Civil servants anxious over pay cut plan

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Cilacap, Central Java

The Cilacap legislative council in Central Java has asked the local administration to dock the salaries of civil servants by 5 percent, ostensibly to help rebuild a traditional wet market that burned down last week.

The request was made by council speaker Fran Lukman, who chairs the Cilacap branch of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Lukman was also allegedly behind the PDI Perjuangan's move to force civil servants, including teachers, as well as their students, to buy exercise books and T-shirts bearing party attributes.

The move, apparently endorsed by the local administration, faced a serious challenge in the form of strong opposition from civil servants.

Now, local civil servants are also up in arms over the possibility of the Cilacap administration docking their salaries by 5 percent to rebuild the market in Majenang subdistrict.

"You can be sure the real reason is that many of the exercise books and T-shirts were returned. Now he (Lukman) is trying to dock our salaries," Yusmanto, 45, a teacher at Kroya state elementary school, said on Wednesday.

Another teacher, Darmo, defended the protests by civil servants against the plan to force them to purchase the exercise books bearing pictures of PDI Perjuangan President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her father Sukarno, and the red T-shirts bearing a photo of Lukman. Red is the color of the PDI Perjuangan.

"What we have done is right. Civil servants must be neutral in politics. It's not right that we should be forced to wear red T- shirts. That's why we rejected them," he said.

"Now our pay will be docked by 5 percent. This is wrong. Civil servants are very badly paid. If our salaries are cut, how we can cover our expenses. Even without being cut, out salaries are never enough," Darmo added.

He suggested that only the salaries of senior local officials and councillors should be docked. "I think it would be no problem for them as they are well paid."

Lukman said he regretted the opposition of civil servants to the proposed cut.

"I am extremely disappointed that many civil servants have rejected the proposal that their salaries be docked by 5 percent, even though the money will be donated to the victims of the Majenang market fire. They should not act like this as they have always received special treatment," he said.

Lukman said that such special treatment included being given various allowances by the government, while other people, like traders, never received such privileges.

"It was in this light of this that we proposed to the Cilacap regent that the salaries of civil servants be docked," he added.

Lukman said the council would press ahead with the proposal, and submit it to the local administration despite the strong opposition from civil servants.

He added ominously that those who opposed their salaries being cut would run the risk of having their "solidarity record" questioned, among other things.

Cilacap Regent Probo Yulastoro has yet to respond to Lukman's proposal, which is still being discussed by the council.

Slamet, a spokesman for the Cilacap administration, could not say whether Probo would accept the proposal or not.

Lukman last week dismissed Probo as the PDI Perjuangan's Cilacap election campaign director because of the scandal over the T-shirts and the exercise books.

The decision was taken to counter public allegations that the regent had abused his power for the benefit of the party, Lukman said.

The dismissal came after Probo issued an order to all heads of local government agencies to prohibit civil servants and teachers from wearing T-shirts bearing party political symbols.

Cilacap is one of the PDI Perjuangan's strongholds in Central Java.