Zak Malang
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 30, 2008
- 5,404
- 233
Wanajamvi:
Wiki hii katika gazeti la The East African, jenerali Ulimwengu kamtaja JK kama ni 'bingwa wa kupasia mpira', kila anapopigiwa pasi -- akimaananisha hili sakata la posho za wabunge kulirudisha Bungeni, ikiwa ni namna ya utendaji wake unaoonyesha kushindwa kwake kutoa maamuzi mazito asionekane mbaya kwa mtu au kundi lolote..
Nime-highlight hapo kwenye red.
MPs need money from taxpayers to bribe voters, what excuse do the doctors have?
By Jenerali Ulimwengu
These past few weeks in Tanzania have been all about allowances, perks and entitlements, and the shouting matches involving the various claimants and their counters have been singularly inelegant.
We have had a strike mounted by doctors and other medical staff over allowances they have been demanding for quite some time now, allowances the government claims it cannot afford to pay because, it says, it simply does not have the money. The doctors have stuck to their guns and the government has threatened the striking medics with expulsion. It has also called in military doctors to fill the vacancies left by the strikers. One wonders who has filled the vacancies where they came from.
Parallel to this, a wrangle was going on over the decision by Members of Parliament to hike their sitting allowances by more than 100 per cent, which has been noisily opposed by members of the public who believe their legislators are already overpaid as it is. Most members very few have opposed the move claim they need the raise because they have to dish out cash to their constituents to help with paying school fees or medical costs. Members of civil society argue that its not the job of MPs to distribute cash, and at any rate it would be impossible to regulate and standardise that kind of activity.
Then at some stage the matter was referred to President Jakaya Kikwete, who is empowered to determine whether allowances should be raised, and after a while both Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda and the Speaker of the House announced that the president had sanctioned the increase, the Speaker adding that the new allowances had indeed been paid since last November. Upon which the Presidents Office issued a slightly annoyed statement, saying categorically that the president had done no such thing, that he had only counselled the premier to employ wisdom while handling the matter.
It was clear that the president, passer of the buck par excellence, was passing this one too. He must know that what the MPs are trying to do is extremely unpopular, and the populace is angered by their representatives perceived greed. At the same time, he wants to remain on good terms with the MPs, for what, I do not know. Its this that the prime minister may have understood before he decided to call his bosss bluff by employing wisdom and declaring that the president was in agreement.
Its a bizarre situation, to say the least, when the government does not seem to be together on such a sensitive issue. Its also bizarre to hear grown-ups argue that they need an increase because they have to give money to their voters, that is to say, since they have been dishing out money to get votes to such an extent that nowadays vote buying is the norm, therefore the taxpayer aka the voter has to cough up higher allowances payable to his honourable representative so that this latter can use it to bribe the same said voter/taxpayer. You do not have to be crazy to be mad.
One gets the impression that the country has fallen victim to a multi-episode hold-up mounted by its leaders. In the meantime, people continue to die unnecessarily because the government, inexplicably, cannot see the contradiction between what it is conceding to parliamentarians and what it is denying the nations lifesavers.
It may take time to restore sanity in our midst, but we can start by reminding our legislators and other politicians that they are supposed to be our servants, and that servants never fix their own pay; that they do not have to be MPs, and if they think what they are getting is not enough they are free to go do something else; that they are not indispensable but doctors are, and that if the people of this country were to choose between giving more perks to their MPs and acceding to the doctors demand, there would be no prizes for guessing which one they would choose.
Chanzo: The East African
