No Applause When Firli Announces Salary Increase For KPK Employees

Firli Bahuri when giving his first speech (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - Firli Bahuri officially serves as Chairman of the KPK for the 2019-2023 period. In his first remarks, Firli announced the news of salary and allowances increases for all KPK employees. The news that should have been very pleasant was greeted lonely.

Firli's statement was made after the symbolic handover of the position. Based on VOI's monitoring, not a single KPK employee welcomed Firli's statement. Applause not even.

Initially, Firli explained, even though KPK employees would change their employment status to State Civil Servants (ASN), he asked that the take home pay or salaries brought home by employees did not decrease or even increase through a number of benefits including risk allowances.

The newly appointed KPK chairman even made an analogy for KPK employees as an airplane. "If wages go up, it's the same as an airplane, sir," he said at the KPK's Red and White House, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Friday, December 20.

Firli said he had discussed the salary increase with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and the ranks of the KPK Supervisory Board. "When the plane goes up, everyone enjoys it. But, (when) the plane goes down, it's time to stop. That is, if the salary of KPK employees goes up, there will be noise. But if the salary goes down there will be chaos," said Firli.

The absence of a response from KPK employees made the atmosphere awkward. "How come no one applauds?" asked Firli trying to break the silence. It was only afterwards that a number of KPK employees clapped their hands.

The Police Commissioner General said he was not trying to promise a salary increase in front of his employees. However, he had already conveyed this to the Minister of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (MenpanRB) Tjahjo Kumolo and was welcomed quite well.

Previously, Jokowi had appointed five new KPK leaders for the 2019-2024 period at the State Palace, Jakarta. They are KPK Chairman Firli Bahuri and four KPK Deputy Chairmen Alexander Marwata, Nurul Ghufron, Nawawi Pomolango and Lili Pintauli Siregar.

In addition, for the first time, Jokowi also installed the KPK Supervisory Board. They are former judges of the Constitutional Court Harjono, Tumpak Hatotangan Panggabean, a former KPK leader, Artidjo Alkostar, a former chief justice, Albertina Ho, Deputy Chairman of the Kupang High Court, and Syamsuddin Haris, a LIPI researcher.