I am a Yogyakarta resident and I fully support Yogyakarta`s privileged status.
Sleman, Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Boediono called on Yogyakarta people to wait and respect the process of House of Representatives (DPR) discussions on the Yogyakarta special status bill.

"I fully support Yogyakarta`s privileged status but we also ask the people to respect the ongoing process of House deliberations," Boediono said during a visit to a temporary housing complex of Mount Merapi eruption victims at Argomulyo village, Cangkringan sub-district, Sleman district, on Thursday.

Without indicating whether or not he supported Yogyakarta

gubernatorial elections, Boediono said Yogyakarta`s special status was an absolute thing.

"I am a Yogyakarta resident and I fully support Yogyakarta`s privileged status," he said, adding people should wait for the results of parliamentary deliberations on the Yogyakarta special status bill.

"Let the House discuss (the bill) and just wait for the results," he said.

In the meantime, a Sleman community figure, Sukiman Hadi Wijoyo, expressed hope House deliberations on the Yogyakarta special status bill would not be protracted.

In January 2011, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government at the Parliament Building in Jakarta began deliberating the bill on Yogyakarta`s special status.

In the bill , the government had proposed changing the system of automatic appointment of the Yogyakarta Sultan to become the special autonomous province`s governor, to a direct election system like in other provinces in the country.

The idea drew a lot of protests from the people in the region including the regional legislative assembly that wanted to retain the current system.

In support to their Sultan, thousands of people last Dec 13, 2010 rallied in front of the Yogyakarta assembly building to reject the central government`s bill that would replace the automatic appointment system with a direct gubernatorial election.

(B003/B/HAJM/16:15/A/O001 )

(ANTARA)

Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2011