to explain to the public what the
additional money is really for. By holding the budget hearings in
camera, both the administration and the councillors are
succeeding in their responsibilities to build a healthy civil
society. By attending these meetings, reporters could gain
significant information from the debates and write relevant
reports as part of their duty to provide adequate and reliable
information to the public.

There is no law that prohibits journalists from attending a
local government budget meeting. North Sumatra and Yogyakarta
provinces are among those that permit journalists to attend such
meetings, while Jakarta and West Java are among those that are
still living in the age of opaqueness.

It is time for the city administration and the council to
become more transparent and accountable when framing the city
budget. There is no reason whatsoever for officials to be
reticent about this issue, unless they have something to hide, as
the money actually belongs to the people so that the people are
entitled to demand accountability.

'Gong Xi Fa Cai'

For the first time, the Chinese New Year in Indonesia has been
declared a national holiday by the government.

This is a long-awaited recognition of not only the presence of
the largest minority ethnic group in this country, but also of
its significant contributions to the nation and the process of
nation building over the years.

However, recognition it may be, but still it is only a token
gesture.

In their daily lives, Chinese-Indonesians still face
discrimination because of the color of their skin. Nevertheless,
anything is better than nothing.

We hope the government will follow up this recognition by
revoking all remaining laws, decrees and regulations that smack
of racial discrimination.

There are no official statistics on the size of the ethnic
Chinese community in Indonesia; thankfully, the population census
does not profile people by race. Estimates, however, put it at
between six million and 10 million, including intermarriages.

Because they have lived in Indonesia for generations, ethnic
Chinese should have the same rights as others in the nation. But
alas, this has not been the case these last four decades or so.

Making the Chinese New Year a national holiday was probably
the least that the community needed. Even without official
recognition, the Chinese have marked the New Year within the
confines of their private homes all these years. Only recently,
with more openness and greater tolerance, have we started to see
again the colorful lion and dragon dances being performed in the
open.

Under the Soeharto regime, as part of its assimilation policy,
the Chinese were banned not only from celebrating their New Year
openly, but also from making an open display of cultural
expressions. The use of Chinese characters was banned, Chinese
were told to shed their names and adopt "Indonesian" sounding
names, Chinese-language schools were closed down and, worst of
all, they were told to adopt one of the five officially
recognized faiths. Ethnic Chinese also were barred from entering
the civil service, the military and politics, and even faced
restrictions in the entertainment industry.

Soeharto's assimilation policy gave justification to the
discriminatory policies. This in turn bred the prejudices against
the Chinese that remain prevalent among the majority "indigenous"
population. These prejudices, in turn, have been the source of
the anti-Chinese riots that have sporadically taken place in the
country.

Reformasi changed some of that, but has not removed the chief
problem: institutionalized racial discrimination.

It was then president Abdurrahman Wahid who gave the official
recognition of Confucianism as a faith recognized by the state.
He also declared in 2000 the Chinese New Year a "facultative"
holiday, meaning that those who celebrate it may take the day
off. President Megawati Soekarnoputri this year formalized it
into a full-fledged national holiday.

Many ethnic Chinese also are beginning to appear in the
political scene. One of them, Kwik Kian Gie, has even served in
the Cabinet under both Abdurrahman and Megawati. More Chinese-
Indonesians also are starting to enrich the local pop culture.

This limited participation by ethnic Chinese in various walks
of life shows that given the chance, they can make even greater
contributions to society, besides their already well-recognized
achievements in the trade and business sectors, and to a lesser
extent in sports, particularly badminton.

All this is certainly encouraging, because Indonesia is all
the better off with the unrestricted and wider participation of
minority ethnic groups in the nation's life.

The development of recent years should be ground enough for
the administration of Megawati to remove, once and for all, every
remaining law and regulation that discriminates against people on
the basis of the color of their skin.

A pledge, with a concrete plan to remove this
institutionalized racial discrimination, would be the best New
Year's present the President could give to the Chinese community.

Gong Xi Fa Cai.