Monkeys and Men

Some say the best way to stop corruption among state officials and officeholders is to pay them better salaries. During a conversation some years ago, the then chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) confronted a post-Soeharto president who advocated this approach.

"Look, you have to remember that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys," the president insisted.

"The fact of the matter is, Mr President, you already have monkeys working for you!"

The debate rages on. Advocates point to the psychology of human temptation and basic need. Critics contend that corruption has a cultural dimension here and is so embedded that it is no longer a function of need, but a function of greed.

Ideally, the best approach -- both in the public and private spheres -- is to hire good, professional and honest people. We agree that simply paying good money to monkeys will not work.

Once the men have been separated from the monkeys, peanuts can be exchanged for bananas with the goal of maintaining a principled and dexterous work corps.

In this age of flamboyant consumerism, it is too much to expect that public officials will focus entirely upon their work but never upon its rewards, even if they are termed "public servants".

Since 2000, senior public servants and elected officials have been rewarded with significant pay rises. The president and vice president have enjoyed 78 percent and 120 percent salary hikes respectively.

Cabinet ministers, despite their official monthly salaries being just over Rp 20 million, are evidently doing well as shown by a recent wealth audit which found that most members of the previous Cabinet somehow managed to augment their total wealth by several billion rupiah.

Legislators in the House of Representatives have seen their basic salaries almost double in the last five years to more than Rp 16 million.

Local legislators and officials are also earning well above the average incomes in their respective regions. Councillors in Jakarta, for example, take home over Rp 21 million, in addition to various generous allowances.

Grumblings of envy and discontent are often to be heard, especially from the average person on the street, who earns much less.

But senior public office -- whether elected or appointed -- carries great responsibility. The men and women who shoulder the burden of trying to bring the hopes and dreams of 220 million people to fruition deserve to be remunerated accordingly, in the same way as a top executive in a major corporation. By international standards, average salaries in the top ranks of government in Indonesia are paltry.

Singapore is a good example of a nation that has realized that it needs to provide attractive salaries and conditions if it wants to entice the brightest and best into the civil service.

The crux of the argument, therefore, may not be the actual sums of money involved, but whether those to whom they are paid are worth it.

Most Indonesians believe their public officials are simply not worth spending their taxes on. A history of inept performance and high living has led to a widespread perception that most of those manning the upper ranks of the civil service and government are little more than fat cats who like milking cash cows.

Only a string of tangible results and improvements in general welfare levels will be capable of diminishing this view.

Fatuous debates that eat up valuable legislative time over the makeup of House commissions and other technical matters do not help instill public confidence in the organs of state.

No one can deny that this country's farmers deserve better compensation for their toil. Ask whether people believe that the same is the case for legislators or ministers and the likely response will be in the negative.

High salaries are acceptable if they also take into account prevailing conditions at the local level. Any more blatant displays of rapaciousness -- such as the proposed hikes in the salaries and allowances paid to the North Lampung regent and his deputy, which would gobble up a total of 23 percent of local revenue -- will only serve to bring the Indonesian governance system further into disrepute, and must therefore be stopped.

We are reminded of economist J.K. Galbraith's remark that the salaries paid to men of high rank and position are not rewards for achievement, but more often personal gestures by the individuals to themselves.

In politics there are neither rewards nor punishments, there are consequences. Perhaps the rewards paid to our politicians should be reviewed if their performances continue to be so punishingly abysmal.