Civil servants anxious over pay cut plan

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.