Jakarta – A no-show by city officials meant the first meeting between the city council and the administration to discuss the dengue fever bylaw had to be postponed Tuesday.

"We had invited the city secretary, the head of the health agency, the city assistant for people's welfare and all related officials to come. But none of them are here, only their staffers," a spokesman for Commission E dealing with the people's welfare, Igo Ilham, told reporters Tuesday.

He said he regretted that Governor Sutiyoso and Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo had not ensured officials turned up to the hearing.

"Those 'top executives' did not bother to monitor their subordinates since they were busy with their own businesses," he said. In response, Sutiyoso simply said that the absence of his subordinates from the meeting was caused by a miscommunication.

Commission member Perdata Tambunan said the officials should have attended the hearing since it was the administration itself that proposed the bylaw. "Are they serious about (the bylaw)?" he asked.

The head of the Health Agency, Wibowo Sukijat, who arrived after the hearing was postponed at around 11 a.m., said he was late to the hearing because of an earlier meeting with his staffers.

The city administration has drafted a bylaw on the eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the disease, saying dengue control measures undertaken by the administration such as mass fumigation had proved ineffective.

The administration has also carried out a campaign requiring residents to allocate half an hour each Friday to keeping their homes clear of the larvae of the mosquito.

The draft bylaw is aimed at breaking the chain of the mosquito's proliferation in public places by exterminating the adult mosquito and its larvae.

Perdata said he hoped the administration made the bylaw detailed enough to deal with the issue. "The bylaw must (clearly) stipulate dengue prevention and eradication so people can really feel the impact," he said. He added that the bylaw was not only aimed at punishment but also at educating the public to prevent future dengue outbreaks.

Councilors have criticized the draft, which stipulates a maximum fine of Rp 50 million (US$5,555) or three months in prison for people found with the mosquito larvae on their property. Critics have said the draft bylaw lacked punishments for officials who fail to carry out their jobs properly.

"You can't ask people to obey the bylaw if the administration doesn't serve the public well," Gandhi Sulhani, another member of Commission E said.

He added that he was pessimistic that the bylaw could be properly put in place, since officials had not taken its implementation seriously from the start.