The season of empty pockets

Jan 11, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
For a salaried worker, January is a hard, never-ending month.  You get paid in the middle of the December, so that you can have that little extra to splurge for Christmas and to usher in the New Year in style.  By the time the decorations come down, your pockets are dry, with maybe just a little bit of jingling left.  A week later and you are looking for a raise.
A colleague to told me she has about forty applications on her desk from staff who are asking for their vacation allowance – in the first week of January.  That is how broke some folks are.  You just cannot blame them, because as the saying goes, “we Guyanese know just how to have a good time!”  We learnt that since we were small, and we saw the same story happening year after year.
Small man, big man, even the junkie at the corner, all live the same story – after Christmas, your pockets are turned inside out!  Where am I going with this?
Well, you do remember that in last October, the government unilaterally gave a hefty salary increase to all Ministers and Members of Parliament.  The gentleman who announced the increase said he had no apologies to make; the raises were well deserved, besides, he did not want anyone to harbour any intentions of dipping into the cookie jar.  Two months earlier, in August, the media announced that government was planning to make the mouth-watering increases.  Of course, there was immediate denial.
“Man, how them can say something like that?  The man them only just get the job, and already they want a raise?”  That is what a friend said.  Two months later the increases did come, but they were revised downward, ‘a lil’ bit’.  The laugh was to come later, when the public made a huge cry about the pittances for the poor and the hefty raise for the big ones.
We always complain that we want a caring government, one that can close the gap between the rich and the poor.  In one fell swoop, the new government – good guys we like to root for – did just the opposite.  They legally made the rich richer, and well, left the expectant poor in the lurches.  All because we were worried that some might want to lift the lid of the cookie jar when no one was watching!
The Opposition made the most noise.  One boss man said that they were going to return the increases.  Another boss, always the creative type, said no, they were not going to return the increases.  Instead, each MP will transfer the value of the increase to the party’s account.  If that would not have been an indirect transfer from state treasury to the party’s account, I am not sure what you will want to call that move.
In my own naivety, I blogged that if they did not want to return the increase, spend it on charitable work in the party’s constituencies.  Just do not pocket it.  Somewhere in the political wilderness I recall a solitary voice saying “yes, give it to charity” – once and only once was that repeated.  Not a babble since!
After the last elections, a good friend told me that the party is the richest in the Caribbean, and that we have no need to worry, the party will rally through.  Five months out of office, and the party looking for a raise.  That is a truly Guyanese party – I never doubted that trait of walking with one hand outstretched!
When the protestations started, I thought maybe we were going to see the ‘Ghandian’ type emerging amidst the party’s ranks.  Nothing happened.  The second month’s pay was made, and a little murmur was heard.  By the time the third month’s pay came around, it was absolute silence.
By this time, I had to reflect on a cartoon I had seen, one in which an obese man sat at a table with a huge basin (in Guyana, we can say ‘churin’ to give the right visual effect) full of food in front of him.  With stomach distended, mouth and both hands full, he was saying, “boy, this food nah taste good at all!”  Gluttony?
Poor Mr. Harmon went and donated his raise, the same one he had no apologies / excuses to make for.  He did so on more than one occasion.  Did anyone else join him?  I cannot seem to recall reading that anywhere – if that did happen, maybe I did miss the report.   If no one else joined him in giving away their dough, I wonder how Uncle Joe is feeling now – maybe like wringing his ears, and swearing “nah me again”!
But I should have remembered that in Guyana, once Diwali is out of the way, all thoughts are about Christmas.  And putting up money for the niceties of the festive season.  Maybe, we should not begrudge the big ones on the Opposition side of the House, and after all that wailing of “meh nah want am” – of wanting a good Christmas too. The only thing I am worried about now, is that after all that feting, they may want to ask for early pay in January.  Including the same increase, they did not want.  Or the vacation allowance being brought forward!
Khemraj Tulsie

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