Jakarta Governor: City Council Deliberately Playing Us Off

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) said that the City Council of Jakarta have deliberately created a chaos in the City Budget drafting.  There are always new manuvers launched by the board in every process, said Ahok.

“They are deliberately playing off with us,” Ahok said in City Hall on Sunday, March 22.

Ahok said that the Head of Jakarta City Council, Prasetyo Edi Marsudi, initially ensured to validate the Local Regulation on the 2015 City Budget after visiting Ahok’s office on Thursday, March 19.  But lately, the budget agency rejected it due to the 2015 City Budget was considered never to be discussed together at all by the two institution.

Ahok admitted to have contacted Prasetyo several times to ask the intent of the refusal, but Prasetyo has not returned his calls.  “I keep contacting him, but he never answers the phone,” he said.

The budget agency is also involved in the evaluation discussion of the City Budget issued by the Interior Ministry that was held last week. “We all expect the 2015 City Budget will be set,” Ahok said.

Ahok have prepared a government regulation draft to underpin the use of the 2014 City Budget.  According to Ahok, the governor regulation establishment is the last option if the local parliament insist to refuse the Local Regulation on the 2015 City Budget.

The mechanism, Ahok said, is that the Jakarta administration will submit a letter to the Interior Ministry informing that the Jakarta administration and the local parliament do not agree to the 2015 City Budget.  Next, the Ministry will declare the establishment of government regulation.  He predicted the incident will continue to occur until the end of his administration.  “A dispute would continue until 2017,” said Ahok.

LINDA HAIRANI