Corruption and pay

Opposition to the government's plan to give sizable pay raises to senior state and government officials is spreading across the nation, from the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to ordinary people. While I do not want to add my name to the list of people who oppose the plan, I have some considerations:

1. Compared to other countries in Asia which were also hit by the economic crisis, Indonesia is in the worst state. Why? Because we were also hit by social and political crises. Those are the facts. So far, we have not seen any real action of the government to improve our economy.

2. We have yet to know the performance of the members of Cabinet as well as members of the House of Representatives (DPR). Do we have to spend that much taxpayers' money for them? We should start to apply the concept that one is paid for his/her performance -- on merit -- rather than for position or status.

3. The state budget for the year 2000 is projecting a budget deficit, meaning that we will have to secure additional loans to cover the budget. It would be better for us to spend the money on efforts at creating new jobs.

4. Comparing the salary of our president with the salaries of the Bank Mandiri president director and the chief of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency should not be the reason for increasing the salary of the President. On the contrary, we should study whether the Bank Mandiri president and the chief of IBRA are overpaid.

5. We should know how much in a year total compensation is paid to the members of Cabinet and members of the House, which includes meeting allowances, and benefits such as housing, cars and medical care.

6. It would be irrelevant to compare the salary of Singapore's prime minister as a reference in determining the salary of our president. Our country's condition is totally different from that of Singapore, not to mention differences in the nation's per capita income.

7. In general, most Indonesians are now suffering economically. Psychologically, we have to share that feeling if we really want to get their support to rebuild our country.

8. People's needs keep changing and tend to increase, especially in terms of quality as a result of the increase in their income. Therefore, there is still a question mark over whether raising salaries will actually lead to a reduction in the prevalence of corruption.

M. SULHAN ASKANDAR

Jakarta