Asia Times: Fat cats' pay rise smells sour to Indonesian workers


	April 18, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Fat cats' pay rise smells sour to Indonesian workers
By Kafil Yamin

JAKARTA - Drastic hikes in the salaries and structural allowances among Indonesia's ministers and other high-ranking officials seem to have demoralized lower ranking state employees who got paltry raises in comparison.

People who have transactions to do in government offices all over Indonesia have been reporting a slowdown in operations - as well as palpable low spirits among state workers - since the pay raises were announced earlier this month.

Indeed, many people have begun complaining about the growing difficulties they are having with getting things done in state offices. In West Java, for example, housewife Diah Wahyuningsih is fast running out of patience. ''I have come here four times to get a residential certificate,'' she told IPS at a local administration office there. ''Up to now, I am empty-handed.''

A retort from Ida Farida, who works in the West Java provincial administration helps explain why: ''How can we be excited to work when we know our superiors got skyrocketing raises while we got only a few rupiah?''

As announced by President Abdurrahman Wahid, ministers and high-level officials are getting big pay boosts, which translate into increases that range from 5,000 to 9,000 percent. Low-ranking government employees are also having salary increases, but by only as much as 30 percent. The pay rises took effect on April 1.

According to the government, the raises are aimed at reducing corruption and other abusive practices among the higher ranks of the bureaucracy. While it may take more time to see if that will indeed happen, one clear and immediate effect of the move is the lackluster work being done by government employees in the lower levels.

Some local administration offices have even been observed to open rather late in the morning and then to close down by noon. When IPS visited the West Java Governor's Office recently, several workers were chatting and reading newspapers, while two employees were playing chess. In one corner, three groups of men were playing cards. All these were during office hours.

Meanwhile, at the State Audit Body offices, lower level auditors are simply refusing to do their jobs. One examiner who had been assigned to audit a local government office returned to his desk without finishing the task. He says, ''The people there ignored me. They said there is nothing to examine whatsoever. Why should I be burdened by that? I am not paid properly as well.''

Observers fear that such disenchantment would not only mean deteriorating job performances among low-ranking state workers, but also a rise in corruption. In fact, one staff member at a government office at Cipatik district, West Java, says, ''If I committed corruption, so what? I cannot survive on my current wage.''

Other state workers, meanwhile, have taken to the streets, demanding higher salaries. Among the most vocal groups are public school teachers, who have been holding several rallies in the past two weeks. In Java, schools have been forced to close while the teachers held demonstrations. An executive of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI) in Bogor, West Java, says the rallies are only a prelude to a nationwide strike by teachers. The threat of such a strike comes as schools are preparing for national final examinations that will be held in May.

Public school teachers are actually getting higher increases than other state employees. The teachers are being given a 100 percent raise in their functional allowances, in addition to the 30 percent across-the-board increase in civil servants' salaries. But the PGRI has said that the new pay policy still falls short of expectations. As it is, Surtini, a teacher at the Pandasimo elementary school, says she and her husband can barely make ends meet on their current salaries: ''I've been in this job for 20 years and I get paid only 536,000 rupiah ($71) a month.''

Last Monday, at least 3,000 teachers in Bogor staged a march to demand a 300 percent hike in their salaries from the local legislative council.

In Bantul, Yogyakarta, thousands of elementary schoolteachers also gathered outside the regency office to demand a 100 percent increase in their wages - as well as the cancellation of the hike in the structural allowances for top government officials.

The rallies have succeeded in catching the attention of Education Minister Yahya Muhaiman, who issued an appeal to the teachers on Tuesday: ''I can feel what they feel, but please do not go on strike because it's their students, children of this country, (who will) be victimized.''

Basri Hasanudddin, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication, also tried to assure the teachers of the government's commitment to improve their situation. He said, ''There will be further discussions on raising teachers' salaries. Please be patient.''

But such pledges are providing only cold comfort to the teachers. Says PGRI chair Mohammad Surya: ''They (the government) have made such remarks many times. We're running out of trust (in them).''

Sriningsih, who teaches at a state elementary school in the outskirts of Jakarta, agrees, saying, ''We will only stop staging rallies when they really do it.''

(Inter Press Service)

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