M. Taufiqurrahman and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Pressure is mounting on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take further action following his decision to revoke a controversial government regulation raising the allowances for councillors in cities, regencies and provinces nationwide. Speaker of the House of Representatives Agung Laksono asked the President to reprimand Home Minister M. Ma'ruf for issuing the controversial regulation.

"The government regulation is discriminatory and unfair in its nature because the granting of allowances to councillors as well as extra payments and other perks to the leadership of provincial and regency legislatures is not accountable and has denied the people's right to justice," he told reporters.

Bowing to the public outcry, President Yudhoyono revoked the decree Tuesday. Agung, however, declined to comment when asked about the granting of similar perks to the House leadership, as well as numerous allowances for legislators.

Besides receiving an extra payment, the House speaker and his four deputies have also been given official cars and insurance, while with the allowances, legislators have received up to Rp 50 million (US$5,499) each in their gross monthly payments. The compensation hike has sparked fierce criticism from civil society organizations who are disappointed with the legislative body's performance.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) accused the government of politicizing the issue to discredit political parties.

"With the issuance of the controversial regulation, the government is trying to neutralize political parties because of their tough supervision of the administration and its performance in regions," the faction said in a media statement.

According to the faction, the fact that the regulation was issued indicates that the President is not in control of his administration, since the Home Minister has also issued many controversial decrees on regional administration, as well as granting incentives to a House special committee deliberating the key bill on Aceh administration last year.

Presidential Spokesman Andi Alfian Mallarangeng said the President had ordered Ma'ruf and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to amend the newly-issued regulation.

Andi said the President had agreed to scrap the retroactive principle of the regulation, one of its most controversial elements.

"Article 14(d) on the retroactive principle has been scrapped. And leadership and members of local councils who received allowances based on the regulation must return them to the local treasury office no later than December 2007," Andi told reporters on the sidelines of the bilateral meeting between Yudhoyono and visiting Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf here.

Andi said allowances would only be given to the leadership of local councils, and only for activities related to their legislative duties. The presidential spokesman said a new government regulation would soon be issued to replace the controversial one.

Much of the criticism of the allowance raises focused on their retroactivity. Issued in November last year, the regulation said the new allowance scheme should be carried out dating back to January 2006.

A coalition of anti-graft nongovernmental organizations has blasted the regulation, arguing that it would provide a legal basis for a "massive swindle of taxpayer money." The coalition pointed out that a number of poor regencies that implemented the regulation suffered from a chronic budget deficit.

Andi, however, declined to give details on what the central government would do if the councillors failed to return the money.

Minister M. Ma'ruf said the December 2007 deadline was set to give councillors more time to collect the money, which they have probably spent. "Local governments will probably have a hard time collecting the money. But we will not give them any directives," he said.