The Jakarta Post, February 05, 2007
Maluku councillors holding on to allowances
M. Azis Tunny and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Ambon, Malang
Maluku councillors have reacted fiercely to a move by the government to revoke a
controversial raise for members of the regional legislative council by refusing to return
the allowances they have already received.
A number of councillors told The Jakarta Post in Ambon on Friday they had already
wholly spent all the allowances received last December.
They said they were disappointed by the inconsistency of the central government in
reversing its decision.
Darul Kutny Tuhepaly, a Maluku councillor and chairman of the United Development
Party's faction on the council, said that nearly all the allowance he had received had
been spent. He wanted to return only part of the sum.
"I've given the funds to my party's constituents and also made social contributions. I
will only return about 50 percent of it," Tuhepaly said.
He said nearly all Maluku councillors insisted on not returning the allowances.
Tuhepaly's sentiments were shared by another councillor, M. Saleh Wattiheluw, who
said he too had spent all his allowance.
"I have used all the funds for consolidating members of the council with the party's
constituents. The funds have already run out," he said. "I'm very disappointed by the
central government's inconsistency."
Presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng said that local council leaders and
members who received allowances under Regulation No. 37/2006 must return the
money to their local treasury office by December 2007.
Councillors from other regions also greeted the revocation of the regulation with a
collective grumble.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed a team to revise the government
regulation that substantially raised councillors' allowances after the regulation sparked
public outcry throughout the country.
Another councillor, Lohenapessy, made a statement contradicting his colleagues,
insisting that all councillors were prepared to return their allowances. "We are ready
to return the funds. If there are councillors who have spent all of the allowance, they
still have time to return it until next December," he said.
"If they refuse to return (the funds), they will face a kind of legal process. Here there is
no compromise, we have to abide by a normative spirit," he added.
Meanwhile in Malang, East Java, former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid
said Sunday that the central government should have thought twice before approving
the regulation that granted the allowance increase.
"A president should have been thinking deeply before issuing the regulation. How did
it come to happen, approving it, but within a short period of time revoking it?" Gus Dur
asked on the sidelines of a meeting of the Nation Awakening Party's (PKB) Malang
chapter leaders.
Imam Nachrowi, chairman of PKB's regional leadership council, said in Malang on
Sunday he was considering the possibility of pursuing legal action against the
government in connection with the revision of the regulation.
He said that the revocation constituted an act on behalf of the government to curb its
own governance.
"This can be classified as an effort to systematically undermine the legislative body,
including the political party institution," Imam said.
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