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View all search resultsJokowi pressured to turn down constituency funds proposal
Pressures are mounting on President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo to turn down the constituency funds proposed by the House of Representatives
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P
ressures are mounting on President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to turn down the constituency funds proposed by the House of Representatives.
From inside the House, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Nasdem Party, People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and Golkar Party legislators along with loyal Agung Laksono, have expressed their opposition to the proposal.
Two groups of volunteers supporting Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election have also pressured the President to refute the proposal, which they said would not reach the people.
Chairman of the Presidium Coalition of Jokowi's Volunteers Renhard Parapat said his side has delivered a letter calling on the President to reject the proposal because the funds would be used by the legislators for political campaigning and to enrich themselves.
'The constituency funds proposal has to be turned down because besides wasting money, the funds will likely be used to finance the legislators' political campaign,' he told The Jakarta Post.
According to him, it will be better for the House to concentrate on repairing its poor performance in its main tasks in the legislative, supervisory and budgeting fields.
On Tuesday, the House endorsed the constituency funds plan requiring the government to allocate Rp 20 billion (US$1.5 million) for a legislator or Rp 11.2 trillion for 560 legislators in the 2016 budget to carry out development programs in their own electoral district.
Chairman of the Forum of Volunteers of Jokowi for President (Bara JP) Sihol Manullang called on the people not to elect political parties proposing the constituency funds in the upcoming simultaneous local elections and 2019 general elections.
He said the constituency funds were a case of political robbery committed by parties defeated in the 2014 general elections and having no seats in the cabinet.
He said he was skeptical about the funds that were aimed at improving the people's social welfare.
Executive director of the Indonesian Parliament Watchdog Formappi Sebastian Salang concurred, saying the President should listen to the people's aspirations in their strong opposition to the House's proposal.
'The President must turn down the proposal because it has drawn strong opposition from all sides, including civil society groups, students and anticorruption NGOs,' he said.
