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Give Dr. Ramsahoye, Balram Singh Rai their pensions

Aug 21, 2012 Letters

 

Dear Editor,
I write to inform the public about a pension injustice and to bring pressure on Parliament and the government to take action to grant pension benefits to Messrs Balram Singh Rai and Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye, among others who are (were) qualified for such benefits because of their service to the nation as a Members of Parliament or some other official capacity serving the nation.
This matter was raised before with my friends in the PPP and PNC long before both parties had defections that led to the formation of the AFC.  My friends in the AFC promised to bring up these matters years ago but are yet to do so. My friends in the PNC are silent, understandably so since it was that party that initially denied both gentlemen their pension benefits.
In private, PNC’s M.P.s agree the gentlemen deserve their benefits but have not lifted a hand to help in the cause as they were not PNC M.P.s and were sharp opponents of the PNC. My friends in the PPP told me and still hold the position that the above two gentlemen don’t need the money and as such there is no need to take action to grant the men their benefits.  Some of them felt the men should not have walked away from the PPP – indirectly supporting punitive action against them.
While it is true both men are not paupers, the issue is not one of need but one of principle. The dictator, Forbes Burnham, denied the men their pensions for political reason and when the PPP was in the opposition, it condemned Burnham on this and other critical issues.  Dr. Ramsahoye related a story in which he was asked to submit proof he was alive in order to get his pension.  He submitted proof in 1973.  The bureaucrats, presumably at the instruction of Burnham, asked him to submit proof that he was also alive in 1972 – try to figure that one out!
The PPP government needs to right this and other historic wrongs.  Whoever qualified for Parliamentary (or other) pension should get it.
Vishnu Bisram

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