Corruption keeps money from wage earners: Official

JAKARTA (JP): A senior government official called for a nationwide campaign to stop the high-cost economy, which he blamed for employers' inability to raise their workers' wages.

Yudo Swasono, chief of the research and development planning unit at the Ministry of Manpower, said most employers are facing difficulties in increasing their workers' wages because they have to pay "extra costs." He said the business climate was not conducive to better labor conditions.

"Employers have unofficially been financing the security authorities, government officers from the low to high levels, labor activists, law enforcers, political parties and bank officers for the sake of their businesses' survival. All this expenditure has made them unable to improve the labor conditions," he told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday.

He said that based on a recent survey conducted by the Manpower Ministry of numerous companies in major cities in Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi and Irian Jaya, the high-cost economy takes the form of bribes, illegal and legal levies and service money for the government apparatus and security authorities.

He said that according to the survey, illegal levies, bribes and collusion were prevalent throughout administrative bureaucracies, from local administrations to central government agencies. He added that "to our conclusions, (it has) a lot to do with the melu handar beni culture (sense of possession) among security authorities and the government apparatus."

He said that servicemen deployed in villages have frequently extorted companies for feeling to have contributed security services to their operations.

Yudo, also a labor economist, said the military and police leadership should take stern measures against servicemen found guilty of extorting businessmen.

"Employers should place warnings on their gates about illegal levies and they should file a report when facing such cases," he said.

Yudo also said President Abdurrahman Wahid should show his commitment to curbing the corruption culture in the bureaucracy by phasing out all unnecessary legal levies which overburden companies.

"The government must cleanse the corrupt mentality among public servants while the wages of low ranking officers should be raised and stern actions should be taken against corrupt officials," he said.

He added that the government should increase the wages of low- echelon civil servants and servicemen by at least 100 percent to improve their social welfare.

He predicted that the corrupt culture has so permeated all layers of society and that the nation will need at least 60 years to completely recover.

Yudo said that regarding the regional minimum wage, the government was in a difficult position since workers demanded a hike of at least 50 percent while employers proposed an 18.5 percent maximum increase.

He said that management will face financial difficulties in meeting worker demands as long as the high-cost economy continues. "Stability at home may be at risk if workers stage a national strike because the government failed to meet their demands," he said.

He acknowledged that most workers have been poorly paid because of the high-cost economy and the prolonged monetary crisis. He said the labor conditions were getting worse due to the high employment rate.

He said the government will likely adopt the provinces' proposed wage increase of an average 25 percent in hopes that both employers and workers accept the poor economic conditions. (rms)