Jakarta – The House of Representatives has aired its confidence that no lawmaker will dare return the higher allowances they will receive despite several parties saying they reject the hike, set to be in place next month.
Parties have given mixed reactions over the hike, approved by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. It will guarantee legislators up to Rp 36 million ($2,490) a month in additional take-home pay outside of their base salary.
"I will make a placard for them," House of Representatives' household affairs committee (BURT) deputy chairman Dimyati Natakusumah said of lawmakers who would actually refuse to pocket the increase.
"The placard will thank the members who donate some or all [of their allowance money] back to the House."
Dimyati said he was confident that lawmakers were not really serious about rejecting the hike, saying that they were merely angling for some public sympathy, but would gladly accept the money.
The Finance Ministry approved a monthly monitoring incentive of between Rp 3.75 million for regular legislators to Rp 5.25 million for House oversight commission chiefs, up from the earlier figure of between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 3.5 million.
Legislators will also receive another Rp 15.5 million to Rp 16.4 million in "intensive communications incentive," on top of the monthly "honors incentive" of between Rp 5.5 million and Rp 6.6 million. It was not immediately clear what these incentives were for.
Legislators will also receive Rp 7.7 million a month to pay for utilities, including mobile phone bills, up from the previous figure of Rp 5.5 million.
The total in approved allowances comes out to just under Rp 36 million for senior legislators – or 13 times the minimum wage in Jakarta of Rp 2.7 million.
Necessary but untimely
Several political parties have rejected the increase saying that although "necessary" and "reasonable" it should be postponed amid the Indonesian economic slowdown.
"Because of [fluctuating] prices and other adjustments, the increase is actually a good thing and it is reasonable," Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party faction chairman Ahmad Muzani said.
"But poverty has risen, not to mention more and more people are being laid off and people's purchasing power continues to slide. Gerindra is asking the [allowance] hike to be postponed"
People's Conscience Party (Hanura) chairman Wiranto, meanwhile, is instructing all members of his party to reject the allowance hike, saying: "It is best to give the money to those who need it most."
More than enough
Democratic Party deputy chairman Syarief Hasan said his party was also rejecting the allowance hike, saying that lawmakers already have more than enough to cover their day to day expenses.
Echoing that sentiment was Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Budiman Sudjatmiko. "I feel what I earn now is already enough," he said, as quoted by CNNIndonesia. "Lawmakers' take-home pay is already big."
Hanura lawmaker Djoni Rolindrawan questioned how House leaders and the ministry had come up with the figure, which he called "excessive." "My phone bill never exceeds Rp 2 million a month. So what is the justification for the Rp 14 million a month in intensive communication incentive?" he said.
But not all shared their views. Fahri Hamzah, the House deputy speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), has called it a "measly" increase, saying the party had asked for a 100 percent hike.
"I think the increase is not enough," he said. "If we receive more of course we can monitor the government more intensively," he said on Wednesday.
He also argued that the proposed increase was "nothing" compared the trillions of rupiah in government spending that the House was responsible for monitoring.
The total budget for the House, Fahri claimed, "only amounts to 0.00196 percent of the state budget," adding the House would likely apply for another increase next year.
Sense of crisis
Watchdogs, though, accuse the House of lacking a "sense of crisis" by demanding a hefty raise in allowances at a time of slowing economic growth.
"This proves the House is only thinking of ways to make more money for itself," Sebastian Salang, from the group Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said on Wednesday.
He noted this was not the first time the House had sought ways to pocket more taxpayer money, having previously demanded – and failed – to get the government to foot the bill for down payments for new cars, as well as proposing a pork-barrel scheme for ostensible constituency-based development programs, and repeated efforts to secure trillions of rupiah to build a new House building with questionable facilities such as an indoor swimming pool and a spa.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/house-committee-allowance-hike-rejection-show/