House factions OK wage hike
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
All 10 factions at the House of Representatives have unanimously supported the proposal to raise their take-home pay despite the over-stretched state budget and strong public criticism.
Friday's endorsement came despite some factions earlier vowing to oppose the proposal.
These factions, including the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), previously called on their legislators to block the proposal after extensive media reports led to the public accusing the House members of lacking a sense of crisis.
House Speaker Agung Laksono said on Friday that all factions had agreed to support the proposal, quickly adding that it would have to be adjusted according to conditions of the state budget.
"In general, all factions agree with increasing our budget, including for income, which was proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee," he said after a meeting with all 10 factions and the finance commission following public outrage.
The committee proposed an 80 percent increase in take-home pay for 546 members and a 104 percent increase for the four House leaders.
With the proposal, each House member will take home approximately Rp 48 million (US$4,948) each month. While the basic salary remains the same at Rp 4.2 million, most of the allowances have been doubled.
A number of House members have said that the increases were urgent to boost their performance, which they acknowledged was at a "minimum" due to the "minimum" income.
Friday's endorsement was to be expected considering all 10 factions have representatives in the House's Ways and Means Committee, which drew up the proposal with the House Secretariat.
The secretariat proposed Rp 1.1 trillion for the 2006 budget, while the government indicated it could only afford Rp 830.8 billion. The proposed figure is 47.5 percent higher than the 2005 budget.
On a separate occasion, a discussion revealed that legislators were questioning the effectiveness of going on overseas trips, for which Rp 32.4 billion has been allocated for next year, much more than 2005's Rp 14.06 billion.
"Even in the House itself, there's no mechanism to make overseas trips transparent. There are no efforts to present the mission of the trips beforehand, and results of the trips are only read during a plenary session without any follow up," said Andi Yuliani Paris from the National Mandate Party (PAN).
The discussion, which featured other legislators, agreed there should be a tighter and clearer mechanism, such as on urgency and benefits, to send legislators on trips for so-called comparative studies.