Abundant self-interest drove the APNU+AFC government to raise the salaries of its ministers by as much as 50% and the widely-denounced move is devoid of political morality or savvy, political commentator Dr Henry Jeffrey says.
“Notwithstanding its quite fuzzy and extremely problematic explanations, it is clear that inherent in the decision to pay itself salary increases far above those of its employees, who, for the most part, are just inches away from the bread-line, is an abundant self-interest,” Jeffrey wrote in his Stabroek News column published yesterday.
He said that when a government deliberately refuses to listen to the voice of its people it had better be on solid ground, such as protecting the rights of some minority group. He argued that the decision by the government to substantially increase its own salaries is devoid of political morality or savvy.
“In these circumstances, if the errant government has been long in office, the people should put its early removal high on their agenda. If it is still young, as is the present one, the people must stand their ground in the hope that the government will change its ways and come to realise that the vox populi is not to be trifled with,” he wrote.
According to Jeffrey, on this issue, government cheer-leaders who would have the populace believe that to criticise is to be unfair to a new, inexperienced, government, do not now have a leg to stand on. He noted that when the government’s previous effort to introduce hefty salary increases was first raised and criticised by the PPP/C, after much obfuscation, the proposal was put aside because of a general public denunciation.
“After all, at the last general election the PPP/C showed that it had nearly as many supporters as the government and many of the latter’s people made their displeasure known. In normal circumstances politicians can only disrespect this kind of public opinion at their peril, yet within only a few weeks the regime has gone ahead,” Jeffrey pointed out.
However, he suggested that given the nature of Guyanese, it may well be that given time and the ethnic nature of local political allegiances, the APNU+AFC government assessed that the public outrage can be weathered as when it comes to the crunch they will be able to rally their support base. In this regard, he pointed to the apparent success of former president Bharrat Jagdeo in corralling traditional PPP/C supporters during the last election and said that this suggests that the coalition government may well have a point.
Real pressure
The former PPP/C government minister said that very much related to this issue is how the government’s decision is putting real pressure on many of its trade union well-wishers to try to spin credible responses. “With forms of dubious reasoning, some are telling us that they are not against the ministerial increases but substantial increases should be given to everyone,” he noted.
However, he pointed out that such large increases for public servants are unaffordable and would be inflationary, and such a position is disingenuous.
Jeffrey pointed out that Minister of State Joe Harmon had claimed that he and his colleagues “deserve” the substantial increases. “What can he possibly mean by this? Do they deserve them because of their achievements since coming to government? For me, apart from spending some money to clean up Georgetown, which the previous regime misguidedly and deliberately starved of resources, what has this regime done to deserve any increase in pay?” he questioned.
“The truth is that it has not been in office sufficiently long to have to face such an assessment. Of course, if Mr Harmon disputes this he should tabulate these accomplishments and share them so that the nation can better comprehend the salary increases. Such a contribution could also provide a template for those involved in national wage negotiations,” Jeffrey declared.
He also noted that Harmon said that Cabinet comprises persons “of quality.” According to Jeffrey, this suggests that it is this undefined quality that he wishes to compensate and thus raises the question as to the nature of the quality he and his colleagues believe they have that is worth more than those in the previous cabinet and the ordinary public servants who only received about a 5% as opposed to the cabinet’s 50% increases.
“Experience and academic qualifications can be considered as making one person more deserving in the job situation, but in this regard is the present cabinet, if at all, so much more academically qualified and experienced than public servants or the previous PPP/C cabinet? I think not,” he said.
“But perhaps they have identified in themselves a deeper kind of moral quality that is far and above that of the normal public servant and members of the previous regime,” Jeffrey wrote.
He recalled Harmon’s claim that the PPP were prepared to accept low salaries because they were “thieving money all over the place.”
Jeffrey said that so far the actual evidence that there was theft is pretty slim and that process needs time to properly fructify.
“But more importantly, even if we wish to accept in advance the predicted rectitude of the present cabinet if they are paid more, to suggest that an important reason those associated with the PPP were ‘thieving money all over the place’ was partly because their salaries were too low raises an entire range of issues, a few of which will be addressed later, about the nature of public service. More interestingly it is a mitigating argument in the PPP/C’s favour that the minister could not possibly have intended,” Jeffrey argued.
