Indonesia MPs launch whip round for pay freeze president

Indonesian members of parliament have started a collection for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after he said he had not had a pay rise in seven years.

A transparent collection box was placed in the hallway of a parliamentary building this week, but it has so far collected just a few coins.

Yudhoyono earns around 62 million rupiah (4,300 pounds) a month, well below the 265 million rupiah earned by the central bank governor or by executives at state owned firms in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, according to local media.

Yudhoyono, in his second term, has presided over a period of relative political and social stability plus solid economic growth during the financial crisis, leading the G20 member to become an emerging market favorite among investors last year.

But corruption, rife among lowly paid government officials, is still a deterrent to foreign direct investment.