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Politicization of wages and civil servants’ neutrality
It is funny that the government pushes civil servants to be impartial while giving them political goodies such as a salary increase around election time.
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Loyalty to the state: Civil servants attend a ceremony to mark National Education Day on May 2, 2023 at Tegar Beriman Square in Cibinong, Bogor regency, West Java. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)
The basic salary of civil servants in Indonesia has increased four times in the last decade. The most recent pay adjustment occurred in 2019, when the basic salary increased by around 5 percent. There has not been any wage rise in the last four years.
The government's intention to raise the basic salary of civil servants in 2024 has received extensive media discussion. There are two opposing viewpoints on this plan.
First, many observers believe the proposal contains political interest because it will go into effect at the start of the election year 2024. The second view is that this move will help restore civil servants’ purchasing power, which has been eroded by inflation. This plan, as far as I am concerned, has arrived at the right point but not at the right time.
Instead of every four years, or during the presidential election years, ideally, civil servants' basic salary should increase annually by a small amount. It is reasonable to assume that the new plan for wage hikes has a political motivation.
Why? Since it will occur around an election year. It is possible that certain players will benefit from the pay hike. The most recent salary raise occurred in 2019, which was also an election year.
During the presidency of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the civil servant basic salary has increased twice since 2014. The first time was in 2015, when salaries were raised by 5 percent, and the second in 2019. During the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration (2004-2014), wage increases took place annually from 2006 until the end of his term in October 2014.
