Salary raise insulting

Salary raise insulting

From Sinar

I have been a civil servant for four years and was in the IIa category. I was just promoted to the IIb, which should have happened last April. I was delighted with the promotion and expected to be equally pleased with the raise I was to receive.

The promotion decree was issued in June 1995 and I collected it after paying a "fee" of Rp 15,000, which I had to borrow from a friend. I expected to pay him back from the increase in my salary.

But my expectations were cut down by reality. To my distress, my basic monthly salary increased only Rp 2000, from Rp 127,000 to Rp 129,000. This means it will take more than seven months for me to pay back my debt. I could not help wondering how the government could come up with such a "raise". Rp 2000 is nothing, I had to wait four years for that meager increase. How can the civil servants survive on a monthly salary enough for only 10 days. We would prefer our salaries to help keep us alive until the end of each month.

SITI HODIJAH

Jakarta