PDIP Surprised Anies Often Misses DPRD Budget Meetings, But Party Events In Bali Is Attended

Anies Baswedan's photo via Twitter

JAKARTA - Member of the PDIP faction of the DKI DPRD, Gilbert Simanjuntak, admitted that he was surprised why the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, often did not attend budget discussions with the DKI DPRD.

Anies instead appointed the Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta, Ahmad Riza Patria when the DPRD held a plenary meeting on the discussion of the APBD.

One example was when the DPRD held a plenary meeting to discuss the accountability for the implementation of the DKI APBD for Fiscal Year 2020. The speech that should have been delivered by Anies was read by Riza.

"It has been months and many plenary meetings at the DPRD without the presence of the Governor. Physical presence should be more needed for DKI affairs," Gilbert said in his statement to VOI, Tuesday, October 12.

However, a few days ago, Anies even took the time to fly to Bali to attend a party event, namely a workshop held by PAN. In fact, this activity is not the main task of Anies as Governor of DKI.

"What happened was that the presence of people who could go on-line, for something that had nothing to do with the people of DKI, was attended face-to-face with enthusiasm. The PAN meeting in Bali was not Anies' priority as governor, so all the affairs of the people of DKI were represented by his deputy who is also a spokesman," Gilbert quipped.

Gilbert considered that Anies' absence from the official meeting with the DPRD made various policy problems that arise as if they were not resolved because Anies did not give direct explanations to the members of the council.

In fact, said Gilbert, DKI's policy is carried out for the people and uses public money. Examples of these policies include the Formula E event, Rp0 DP housing, integrated transportation, flooding problems, land subsidence, water privatization contract extensions, abandoned RPTRA, and various other strategic issues.

"Don't give the impression that you are too eager to run for office, while your salary is still being accepted as governor and it doesn't seem like you are working optimally," Gilbert said.