Prabowo Receives News of Praise from Malaysia and Singapore for Judges' Salary Increase

JAKARTA - President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto has received news that the policy of increasing judges’ salaries in Indonesia has been praised by friendly nations, namely Malaysia and Singapore. This information was obtained by Prabowo from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (MA), Sunarto, after attending a meeting with all ASEAN Supreme Court chiefs. “Then the Chief Justice of Malaysia conveyed to the Chief Justice of Indonesia. He said, ‘Your Honour, I salute Indonesia’, he said, ‘for the first time, Indonesian judges’ salaries are above Malaysian judges’ salaries, and the salary of the most junior Indonesian judge is almost twice that of the most junior Malaysian judge,‘” Prabowo revealed at the Attorney General’s Office in Jakarta on Wednesday (13/5/2026). Moreover, the salary of the Chief Justice of the MA in Indonesia is said to already be higher than that of the Chief Justice of the MA in Singapore. “The Chief Justice of Indonesia, Professor Sunarto, reported to me again: ‘Sir, the Chief Justice of Singapore also conveyed to me, congratulations Your Honour, your income now, the income of the Chief Justice of Indonesia, is already above the income of the Chief Justice of Singapore,’” he said. The President of the Republic also recounted that initially, he wanted to increase judges’ salaries by 300 percent.”I wanted 300 percent, but the Minister of Finance only agreed to 280 percent. Alright. But we have already made a leap,” he said. In addition, he revealed the purpose of increasing judges’ salaries to prevent corruption in the judiciary. “Therefore, our judges must be respected, selected well, and given sufficient income so that our judges cannot be bribed,” he stressed. Besides salaries, Prabowo also instructed the Minister of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP) Maruarar Sirait to build official residences for all judges. Because, although judges’ salaries have increased, the monthly housing allowance for judges is only around 1.5 million rupiah. “Sometimes they have to be in this regency, sometimes they have to move to this province. So now, and there are approximately 8,900 judges. I think we can afford to provide decent official residences,” he said. “The Minister of Finance, find the funds so that all court officials must also have their salaries increased, and other branches of government should not be jealous of the Judiciary. We must make our Judiciary a place where the people get justice,” he stated.