Regental councillors demand additional salary

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Regental legislative councils (DPRDs) from around the country are demanding an extra month's salary for their members after the government approved a similar request from their counterparts at the national level.

Boking Hasan, a deputy speaker of the Ponorogo legislative council in East Java, said it was unfair for the government to deny local councillors a "13th salary", while approving it for House of Representatives members.

"Why are we denied the chance to enjoy the 13th salary? We also represent the people," said Hasan, to the thunderous applause of some 350 local legislators who attended a national meeting of the Association of Indonesian Regental DPRDs (Adkasi) on Tuesday.

Late last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a government regulation authorizing the payment of an extra month's salary for civil servants, including military and police personnel, government officials, retirees and veterans. The total amount allocated for the payments was Rp 7.6 trillion.

House members, who are categorized as state officials in the regulation, also received the extra month's salary, paid on July 1, like other officials.

However, the extra month's salary for legislators was strongly criticized by several House members, particularly those from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

They have said the extra payment for legislators was unnecessary and excessive in light of the vast number of people living under the poverty line.

Other House leaders, meanwhile, have said they would donate their extra month's salary to various charities out of respect for their constituents, mostly poor people.

Support for the demand for an extra month's salary came from another Adkasi member, Suriyanto, who is a deputy speaker of the Rembang legislative council in Central Java.

He said that fellow legislators at the district level across the country agreed that they deserved to be paid an extra month's salary every year.

Local legislators work just as hard as their counterparts in the House and are thus entitled to the same benefit, Suriyanto argued.

"We are clearly being discriminated against," he said. "We will not beg for an extra month's salary. However, at the same time we will keep trying to get what is our right."

Chalidin Munthe, who chairs the Aceh Singkil legislative body in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province, said that if officials in executive bodies, including regents and their deputies, received an extra salary, then councillors should get one too.

"It's would not be ethical to deny us an extra salary, since we are supposed to be equal partners with the regents," he said. "It would make us less credible in their eyes." (002)