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View all search resultsPolitical parties rally behind scaling back House perks
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University students shout slogans during a protest against lawmakers' extra pay and housing allowances on Sept. 1 outside the House of Representatives building in Central Jakarta. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
F
ollowing days of demonstration over lawmakers’ allowances, political parties at the House of Representatives have reaffirmed their commitment to scaling back perks and to listening to peaceful protests, signaling the legislature’s first step in addressing mounting public criticism.
Lawmakers’ lavish housing allowance and their perceived arrogance incensed people and sparked demonstrations in front of the House building early last week, before the death of a motorcycle taxi (ojol) driver on Thursday night quickly escalated the outrage into nationwide protests and riots.
All 580 lawmakers currently receive a Rp 50 million (US$3,034) monthly housing allowance since their inauguration last October, roughly 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage and 20 times the minimum in poorer regions.
In a bid to quell public anger, President Prabowo Subianto held a meeting on Sunday with leadership of the legislative bodies and leaders of all eight House political parties and announced that they have agreed for lawmakers’ allowance policy to be revoked and for all overseas work trips to be suspended.
House Budget Committee head Said Abdullah told reporters on Monday that the next step in hashing out the allowance cut would be for the House's committee in charge of household affairs (BURT) to hold a meeting on the matter.
Said comes from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the biggest and the only de-facto opposition party in the House.
Read also: Prabowo calls for severe response to protests
