David Hinds roasts Government over 50% raise

"This is the second big misstep by the government; the first being the initial naming of members to the State Boards. I think the government has misread the feelings of its own supporters on these matters and this is worrying"

David Hinds roasts Government over 50% raise

Political Activist and Professor, Dr. David Hinds in a weekend column has taken the five-  month-old APNU+AFC government to task over its recent move to raise the salaries for members of government and Parliament by up to 50%.

He is questioning whether the government has lost touch with reality in just five months.

Hinds, like GTUC General Secretary Lincoln Lewis, said the issue for him is not whether the salaries should be increased or not but rather the manner in which it was done.

“Often it is not just what government does, but the manner in which things are done,” Hinds said.

He is of the strong opinion that the increases should not have been pursued this early but said even if the government felt pressed to do it do it now, it should have been done in small increments.

“This is the second big misstep by the government; the first being the initial naming of members to the State Boards. I think the government has misread the feelings of its own supporters on these matters and this is worrying,” he added.

Nonetheless, he is hopeful that the government would recover from this blow, but again reasoned that the accumulation of these mistakes over time could alienate its supporters and further embolden the opposition.

Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 5.22.37 AM

Hinds pointed out that the salary increases for political members of government are always unpopular among the masses but argued that government ministers salaries, even with this raise, are low compared to their counterparts in the rest of the Caribbean.

“Those salary increases would not dent the treasury,” he said, but he also drew attention to the recent “reasonable but not spectacular salary increase” that was given to other categories of Pubic Servants by the government and said he was not surprised the government was coming under fire for raising the salaries of its ministers.

According to the activist, “thanks to the PPP’s track record in government, the issue of government as a source of unjust enrichment for ministers has become part of popular rage against government,” Hinds added.

He said the PPP is now aggressively moving to silence its excesses while in government by pining them on the current government. “These factors should have influenced the decision on the increases. That they did not, suggests political naivety, arrogance, insensitivity or all of them. Worse, it suggests that in five months the government may already be out of touch with the realities of life on the ground,” Hinds reasoned.

The Political Activist said many of the people who welcomed this government with unprecedented enthusiasm to office are not happy about this move and are openly voicing their disapproval on social media and in the conventional media. “Others, I am sure, are shaking their heads in dismay in their villages or in the privacy of their homes.”

 In an advice to the new government, Hinds said “government should always tread carefully on sensitive matters. And this is a sensitive matter. Although the salary increase is not a form of enrichment, it should not be surprising that the masses see it in that light.”

The government has been coming under increasing criticism over the salary increases. Some organisations have called on the government to put a hold on the increases.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login