T

he newly-formed City Council (DPRD) has apparently delayed the deliberative process for appointing a new deputy governor as it is still focusing on internal matters, including the selection of council leaders and the establishment of committees and other complimentary bodies.

The deputy governorship has become a hot issue since Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s victory in the July 9 presidential election and the recent inauguration of 106 city councilors.

According to the 2004 Regional Administration Law, Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama automatically becomes governor as a result of Jokowi'€™s presidential victory.

Council member Prasetyo Edi Marsudi said that the Council first had to deal with internal issues, such as the selection of council speaker, commission heads and heads of other complimentary bodies, such as a regional legislative body and a regional budgetary body.

'€œThe DPRD has many internal issues to discuss before we even touch the deputy governorship matter. For example, we have to elect a chief councilor and four deputies and committee heads,'€ Prasetyo said at the legislative council building in Central Jakarta on Monday.

The City Council for the 2014-2019 term consists of 106 members from 10 political parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), United Development Party (PPP), Democratic Party (PD), People'€™s Conscience Party (Hanura), Golkar Party, National Awakening Party (PKB), Nasdem Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

The 106 councilors will be grouped into eight factions, because two parties '€” including PAN '€” have decided to form a coalition with major parties.

PAN, for instance, will form a joint faction with Golkar, which has nine seats in the council. The Council will be led by a councilor from legislative election-winner PDI-P and four deputies from Gerindra, Golkar, PD and PKS, which came in second, third and fourth in the election, according to number of votes.

Moreover, Prasetyo, a legislator for the PDI-P, said that councilors had to deliberate the draft bylaw on the city'€™s 2015 budget.

'€œThese issues will take time to deliberate and decide. We will not have time to discuss the deputy governorship issue until 2015,'€ he said.

Gerindra and the PDI-P, which jointly nominated Jokowi and Ahok for governor and deputy governor in 2011, have been in a major dispute of late over the deputy governor position, with both claiming the right to nominate their own candidate for the position.

Separately, Ahok said that he was unconcerned, saying that he would have four appointed deputies regardless.

'€œWhatever. Those party factions can do whatever they want. I will have four deputies anyway,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Tuesday.

Currently, the governor has four deputies; Sutanto Soehadho (industry, trade and transportation affairs); Syahrul Effendi (population control and housing affairs); Sarwo Handayani (spatial planning and environment affairs); and Sylviana Murni (culture and tourism affairs).

'€œI can work well with these four [deputies]. Besides, I handled my job without a deputy while I was acting governor several months ago. I doubt it will be much different,'€ Ahok said.

Several names have been floated as possible replacements for Ahok as deputy governor, including Boy Sadikin, who is chairman of the PDI-P'€™s Jakarta branch and the son of late former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin; and Djarot Saiful Hidayat, a PDI-P politician and former mayor of Blitar, East Java, from
2000 to 2010.

'€” JP/Dewanti A. Wardhani