Removing The Promise Of President (2): Prabowo Subianto Wants To Fight Corruption By Raising Salaries, Such As Far From Fire

Chairman of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto while visiting the Asri Syubbanul Wathon Fire Islamic Boarding School in Magelang, September 23, 2022. (Doc. Prabowo Media Team)

A series of programs are ready to be realized by Prabowo Subianto, one of the presidential candidates (Readpres) if he wins the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres). The Gerindra Party's presidential reading said that eradicating corruption was his priority program.

According to Prabowo, the high corruption rate in Indonesia is due to the lack of welfare of government employees. According to Prabowo, the effective way to reduce the number of corruption is to increase the salaries of government employees, both civil servants and the TNI and Polri.

"We have to improve our salaries to eliminate corruption," Prabowo Subianto said in a political speech during the Consolidation of the Crescent Star Party in Padang, which was broadcast live on Gerindra TV's YouTube.

"We have to eradicate corruption. With a good economy, a good salary, I don't think there is a need for corruption people," Prabowo added.

The problem of corruption is always in the spotlight in the country. Not only the perpetrators, but also state losses caused by corruption. The corruption case that is in the spotlight is the case of alleged corruption in the 4G base transceiver station (BTS) project, for example, involving the former Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Johnny G Plate and cost the state Rp. 8 trillion.

Also, the latest corruption case in the procurement of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) at Pertamina in 2011-2021. The LNG corruption case, which broke into state finances worth Rp. 2.1 trillion, dragged the former President Director of Pertamina 2009-2014, Karen Agustiawan.

But corruption does not only occur in a large scope, such as what happened to the Ministry of Communication and Information and Pertamina with trillions of value. Corruption can occur anywhere and be carried out by anyone. One example of'receh' corruption is gratification or giving gifts received by Civil Servants or State Administrators. Gratification can be in the form of money, goods, discounts, plane tickets, as well as other facilities.

One of the corruption theories, according to Jack Bologne, is due to the presence of attractiveness, opportunity (opportunity), necessity (needs), and disclosure (expose).

Prabowo wants to remove corruption from its lowest level. The trick is to increase the salaries of State Civil Apparatus (ASN) such as civil servants, TNI, Polri, prosecutors, judges, and others. Promise to raise ASN salaries in the hope of eradicating corruption is actually just a repeat.

In the 2019 presidential election campaign, Prabowo, who was paired with Sandiaga Uno, also lured ASN's salary increase if they won. According to them, this method is effective and concrete enough to eradicate corruption that is still happening within the scope of government.

Bhima Yudhistira, Director of the Center of Economics and Law Studies (CELIOS), is not sure the corruption rate will drop just by raising the salaries of ASN. Instead, he suggested that the government must have the courage to eradicate corruption holistically.

Prabowo must see that the eradication of corruption is not necessarily effective with a salary increase. We will see the case at the Ministry of Finance with a scandal of Rp. 349 T even though the incentives for allowances and salaries at the Ministry of Finance are higher than other ministries," Bhima said in his statement to VOI.

"So it means that there is no guarantee with a populist policy of raising salaries, there is a correlation with a better eradication of corruption, don't waste it. Don't let personnel spending be very large, bureaucratic spending is too fat in the state budget, don't add it to the burden of increasing on the grounds that eradicating corruption is not appropriate," Bhima continued.

Quoted from a number of sources, the salaries of all civil servants throughout Indonesia are the same as Government Regulation (PP) Number 15 of 2019. The principal salary of civil servants is set at IDR 1,560,800 for the lowest term of office of up to IDR 5,901,200 for the highest term of office. Meanwhile, civil servant allowances at the Ministry of Finance are among the highest compared to other government agencies, although they are still under the Directorate General of Taxes.

The Ministry of Finance's civil servant allowance is regulated in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) 156/2014 including the lowest allowance of IDR 2.57 million, and IDR 46.9 million for the 27th or highest class of positions.

However, before Prabowo promised to increase the salaries of ASN, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had done it first. Jokowi proposed that ASN salaries increase by 8% in the 2024 RAPBN. In addition, Jokowi also proposed a 12% increase in pension salary. According to Jokowi, an increase in welfare is needed to reform the bureaucracy.

"The improvement of the welfare, allowances and remuneration of ASN is carried out based on performance and productivity," said Jokowi in the context of submitting the 2024 State Budget Bill and Financial Notes, at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Wednesday, August 16.

In disclosing a number of programs, Bhima assessed that the Presidents should have a team tasked with explaining to the public how to realize these programs when elected. He said, it is necessary to explain where the money came from by the Presidential Team.

The public must be convinced that there will be other budget savings, for example there are programs that are not continued, there are programs that have been shifted or relocated by the budget. Without a mature explanation to the public, it is feared that this program will actually become a blunder for the Presidential Decree.

"The promises are still very raw. It must be explained by the spokesman or by the timses to the public so that it does not cause concern with promises to be too bombastic if it is not explained, worry about being a blundering sentiment," said Bhima explaining.