How they survive on small salaries<\/p>\n
Call it magic, but civil servants manage to live on their
\nsmall salaries. Their ability to survive might be considered one
\nof the world's wonders. The recent announcement of a 10 percent
\nsalary hike by the government was received coolly by its four
\nmillion employees, given the rate of inflation. The Jakarta Post
\nlooks at how a few civil servants conjure their \"magic\", along
\nwith comments by experts on the condition of the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Could you live on less than Rp 24,000 a month?<\/p>\n
Soertono (not his real name), a sleepy employee at the
\nMinistry of Religious Affairs, moonlights as a bus driver
\nbecause, with all his debts, his real monthly salary is less than
\nRp 24,000 (US $10.90).<\/p>\n
His friend, Agung Anom, sells everything from shoes to rice-
\ncrackers on a credit basis to colleagues, and ignores his
\nofficial take-home pay of Rp 32,500, trimmed by rent for a house.<\/p>\n
Corporal Ngatijan calls himself a \"consultant in police-
\nrelated affairs.\" The father of two helps anyone who is too busy
\nto arrange their own applications, car documents, driver's
\nlicenses or anything else under the grip of the city police
\nheadquarters.<\/p>\n
This way Ngatijan, a low ranking level IF civil servant, can
\ndrop his after hours job as a ojek driver. He had driven the
\nmotorcycle taxi for a year.<\/p>\n
Having secured the right contacts, Ngatijan now has a less
\ntiring way of adding to his basic monthly salary of a little over
\nRp 100,000. With tips, his earnings more than double his salary.<\/p>\n
\"I never determine the amount of uang terima kasih (thank you
\nmoney) since they are all my friends,\" he says. \"I'm grateful
\neven if I only get a pack of cigarettes in return.\"<\/p>\n
Kohar, an administrative employee who has been working in
\nTangerang for 12 years, earns extra money in a similar way. He
\nneeds the money to pay for his children's school fees,
\ntransportation and meals. Tips he gets for running errands, like
\nbuying cigarettes, lunches and photocopying, add to his IIB level
\nsalary of Rp 115,000 a month.<\/p>\n
Creativity is the key to survival for underpaid members of the
\nCorps of Civil Servants of the Republic of Indonesia. They are
\ngiven no meaningful allowances, besides a ration of rice which is
\nprovided to protect them against inflation. It is often unedible.<\/p>\n
Immune to both good or bad news, their reaction to the pay
\nhike illustrates how meaningless the salary issue is to them.<\/p>\n
\"You get a headache if you add up how much you get after the
\n10 percent raise. Prices have gone up already,\" said one
\nemployee.<\/p>\n
Most will continue to practice their magic skills.<\/p>\n
Values<\/p>\n
\"The important thing is to supply good service, for which the
\npublic is grateful,\" says Budi, a district IB level office
\nemployee. His rejeki (money from tips) amounts to Rp 200,000,
\nmore than double his monthly salary of Rp 86,000.<\/p>\n
Civil servants in trouble, says the father of three, are those
\nwho cannot socialize to gain connections, those who deliver empty
\npromises to those in need and those who are \"too honest\".<\/p>\n
It is silly to calculate needs based on salaries, \"just find a
\nway to meet your needs,\" explains Agung Anom.<\/p>\n
These are their values -- there is no such thing as corruption
\nand abuse of power, but only creativity without complaints.<\/p>\n
Another value is abstention, very hard for parents with
\nteenagers living close to shopping centers.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, civil servants aren't moved by President
\nSoeharto's argument that low salaries don't justify corruption or
\n\"wishing for things that are not your rights.\" Even needs called
\n\"monthly supplies\" sound amusingly out of this world to them.<\/p>\n
Superiors tolerate moonlighting so long as the government job
\ngets done. A good superior also provides opportunities for
\nsubordinates to supplement their income.<\/p>\n
\"I often give subordinates the opportunity to get involved in
\nseveral projects, and I encourage them to give a small part of
\nthe earnings to administrative workers,\" says Mrs. Fatimah (not
\nher real name).<\/p>\n
In a less \"wet\" (lucrative) job, a superior at a district
\noffice gathers the service fees, and divides them equally among
\nthe office workers. \"The incentives boost work spirit,\" one
\nemployee said.<\/p>\n
With increased demand for reliable service and the rise of
\ncomplaints by big business about \"invisible costs\", the
\ngovernment has acknowledged public impatience.<\/p>\n
T.B. Silalahi, the State Minister of Administrative Reforms,
\npromised in 1993 to see how the civil servant's oath -- \"I will
\nnot receive anything in relation to my position\" -- can be more
\nclearly defined.<\/p>\n
He said last September that up to 100 civil servants are found
\nguilty of violating their oath each month.<\/p>\n
Economists urge strong action against bribe taking because it
\nmakes for a high-cost, inefficient economy. A bureaucracy should
\nfollow the principals of a modern organization and function
\neffectively and rationally.<\/p>\n
Incentives and trimming down the corps have also been
\nsuggested as ways to better the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Mentality<\/p>\n
So why would anyone want to become a civil servant?<\/p>\n
Hadim (not his real name) spent Rp 3 million to enter the
\npolice force -- in vain. He was well aware of the low pay, but
\nthe police force, he said, offers power.<\/p>\n
Agung Anom tried hard to get a bachelor's degree to minimize
\ncompetition to enter the Ministry of Religious Affairs.<\/p>\n
\"I couldn't take the heavy work at the textile factory,\" he
\nexplains.<\/p>\n
But he insists the pension, like many suggest, isn't why he
\njoined. \"I wouldn't have gained all my valuable connections (to
\nmake money on the side) if it hadn't been for this job,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Masri Singarimbun, director of the Demographic Research Center
\nat the Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, said that being a
\ncivil servant was considered a blessing in the past.<\/p>\n
\"People joined to elevate their social status even though they
\nwere aware of the low salaries,\" Masri asserted.<\/p>\n
It is very easy to bribe government employees because they
\nbadly need the extra money to support their families and to
\nimprove their living conditions, he stated.<\/p>\n
\"I don't want to generalize, it really depends on a person's
\nmentality, but it's easy to see that their salaries are not
\nenough to support their daily needs,\" Masri added.<\/p>\n
But corruption is mainly linked to a lack of self-control and
\ndiscipline, he deduced. (anr\/jsk\/raw\/als)<\/p>",
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