Pampering high-level officials

Pampering high-level officials

Civil servants will be on the march. This is the threat they have made, as reported by several newspapers. The reason is that extra allowances for high-level government officials, whose basic salaries are already considered high, will be raised by as much as 12 times the current rate.

What irks lower-level civil servants is the fact that the government appears to be pampering high-level officials too much. The fact is that apart from their comfortable salaries, these officials also enjoy fringe benefits such as free housing, cars and drivers, telephones and electricity. It can be said with near certainty that their telephone and electricity bills alone are almost equal to the monthly salaries of lower-level officials.

One is justified in lamenting the unfeeling disposition of those who are in charge of determining government salaries and allowances. Unfortunately, all that is water under the bridge. The decision has been made. All of the objections of the public have been disregarded.

The time has now come for the government to reap what it has sown. As the seeds that were sown were bad in the public's view, the harvest too -- in the form of protests from the public and ordinary civil servants -- will not be pleasing for the government. It is ironic indeed that at a time when people are called on to save and be frugal, high-ranking officials enjoy ever higher earnings.

-- Republika, Jakarta