Salary increase

From Jayakarta

Both the beginning and end of the year is almost always marked by psychologists raising the issue of civil servants' salaries. Recently they also suggested that the government raise the salary of middle-ranking police officers by between 300 and 1,000 percent. They argue that Indonesian police salaries are the smallest among the ASEAN countries.

The proposal has been met with great enthusiasm by all parties concerned, including middle-ranking officers in the Armed Forces. According to the officers, they are middle-level managers and as such hold decisive positions in the Armed Forces. It is only natural that they receive a salary that reflects their importance.

Demands for salary increases are always welcomed, especially when they come from psychologists who, we all assume, are able to see beyond the hard facts. But a 100 percent hike is impossible, let alone the 300 or 1,000 percent raise they suggest. The 1995/1996 state budget for civil servants' salaries is Rp 12.4 trillion (US$5.5 billion) of the total amount of Rp 78 trillion. If the government approved an increase of, say, 20 percent, prices would surge by 50 percent. I am afraid the call for higher salaries is nothing more than a way to make life more miserable for government employees.

In my opinion, the salaries of government employees are sufficient. There are no officials in other ASEAN countries whose salaries are in the hundreds of thousands. The problem is, the intrinsic value of the rupiah is low when converted into the currencies of other developed countries or even other ASEAN countries.

I am therefore calling on our experts to stop playing the old tune of asking for a raise. They should instead find a way of making the rupiah stronger so that its value will not be much lower than that of the foreign currencies. Some ways of doing it are to eliminate corruption, collusion, monopoly/oligopoly, red- tape and illegal fees.

I also want to warn against insincere efforts to improve the salaries of civil servants and pensioners in the coming years. In five to 10 years to come, a salary hike will be announced in January, to coincide with the Idul Fitri holiday when people indulge in a shopping spree. A hike will only make them better victims for traders.

If the government has plans to raise civil servants' salaries, I suggest that it is done through price cuts for goods produced by state-owned companies. These could include lower electricity, telephone, transportation and water rates as well as reduced prices for goods sold at cooperatives. It would be even better if pensioners were freed from the 15-percent savings tax.

It is my hope that those in power today realize that one day they will retire and, although they have no financial problems today, they will eventually arrive at that stage in life where to live as a pensioner is like a bad dream.

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