The arrogance, insensitivity and inconsideration of the Ministers’ salary increase

Oct 13, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
It is inevitable that government makes mistakes. And it is also a fact that oftentimes government attracts harsh criticisms when political prudence dictates that government engages an unpopular, but ultimately beneficial, course. The Coalition government will not be immune to either of these factors and attendant consequences. However, when government’s mistakes or seemingly crude decisions are underscored by arrogance, the sentiments of the people are justifiably sharper. The feelings of bewilderment are compounded. Government supporters feel a strong sense of betrayal. Opponents of the government are renewed in their confidence that their opposition is credible.
Increasing the salaries of government officials ought not to have been a serious consideration, let alone a reality, at this time. If, as it is reported, this move was meant to distinguish between the respective posts government officials hold, a salary increase is not the most apt way to draw such distinction. Why not distinguish the respective posts with decreases in salary? It does not paint a good picture that public servants have to be dragged through the mud for incremental 5% increases in their salaries while there is prompt consideration of salary increases for government officials upon the assumption of office. This having materialized, renders public servants more aggrieved, especially when we have regard to the fact that by the time they are visited by the measly incremental increases, the cost of living has far outstretched the elasticity of such increases.
Guyana is a broken nation. Much of our wounds are the product of grave and sustained financial exploitation. The masses of our people have for years lived on subsistence wages; have lived in homes with only the most basic amenities or at the risk of repossession of their modern amenities by hire purchase stores; have lived in poorly lit communities; have lived in wonderment of where the next meal is coming from. Communities need roads, water, stable electricity, modern health facilities, better schools, which are simultaneously adequately staffed; too many parents can’t afford a decent meal for themselves and children, can’t afford to send their children to school, can’t even afford to be at home to parent their children because they are working too many jobs in an attempt to balance a meal; our senior citizens are still struggling with the ‘small change’ that masquerades as pension. These facts are no secret concealed from the government. Yet still government has sanctioned salary increases for its ranks.
The circumstances of the masses of Guyanese have not changed in the short months since the Coalition is in office. Therefore for the Coalition to review and modify the salaries of Ministers to reflect a notable increase without any corresponding benefit being enjoyed by the masses of the people is an act which is bound to excite our emotions. And this is certainly not tempered by the insensitive and arrogant utterances of the Minister of State.
Show me the government Minister- senior or junior- or the government official who seeks to justify at this point in time a salary increase, and I will show you someone who is not serious about moving this country forward. When Thomas Sankara assumed office as President of Burkina Faso (formerly the Upper Volta), his very first official act was to cut the salaries of government officials, starting with his own. He traded the luxury government cars for ordinary cars for government officials. He axed first class flying and sanctioned only economy flying for all government officials, ceasing those privileges to himself firstly. These changes as massive as they may seem are a mere fraction of his reforms which were crafted exclusively in the interest of his people.
Politics should be seen as more an act of and commitment to service than as a career. It really should be a call to purpose and not the chasing after ambition. The nucleus of ambition is ‘self’, whereas purpose is fueled by our innate drive to serve and better the circumstances of others. No one can deny the rigour and demands which politics imposes upon politicians. However, this should not be mitigated by massive personal gains while the people whose lives politicians undertake to improve cannot boast of tangible betterment. Love for our country and our people cannot be expressed in this way. Let the focus be on enriching in every material way our people; and politicians, being a part of that lot, can benefit from corresponding growth.
I am not proposing that the Coalition adopt changes as radical as Sankara. However, do not entertain courses of action which deepen the entrenched sentiments of the masses that government has been and will continue to be anti-common people.
Ronald J. Daniels

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