No raise in pension

No raise in pension

From Republika

Recent rumors that the salary and pension of civil servants and pensioners respectively would be raised were gladdening, particularly to latter group. It was also rumored that the raise was retroactive from Jan. 1, 2001. However, we pensioners were very disappointed when we received our July pension. Apparently, the raise was only for working civil servants.

In the past, every time the government increased civil servants' salaries, it also raised the pension of retirees. But this time, under President Abdurrahman's administration, that was not the case.

I would like to call on the President and his Cabinet not to be occupied with maintaining President Abdurrahman's presidency until 2004 but also pay attention to the poor, including retired civil servants.

H. ABUBAKAR

Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara