He made the statement here on Wednesday while voicing his rejection to the idea of governors and district heads being elected by the DPRD rather than directly by the people, which has been followed so far.
"We have been here for two years fighting for APBD (regional budget). If I had to report everything to the DPRD, I certainly had long been fired. Even if I am re-elected in 2017, I would not want to be DPRDs slave," he stated at the City Hall.
Ahok rose to the post of Jakarta vice governor after winning the regional election along with Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
As Jokowi was recently elected president, Ahok would later be promoted to the post of Jakarta governor.
Ahok was embroiled in a dispute with his Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) after the party moved to seek the implementation of indirect election of provincial governors and district heads by the DPRD along with the Golkar Party, National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and the Democrat Party, which Ahok had opposed.
The parties had formed a Red and White coalition after their presidential and vice presidential candidates, Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa, lost the recent presidential election.
Following the dispute, Ahok, through his staff, sent a letter of resignation to Gerindra on Wednesday.
Ahok emphasized that he is only answerable to the people and not the DPRD.
"To me, the DPRD only has three main functions, which are supervision, budget, and legislation. They could not control me. The one that can is the people," he affirmed.
If the head of the regional government is controlled by the DPRD, then he could just pay them monthly, Ahok stated.
"If there are 60 members, we can just give them a salary and every day we can tour abroad as what we have to serve is them, and not the people," he noted, criticizing the idea of indirect election.
Several quarters have expressed disagreement over the idea saying that it would return the country into the pre-reform era.
Reporting by Ajat Sudrajat
(H-YH/INE/a014)
EDITED BY INE
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
