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Jakarta teachers take to the streets for higher pay

Source
Straits Times - April 12, 2000

Jakarta – Thousands of teachers closed schools in at least five Indonesian cities to protest a new government pay policy for senior civil servants and to demand a 300 per cent increase in basic salaries and a 500 per cent increase in allowances.

The teachers – from elementary, junior and senior high schools in Bogor and Tangerang in West Java – threatened to launch a massive three-day strike starting tomorrow and boycott final exams if the government failed to meet their demands.

The rally at the Parliament building followed numerous strikes on Monday, which were organised by local chapters of the Indonesian Teachers' Association and the Committee for the Fight for Better Teachers' Prosperity.

Teachers – among the lowest paid of Indonesia's civil servants – said the government's policy of allowances and compensation for senior officials was unfair and would cause tension.

Because of the nature of the scheme, in which the increase vary according to position and conditions, vast gaps in income have appeared between workers with the same length of service and between senior and junior staff.

The chairman of the committee which coordinated the rally, Mr Wildan, said that while they respected government efforts to improve their welfare, not enough was being done to alleviate their plight.

The government has set aside Rp 8.6 trillion (S$2 billion) for the allowances of nearly 6.5 million civil servants from this month. The allowances of elementary, junior and senior high school teachers, lecturers and researchers were recently raised by 100 per cent, 50 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

But some teachers have complained that although their monthly allowance was raised by 100 per cent, their monthly income will remain at no more than Rp150,000. The teachers' monthly allowance rose from Rp 25,000 to Rp 50,000.

On Monday, thousands of teachers refused to take classes from elementary to senior high school in Karawang, 45 km east of here. In Bogor, West Java, a massive strike was staged with nearly 7,000 teachers taking to the streets, bringing school activities in the town to a complete standstill. Similar action was held by hundreds of teachers in nearby Sukabumi, 60 km south of Bogor.

Over in Jayapura – the main town in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya – about 200 local teachers, backed by the parents of some students, picketed the provincial parliament. They called on the MPs to help them get a pay raise, housing and transport facilities. "When is the fate of teachers given any attention?" said one of their posters.

In the Central Java town of Bantul, 1,000 teachers picketed the office of the local district head who was presented with an undersized shirt to symbolise what the small pay of teachers could afford.

Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin has called on teachers to refrain going on strike. "I ask teachers across the country not to carry out the threat because it will affect students," he said.

Mr Yahya, one of the few ministers who have openly opposed the rise in the allowances of senior officials, said he was already discussing increasing teachers' salaries.

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