Housing Allowances For Members Of The DPR Make No Sense And Hurt People's Hearts

The complex of the house of office of the DPR in Kalibata, South Jakarta. (Special)

JAKARTA Member of the House of Representatives (DPR) for the period 2024-2029 no longer gets a Membership House (RJA) facility. However, it will receive a housing allowance of IDR 50 million every month instead. The replacement of the housing allowance scheme for the people's representatives invites controversy.

This news stems from the Circular Letter of the Secretariat General of the DPR numbered B/733/RT.01/09/2024 and signed by the Secretary General of the DPR Indra Iskandar on September 25, 2024, which states that members of the DPR 2024-2029 will be given housing allowances and not be given housing facilities for members.

This is the result of the decision of the DPR leadership meeting, the leadership of the DPR factions, and the Secretariat General of the DPR on September 24, 2024. This means that members of the 2019-2024 DPR, whether re-elected or not, are asked to immediately hand over the official house they use to the Secretariat General of the DPR.

Member of the House of Representatives from the Golkar 2024-2029 faction, Zulfikar Arse Sadikin, explained that each member of the House of Representatives will receive a housing allowance of IDR 58.65 million per month after deducting taxes.

The budget for housing allowances of more than IDR 50 million per month is considered by observers to hurt people's hearts. Currently, the condition of society is currently difficult economically due to the high number of layoffs (PHK) accompanied by weak purchasing power.

DPR Secretary General Indra Iskandar said the condition of the official house of DPR members in Kalibata, South Jakarta was severe. The house needs treatment that costs less economical. For this reason, the DPR decided not to give official houses to members of the DPR who were just appointed last week.

The complex of official houses in Kalibata is one of the locations for the DPR's official residence. The location of other official houses is in the Ulujami area, South Jakarta.

In Kalibata, each official house has an area of about 250 square meters. These two-story houses were built in 1988 and provided by the state as a place to live for DPR members, both from the Jakarta area and other provinces.

The reason that DPR members no longer receive official housing is because most of the conditions are badly damaged and unfit to live in. Mostly, the house structure drops so that many cracks on the walls. In addition, the official house often floods when the rainy season arrives.

According to Indra Iskandar, repairing houses with such conditions can be expensive, especially since the budget from the Ministry of Finance is relatively small and not sufficient to maintain all needs such as physical buildings, environment, waterways, electricity networks, and others.

Meanwhile, Habiburokhman, a member of the DPR for the period 2024-2029, said that replacing official houses with housing allowances was not enough. He said that the allowance to replace the office facilities was not enough to rent a house near the Senayan area.

Zulfikar Arse Sadikin tried to detail the state's expenditure for housing allowances. If each member of the DPR gets disbursed of Rp58.65 million per month, then for one year it will pocket Rp703.8 million. The members of the DPR for the 2024-2029 period amounted to 580 people.

"That way for one year, the state spent Rp408.2 billion only on housing allowances," he said.

The claim that the abolition of official housing facilities for members of the DPR for the period 2024-2029 is because these houses are not livable is suspected by the public. The public considers that housing allowances are only an excuse by the DPR to get cash from the state budget to be even thicker in this discourse. Moreover, according to media monitoring, the condition of official houses in Kalibata is still very habitable.

A number of observers also criticized this policy. The Director of the Indonesian Parliamentary Center (IPC) said that the provision of housing allowances for DPR members was inappropriate if they were given for five years of office. Because so far there have been facilities in the form of official houses. Even if the official house is damaged and needs to be renovated, it is better if the housing allowance is given temporarily when the facility is repaired.

"As state officials, all facilities have been used, starting from vehicles, allowances, and official houses. If it is replaced with official housing allowances, it is called a waste of state money," said Hanafi.

The provision of housing allowances also applies to DPR members with husband and wife status, such as Ahmad Dhani-Mulan Jameela, Uya Kuya-Astrad Kuya, and Rusdi Masse Mappasessu-Fatmawati Rusdi. In addition, there are also names such as Victor Laiskodat-Julie S. Laiskodat, Sugiono Firmando-Marlyn Maisarah, to Ahmad Muzani-Himmatul Alliya.

Arif Adiputro, a researcher from IPC, assessed that this decision was insensitive in the midst of people's economically difficult conditions. Currently, the unemployment rate continues to grow and people's purchasing power is weak.

"The public will definitely see Rp50 million per month for allowances even though people's conditions are difficult, they must feel disappointed," said Arif.

Not yet starting work, members of the DPR even started with a controversial discourse, namely housing allowances. Researcher of the Indonesian Parliamentary Concerned Community Forum (Formappi) Lucius Karus said this discourse was very contradictory.

He also said that the reason presented by the DPR was illogical, because there was actually a routine budget for maintenance of official houses that could be used to renovate if there was damage.

"The reason for the procurement of housing allowances is not trusted by the public, because so far there has been a budget and procurement project for the repair of official housing. So, should we first ask where is the budget for the maintenance of the damage to the official house?" asked Lucius.

"Why does the DPR always have to start the period with noise related to facilities? Why should it take precedence as a matter of personal comfort? Not the interests of the people? How come the impression is eager to pursue wealth?" he added.

He assessed that the provision of housing allowances would only increase the burden on the state budget. Instead of giving allowances, according to him, it is more efficient to use official houses for now while waiting for the DPR to move to the State Capital (IKN) of the Archipelago in East Kalimantan.

"Why don't you just wait until the DPR moves to the capital city of the archipelago? If you have to move there, then it makes sense for them to rent a house with housing allowances, because there is no house for them. But, here it has been provided in Kalibata and Ulujami which I think can be renovated," he concluded.