Legislators prepare for a comfortable retirement
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Instead of pondering ways to help the country out of current social and economic crisis, Indonesian legislators are designing a proposal to restructure their salaries so that they can receive higher pension payments.
They are proposing to transform certain components of their allowances into their basic salary so that they would get more pension money when they are no longer legislators in 2004.
Head of the House of Representatives' (DPR) Household Affairs Body Asep R. Sudjana said that the body was considering a proposal to raise legislators' basic salary from Rp 4.2 million per month to Rp 6 million per month.
Asep asserted that the amount of take-home pay would be the same, and the only change was to the salary structure.
"The 30 percent increase will be taken from other allowances," Asep told reporters at his office on Monday.
Currently, legislators' take-home pay totals Rp 11.8 million per month, consisting of Rp 4.2 million in basic salary and Rp 7.6 million in allowances.
Asep, however, conceded that the change of the salary structure would raise the pension payments to be received by legislators.
He explained that after five years in office at the House of Representatives, legislators would receive 60 percent of their basic salary when they retired.
Despite Indonesia still being in economic difficulties, Asep rejected the accusation that the 30 percent increase was not justifiable.
"Should the increase reach 200 percent, as alleged by the public recently, that is really not justifiable," said Asep, a legislator from the former ruling party Golkar Party.
According to Asep, the plan to change the salary structure was not final since it was still only a proposal.
According to the guidelines, if a proposal is finally agreed to by the Household Affairs Body, it would then file the proposal with the DPR's Budget Committee, which would convey the proposal to the government.
The government will later include the proposal in the amendment of the state budget (APBN), and the amendment will then be filed with the House for approval.
J.E. Sahetapy, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) acknowledged that some legislators were negligent and were only forwarding their own interests instead of those of the public.
"I don't intend to defend my institution, but, not all legislators are bad. Some men (and women) are honest and work hard to complete their legislative tasks," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
However, Sahetapy suggested that legislators focus on completing their main tasks, instead of promoting their self interests.
"We still have many bills to complete, which are due at the end of March, when the DPR holds its plenary meeting," he said.
The bills include the autonomy revision bill, the money laundering bill, the anticorruption bill and many others, he said.
What a legislator gets in a month - Basic salary of Rp 4.2 million - Allowances of Rp 7.6 million. - Family assistance of 10 percent of their basic salary, plus two percent of the basic salary for each child for a maximum of two children. - Meeting allowance of Rp 300,000 on average per session