Public angered by Rp 5.4b farewell gift
Public angered by Rp 5.4b farewell gift
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra
Tens of thousands of residents of Medan have strongly opposed a
recent plan by the local government to give 45 members of Medan's
legislative council a pension fund amounting to Rp 120 million
(US$14,118) each.
According to several residents here, the "farewell donation"
was far too generous, compared to their far from satisfactory
performance.
Most residents have been demanding the Medan municipality to
drop the plan because the councillors were already very well
paid.
Each councillor receives Rp 14 million per month (US$1,647),
plus many, many lucrative benefits, including housing.
Syafril, 32, a resident of Medan Baru subdistrict, called on
the government on Wednesday to pay more attention to the plight
of the tens of thousands of desperately poor people instead of
the already wealthy legislators who had done nothing in their
five years.
The pension fund would only enrich the legislators at the
expense of the poor people, he asserted.
Syafril, a rice trader, added that the legislators did not
deserve such a large amount of money, taken from public funds,
including his.
The plan, they said, was extremely upsetting because the
legislators rarely sided with the people they are supposedly
representing and had done nothing more than rubber stamp
administration policy.
Syafril cited several decisions by the councillors that
imposed so many burdens on public, including the one that
endorsed the government decree to raise parking fees from Rp
1,000 to Rp 7,500 per hour along several busy streets in Medan.
"We rarely see that the councillors have fought for the
people's interests. They only fight on behalf of the government
and for their own financial interests," said Syafril.
Jhon Tafbu Ritonga, a lecturer at the North Sumatra University
(USU), said the extra payments using taxpayer money was not fair
and was completely insensitive to the fact that most citizens had
not recovered from the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Sakti Batubara, the deputy speaker of the
council, refused to comment on the protest, saying that the
matter had already been discussed, but only with members of
municipal administration.
Ibrahim said that the pension fund would be disbursed by the
government in April 2004 at the latest, when the councillors
would end their 5-year terms.
Separately, the mayor of Medan, Abdillah, said that despite
its unpopularity with the people of Medan, the decision was good.
He said the councillors deserved the Rp 120 million because they
had worked hard during their terms and served the people by
helping spur development.
The Medan council has 45 members, so the total amount of
budget money that will be given to them will be Rp 5.4 billion
(US$635,300).