House pursues extra Rp 10m in allowances

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives may claim it empathized with people who are facing increased economic hardship as prices for many goods rise, but almost all of its 550 members appeared to stick with their recent decision to raise their monthly incomes by up to 30 percent.

Despite mounting protests from the public against the decision to provide each of lawmakers an additional Rp 10 million (US$1,000) in a monthly operational allowance, no faction, nor commission raised a call for the House to review the decision during a plenary session here on Monday.

Only Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin, a legislator with the United Development Party (PPP), spoke against the decision in the session presided over by House Speaker Agung Laksono.

Lukman urged the House to postpone the operational allowance in response to the protests.

"If the House doesn't want to revoke the decision, we should suspend implementing it because it is not timely to raise our incomes as the majority of the people are shouldering heavy economic burdens because of the fuel price hike and (those of) other basic commodities," he told the meeting.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction in the House, which earlier spoke out strongly against to the salary rise, when it came to the crunchtime of approving the increase remained silent.

The plenary meeting gave no response to Lukman's speech and was closed without any conclusion on the issue.

Agung said it now looked unlikely the House would suspend the salary hike, which was decided during a plenary session in September.

Legislators who rejected the operational allowance could use the money to purchase rice to help the needy, he said.

Agung, from the Golkar Party, said the operational allowance would help the House members improve their performance, especially in building a better network and communications with their constituents.

However, after the plenary session, legislators of the PKS, PPP, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Democrat Party (PD) expressed great concern over the operational allowance, saying the House should withhold the decision until an "appropriate time".

"It is not timely for us at present to get a salary hike while the people are suffering from economic difficulties. The current income is still sufficient to cover our daily needs and operational costs," said PDI-P faction chairman Tjahjo Kumolo.

PD lawmaker Ahmad Mubarok said he and his colleagues would return the money to the government if they received the much- criticized allowance.

Untung S, who chairs the PKS faction, concurred and said the House had no a sense of crisis by raising its members' income, while it had so far performed poorly.

However, Golkar lawmaker Ferry Mursyidan Baldan accused House members opposed to the salary hike of being "hypocrites", saying the allowance had already been approved by all legislators.

Many have believed that the extra money for the lawmakers was aimed at influencing the House into endorsing the fuel price increases that took effect on Oct. 1.

Ferry denied the allegation.