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number of councillors walked out of a meeting that was discussing the 2013 budget on Thursday to protest against the leadership of council speaker Ferrial Sofyan, whom they accused of deliberately trying to impede budget deliberations.

Wanda Hamidah, a councilor from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that Ferrial, a politician from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, kept repeating the same questions during meetings with the governor. “In several meetings, he kept asking the same questions over and over again. Why didn’t he just listen to the explanation from the governor?” Wanda said.

The speaker was questioning the administration’s plan to grant new minibuses to several transportation firms in the capital, which some lawmakers said was unclear.

Wanda said that although the communication between the governor and the councilors went well, she accused the speaker of not being cooperative enough, especially during budget meetings. “The key problem is the speaker. Most councilors want the budget to be immediately approved,” she said.

Expressing their disappointment, Wanda and a number of councilors from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and the Golkar party walked out of the meeting.

Jakarta Council deputy speaker Triwisaksana, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician, said that it was a common thing for councilors to bombard a governor with questions.

“I think that’s just normal, there’s no need to be oversensitive,” he said. “And we are still committed to finishing this matter by tomorrow [Friday].”

He said that the reason the council members were firing questions was because they wanted a deeper knowledge about the new governor and his programs. “During Fauzi Bowo’s term, we also passed the deadline and ended the meeting in January, but we remained professional. There is no such thing as trammeling.”

The Democratic Party and the PKS were the two major parties that backed then governor Fauzi Bowo during the September election.

The PKS, which was critical of Fauzi when he was in office, is also seen as being critical of Governor Joko Widodo, who was backed by the PDI-P and Gerindra.

City administration secretary Fadjar Panjaitan said that the administration expected the new budget to be approved this month according to plan. “We’ve been explaining the programs many times in the council. It’s our responsibility, so we just hope that it can be approved soon,” he said.

Government Regulation No. 58/2005 on regional financial management mandates says that local governments should decide on their annual budgets one month before the start of the fiscal year at the latest.

However, the governor was not worried about not meeting the deadline, saying that it was better to go slow and come up with something good for the people.

Soon after being sworn into office in Oct. 15, Jokowi ordered a budget review, saying he was looking to reallocate up to 20 percent of the spending proposed in the 2013 budget drafted by Fauzi earlier this year.

Fauzi had proposed an increase of 10 percent, setting the budget at Rp 44 trillion (US$4.5 billion).

Jokowi said he was seeking more than Rp 46 trillion as he proposed new programs such as the provision of 1,000 buses for public transportation operators, universal healthcare and multistory apartment complexes with dedicated public and commercial spaces, kampung susun.

The city’s 2012 budget was set at Rp 41.3 trillion. The budget was Rp 31.7 trillion in 2011, Rp 26.7 trillion in 2010, Rp 23.96 trillion in 2009 and Rp 20.59 trillion in 2008.

Fauzi also had problems delivering his budget plan in his first year, ending up with the 2008 budget being approved on Jan. 19 of that year. (fzm)