Teachers make selfish demand
Teachers make selfish demand
From Suara Karya
While Indonesia is still in the throes of a deep economic
crisis, the government has, quite daringly, decided to raise the
salaries of civil servants and members of the military and the
police by quite a small percentage (30 percent). To us this
salary increase is quite a relief, especially considering the
still unfavorable condition of the country.
Unfortunately, the government's good intention has not earned
a good welcome from the teachers, who are also our fellow civil
servants, although teachers' functional allowance has been raised
by 100 percent.
Teachers have staged rallies in a number of regions and a
rally has been held at the House of People's Representatives in
Senayan, Jakarta. The rallying teachers have asked for a raise of
300 percent, arguing that their present salaries are far from
enough to feed their families.
In fact, teachers' problems are the same as for all civil
servants, including members of the military and the police
because salary administration for civil servants is the same in
all ministries. Differences lie only in the amounts of their
allowances.
Apart from making an unreasonable demand for a salary
increase, our fellow civil servants, the teachers, have also
demanded that their functional allowance rate be brought on the
same level as that of university lecturers. They also envy
agricultural counselors, arguing that the latter's functional
allowance is bigger than that of teachers.
In fact, the difference is not really significant. It is a
shame that in this context, the rallying teachers have said words
disparaging the profession of an agricultural counselor. They say
that agricultural counselors are assigned only to breed "mujair"
freshwater fish but their allowance is higher than that of
teachers. It is clear that these teachers know little about the
jobs of an agricultural counselor; therefore, their comment is
meaningless.
We must all realize that all civil servant jobs are serious
and difficult ones (this applies to all ministries, so the job of
an agricultural counselor is also serious and difficult). When a
teacher comes to school to teach, his or her pupils are ready in
a relatively comfortable room. Agricultural counselors and other
non-formal instructors, however, must gather the farmers in the
middle of a rice field under the scorching sun.
In building our beloved country, we need not claim ourselves
as parties with the greatest merit. All ministries are of equal
importance and cannot run alone. Therefore, the government should
not be discriminatory in promoting the welfare of civil servants.
We are very worried that if the government meets this
unreasonable demand and ignores other (non-teacher) civil
servants, the following may take place:
1. Massive rallies will be staged by non-teacher civilian civil
servants to demand an increase in their salaries and allowances;
2. Many private schools will be closed down because they will be
financially incapable of paying teachers' salaries;
3. The rate of inflation will soar so that the common people will
have to go through the greatest sufferings.
May the decision makers may take into account what I have
written above.
SRI HARJANTO
On behalf of Agricultural Counselors
in Pemalang Regency
Central Java