Indonesia Announces New “Allowances Allowance” to Help Officials Process Other Allowances
Indonesia introduces a Rp 5M monthly 'Allowance Management Allowance' to help lawmakers cope with the emotional burden of processing their existing perks.
JAKARTA — Indonesia has unveiled its most innovative benefit to date: a Rp 5 million monthly “Allowance Management Allowance,” designed to support lawmakers in the increasingly complex task of processing, categorizing, and emotionally coping with their ever-growing list of government perks.
“We looked at the data and realized our members are under immense administrative stress,” said one spokesperson. “It’s not easy managing a dozen overlapping allowances, so we’ve introduced a new allowance to help handle this abundance.”
The new stipend will be disbursed automatically every month, without the need for receipts, deliverables, or visible mental strain. When asked why it wasn’t simply rolled into existing income, the DPR clarified that such consolidation would violate the spirit of “transparent, clearly labeled inefficiency.”
The Allowance Management Allowance (AMA) joins a suite of benefits that includes the Intensive Communication Allowance, the Oversight Function Allowance, the Position Allowance, the Spouse Allowance, the Child Allowance, the Rice Allowance, the Attendance Allowance, and the Housing Allowance, among others.
Several officials privately welcomed the news, admitting that their current workload has been dominated not by lawmaking, but by “keeping track of what they’re entitled to.”
“I downloaded a budgeting app to track it all,” said one West Java legislator on condition of anonymity. “It crashed. Twice. I now pay my assistant just to monitor my other assistants, who are organizing my allowance folders.”
One proposed addition to the AMA was the development of a custom mobile app, “Tunjangan+,” which would provide push notifications whenever a new allowance becomes available. Features include AI-generated justification memos, emotional tracking for social media criticism, and a live calculator that displays your growing monthly compensation in real time, accompanied by gentle harp sounds.
Public sentiment has ranged from bemused disbelief to quiet, bubbling rage.
“This is the kind of thing you expect from a fictional satire site,” said one political science lecturer. “But unfortunately, it’s also a fairly accurate reflection of real legislative dynamics. They are essentially solving the problem of excessive allowances by introducing more allowances.”
Online, Indonesians reacted with trademark sarcasm, launching trending hashtags like #TunjanganSquad, #GajiAtasGaji, and #AllowanceInception. One viral meme featured a screenshot of an official wiping his brow with rupiah notes.
Activists were less amused. “It’s offensive,” said a Jakarta-based healthcare advocate. “Nurses are still buying their own gloves, and lawmakers are getting paid to manage the stress of being overpaid.”
In response, a spokesperson clarified that public misunderstanding was inevitable. “This is a technical issue. Only those familiar with advanced fiscal policy and extremely light workloads can truly grasp the value of this allowance.”
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