Indonesia nearly doubles allowance for lawmakers weeks after public protests against perks

Indonesia has nearly doubled a key allowance for its lawmakers just weeks after protests against excessive pay and perks of parliamentarians swept the country.

The raise has reignited public anger as the Southeast Asian nation is still recovering from the violent clashes between protesters and riot police that left 10 people dead and at least 5,000 injured.

All 580 lawmakers will now receive 702m rupiah (£31,800) in “recess allowance”, which is meant to support work in their constituencies while parliament is not in session.

Indonesian parliamentarians take about five breaks per year.

The latest hike, which almost doubles the allowance from 400m rupiah (£18,100), came into effect on 3 October, deputy speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said.

Mr Dasco defended the hike, saying the previous sum was calculated for 2019-2024 and didn't take into account the subsequent rises in food and transportation prices.

“So, this is not a raise, it is a policy decided by the House's secretariat after reviewing various kinds of aspects," he said, adding the figure was not proposed by the House of Representatives but by the secretariat.

Mr Dasco, a senior member of president Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra party, said parliament was developing a digital reporting mechanism to ensure transparency which would be open to the public.

"It's like Indonesians have been pranked," Lucius Karus from Formappi, a nonprofit parliamentary watchdog, said.

"We were satisfied by the abolition of the housing allowance... but, in fact, another fantastic allowance has appeared.”

Thousands of students, activists and other citizens joined protests in August against the government's spending priorities, including pay rises for lawmakers.

Public outrage erupted after reports that members of the House of Representatives in the world's third-largest democracy were due to receive a monthly housing allowance of 50m rupiah (£2,315) in addition to their salaries.

The allowance, introduced last year, was nearly 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage.

The protests spiralled into riots after a motorcycle taxi driver was crushed by a police operation.

The violence spread to 32 of Indonesia's 38 provinces, making it the deadliest outbreak of unrest in the archipelago for over two decades. In several cities, protesters set fire to regional parliament buildings and police headquarters and looted and burnt vehicles.

In the wake of the unrest, some of the benefits for lawmakers were removed, cutting the total to 65.5m rupiah (£2,973).