Salary rise & House ethics
Salary rise & House ethics
From Bisnis Indonesia
The plan to increase the take-home pay of members of the House
of Representatives (DPR) from Rp 28.37 million to Rp 51.87
million and House leaders from Rp 40.1 million to Rp 82.1 million
indicates that the House is failing to abide by what is
stipulated in its own Code of Ethics.
Based on the code, legislators are responsible for performing
the tasks outlined in the "Message of the People's Suffering" (a
Sukarno era slogan), and to convey the aspirations of the public
to the government and strive for their fulfillment.
By increasing their own allowances, legislators are showing
they no longer care about the people's suffering. This is also
shown by the fact that they have let the energy crisis take
place, which will significantly increase the number of poor
people and the magnitude of Indonesia's poverty problem.
The House, as required by the code, should exercise restraint
and avoid making any decisions that could be interpreted as
breaches of its own ethics. Instead, what it is doing at the
moment is making it more difficult for the country to escape from
the crisis.
There have been complaints that legislators are short of money
when visiting their constituencies, and that they have to pay
their expenses and those of their constituents out of their own
pockets. Accordingly, it is argued that the current allowances
are not enough and need to be increased.
In the view of Teliti (Scrutiny), if there is a shortfall in
funding, it should not be covered by House members themselves,
but rather by their political parties. The reason for this is
that legislators are nominated, elected and controlled by their
respective political parties, which should be responsible for
their relations with constituents.
Besides, the political parties are flush with funds derived
from their members in the House and on local councils so that
they should be able to pay the extra money that is required. It
would thus be unfair to impose the burden of paying the increased
allowances on the general public.
AMIR A KARAMOY
Steering Board Chairman
Teliti, Jakarta