East Java Representatives Council Members each to get a mini-bar

Members of the East Java Regional Representatives Council will soon each be given their own room, equipped with a television and mini-bar, in a revamping project for an old building scheduled to be finished by the end of this year.

“This is a plan dating back a long time. The budget will be around Rp 6 billion [US$672,000],” DPRD Secretary Sukardo said Sunday, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

The office rooms would be dedicated to 85 members of the Council, he added.

Council Head Sunardi said that the construction was necessary.

“Imagine the Democratic party faction room. When everyone gathers there, its’ packed. It’s ineffective. There’s no privacy. One of them wants to joke around, the other wants to get serious,” he said.

East Java Parliament Watch reacted strongly to the plan.

Umar Sholahuddin from the watchdog organization said that the facilities would be ineffective as long as the members of the Council don’t change their mentality.

“There’s no guarantee. You can give whatever to them, but if there’s no measure of accomplishment, then it’s all in vain,” he said.

The newswire reported earlier that the members had been given laptops worth around Rp 15 million a unit.