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City council committing political suicide
The 106-member City Council is committing a suicidal acrobatic act in its political row with Jakarta Governor Basuki âAhokâ Tjahaja Purnama over the controversial 2015 draft budget, says a legislative observer
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he 106-member City Council is committing a suicidal acrobatic act in its political row with Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama over the controversial 2015 draft budget, says a legislative observer.
Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) executive director Sebastian Salang said that the City Council was digging its own grave when it decided on Thursday to carry out a political investigation into a violation of law allegedly committed by the government when submitting the draft budget prepared by the city administration to the Home Ministry for approval.
'The majority residents of Jakarta will stand behind Ahok when they know that the city council inserted into the draft budget invisible programs worth Rp 12.1 trillion that would benefit the council or councilors and not the wider public,' he told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Friday.
All 106 councilors gave their support to a political investigation into what they said was a serious violation by Ahok of the legislative council's budgetary function regulated in the 2014 Legislative Institutions Law and the 2004 Regional Administration Law.
A special committee with 33 members from 10 political factions was set up to carry out the political investigation within 60 days.
If the special committee finds a violation of law in its political investigation, the council has the authority to file a lawsuit against Ahok. If Ahok is found guilty, the council will recommend that the Home Minister dismiss Ahok as governor.
Sebastian said the council would have to undertake a long process if it wanted to impeach the governor because law enforcement institutions would face difficulties proving any legal violations in such a case.
'Although Ahok has no supporting parties at the council, Jakarta people will stand behind him against the council,' he said.
According to Sebastian, the political row had a lot to do with the council's lack of transparency in carrying out its budgetary function while Ahok had since the start implemented an e-budgeting mechanism in preparing the draft bill.
'The council will humiliate itself if it is proven guilty of inserting invisible programs into the draft budget,' he said.
J. Kristiadi, a political analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), concurred and said Jakarta's people should reject the council's arrogance.
'The Jakarta people backed by the media have to resist the council's arrogance and fight against the culture of corruption in the council,' he said.
Another political analyst, Gun Gun Heryanto, warned the City Council against the political row, saying it would contribute nothing to the city and its people.
'The political tension between the council and the governor will not give any contribution to the people and to the city but only cause a suspension of development programs when the budget is not approved,' he said.
According to him, the political row was related to poor communication between the council and the governor and the absence of a party supporting Ahok following his resignation from the Gerindra Party.
'But Ahok is seen to win full support from the majority of people in the city,' he added.
Ahok accused the council of wasting money when it inserted the procurement of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices worth Rp 330 billion, with a price of Rp 5.8 billion per unit for 55 schools, into the draft budget.
'I have evidence that the council allocated Rp 6 billion per unit for the 55 schools. Tender winners could be many companies. We are now looking into the device's suppliers because we are suspicious of only a single supplier due to the same price,' he said.
He acknowledged he became more suspicious of a mark-up in the UPS procurement project after a consultation with an IT specialist revealed that the UPS devices cost only Rp 163 million per unit and had a capacity of 40 kilovolts that could maintain power supply for 60 units of computers in the case of a blackout.
'This a fact. I am sure most Jakarta residents do not want their money to be used for such projects,' he said on Thursday.
He said it would be better if the funds were used to finance major projects such as the planned procurement of more buses to support Transjakarta and the construction of low-cost houses for citizens.
