The nascent Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), a staunch opposition party to the Anies administration at the Jakarta City Council, said Jakarta under Anies' leadership had failed to set program priorities and lacked transparency in budget planning and implementation.

“Jakarta has a large budget and support from the central government. Do not let the budget, the administration's energy and time be wasted because of mismanagement and lacking priorities,” said Idris Ahmad, PSI faction head at the City Council.

Last year, for instance, PSI councillor William Aditya Sarana leaked information to the public about a Jakarta administration plan to allocate billions of rupiah from the city budget to buy multipurpose glue for school children. This revelation, followed by other irregularities in Jakarta's 2020 budget proposal, drew public criticism and later led to the resignation of two top Jakarta officials. This also backfired on William who was accused of violating the council's code of ethics, while the glue procurement has been on the back burner ever since.

Other councillors were well aware that the COVID-19 pandemic had been derailing much of Jakarta's development programs, but they said the implementation of some of Anies' flagship programs -- the One District One Entrepreneurship (OK OCE) and the zero-rupiah down-payment housing programs -- had been making slow progress long before the health crisis.

“Programs that won much public attention [during the 2017 gubernatorial election campaign] have yet to be optimally carried out,” the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction head Gembong Warsono said.

The OK OCE program -- now Jakpreneur -- aims to generate 200,000 new entrepreneurs through training and access to financial aid.

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