…buck in Cabinet?
Your Eyewitness has been pretty harsh on ex-PPP turned AFC supporter, Sase Singh, over the last couple years. Like most new converts, he went over the top as he became a rabid critic of his old party and canonised his newfound friends. Your Eyewitness’ point being that when it comes to politicians – who’ll walk over their mother’s graves to get elected – you’ve got to take their pronouncements with a handful of salt.
Well… a year and a half down the road from the elections that squeezed Singh’s buddies into office, he’s singing a different tune; a very bitter and heartbroken tune. Your Eyewitness isn’t one to say, “I told you so!”… What’s the point? But we have to give Singh a hat tip for at least making his disillusionment public. This will hopefully lead to a larger number of persons to appreciate why one of our earliest theorists on government called this entity a “Leviathan”. And another to explain- “if men were angels we wouldn’t need government…”
While Singh and any number of Guyanese may’ve become disillusioned with the PPP – for any number of reasons from not getting a big position, to not addressing abuses – eternal vigilance has to be the watchword when it comes to those to whom we confer power. It’d seem even back in the days of the bible this was the case – “the spirit may be winning” the good book advises, “but the flesh is weak”!
Anyhow, Singh pointed out a factoid that your Eyewitness doesn’t think anyone realised – the total salary of the Cabinet is $1Billion annually! Can you believe that? Makes you remember the ironic comment of an American Legislator as he looked at the gargantuan expenditures of his government: “A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money!”
This huge expenditure on the Cabinet, of course, came about because of the 50 percent pay raise they awarded themselves. Ain’t that sweet – when you can literally write your own cheque! The explanation offered for the extraordinary salary bump was that it would stave off temptation for corruption. Well we now know the salary injection as immunisation against corruption certainly didn’t work here in Guyana!
And why? Well the justifications for paying salaries above the norm in any field – like, say, in banks – is that the employees wouldn’t want to lose their jobs. So they stick to the straight and narrow. But if the employees – in this case the Cabinet Ministers – see that they can “do what they want” without any sanction from the boss, then the theory breaks down.
And this is where we are in Guyana, isn’t it?
…the king
The Prince may be coming… but we already have the “King” – right here in Georgetown in the person of the Town Clerk; name’s Royston. And your Eyewitness already informed you that for good measure, the man’s name “Roy” also means “King” in French. And Kings, you know, can do pretty much whatever the heck they feel like doing to those in their dominion.
So a couple of months ago, the vendors in front of Stabroek Market were herded off by the King from the square and shoehorned into the vacant lot of a private citizen, who said they had to vacate the place in three months. Which is just about NOW. Criticized for acting so high-handedly, the King promised he’d have a “permanent” spot for the vendors before their time was up.
Luckily, the vendors didn’t hold their breath… because it was just announced there’s NO alternate spot! The venders are on their own. Well not really. The King just evicted the vendors outside Bourda Market.
Misery loves company, nuh?
…bugs
A farmer asked an excellent question in our letters pages. When was the last time the Agri-chemicals importers applied for EPA permission to dump expired insect ideas?
Never! Meaning they dump the expired stuff of the farmers?
