Marking his debut, one of his policies in first cabinet meeting was to cut his own and his cabinet pay by 30%.
The policy knocked the wage Hollande will earn to just under 15,000 euros (14,910 euros from 21,300 euros) a month. This contrasts sharply with predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to increase his pay on entering office (I find this kinda funny).
It was (and still is) a stormy start for François Hollande; everyone knows France is in a depressing state. Everyone knows that there is more discomfort to come. All that can be hoped for is slow, methodical crisis management. The dreaming time is over.
If you keep up with the news, after his celebration speech of becoming the new France's president, the jet taking him to Germany had been struck by lightning. In addition, Mr Hollande also got a soaking at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Lets just hope he is not a superstitious person, since there are too many bad signs on his first days as the new president.
But what I want to point out here is not how he seems to be a friend of bad luck, it's about his pay cut policy. With a debt crisis again rumbling louder in the euro zone, he said "We're convinced public debt is an enemy for the country. Our task will be reducing deficits and debt … this is the task we will address first" then took that policy to at least reduce the government's outcome and to show that they are sharing the hard times facing the country. It's somehow seems impossible for our government, here in Indonesia, to do the same thing.
Indonesian government seems to raise the government's outcome a lot over trivial things like toilets renovation for over 2 billion rupiah, DPR new building, and also the monorail project (which is really a waste of money since it's cancelled at the end). Why don't we take examples from Mr. Hollande? Even though his pay cut won't simply release France from its financial crisis, at least people know he is eager to sacrifice for the sake of his country. He wanted to struggle together with his citizens. Here in Indonesia (which is also having a lot of debts), there are a lot of people struggling out there for money. Why can't our government show them a little bit of concern ?
Here I put a video of another leader cutting his own pay : the CEO of Japanese Airline Company. He pays himself LESS than his regular pilots. Both François Hollande and Naruka Nishimatsu (the JAL CEO), what a great leader examples they are, aren't they ?
I'll cite a comment from Youtube on this video :
Slashes his own pay , eats with his co-workers and saving the jobs with his selfless act - He sets a standards not only to the other CEOs across the globe but also politicians and other dudes at the top whom is pocketing a whole lot of cash into their wallets in disregard to the others.
