Indonesia has nearly doubled a key allowance for its lawmakers, an official said on Monday, one month after canceling some of the benefits given to parliamentarians in an effort to assuage public anger following a series of violent demonstrations.
Thousands of students, rights groups and other civilians in August joined protests against the government’s spending priorities, including pay rises for lawmakers. The demonstrations later spiraled into riots after a motorcycle taxi driver was killed during a police operation.
The violence, which spread to 32 of Indonesia’s 38 provinces, resulted in 10 deaths and at least 5,000 arrests, making it the deadliest outbreak of unrest in the archipelago for more than two decades.
Photo: Reuters
The increase in the “recess allowance” for lawmakers — which is given to support their work in their constituencies while parliament is not in session — came into effect on Oct. 3, at the start of the latest break, Indonesian Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said on Monday.
Each lawmaker would now get 700 million rupiah (US$42,164) for each recess, Dasco said, up from 400 million rupiah.
Indonesia’s 580 lawmakers take approximately five breaks per year.
The allowance, which Dasco said had been approved by the Indonesian Ministry of Finance in May, is earmarked for visits and activities in electoral districts.
The August protests were sparked by anger at the perks available to politicians, with each lawmaker also entitled to an additional 100 million rupiah per month in housing and other allowances.
Following the unrest, some of the benefits were removed, cutting the total to 65.5 million rupiah.
While commodity-rich Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and a member of the G20, the World Bank says tens of millions of Indonesians still live in poverty.
“It’s like Indonesians have been pranked,” said Lucius Karus of Formappi, a nonprofit parliamentary watchdog. “We were satisfied by the abolition of the housing allowance ... but, in fact, another fantastic allowance has appeared.”
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