EDITOR, The Tribune.
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was very right to announce he would raise parliamentary salaries. Parliamentarians must be the only ones in The Bahamas who have not gone up in pay in 30 years.
Anyone who argues people should not get a raise after not getting one in 30 years is being extremely unreasonable.
Furthermore, if we want better people to be interested in politics we have to pay them more. The $28,000 for MPs is a joke.
Many of the Bahamians who are qualified and making a good living in the private sector would not be interested in the headache of being an MP for that small amount of money.
We have to grow up as a country. We can’t expect to get the best people to come forward to lead the country if we don’t want to pay a sensible salary with sensible benefits. It’s as simple as that.
I’ve heard some complain this is not the right time. Now is always the right time to do the right thing.
For 30 years, we have been saying now is not the right time. If the Prime Minister does not decide to act and do the right thing now, another 30 years may pass and the salaries would still be the same.
We can’t want to have the best leaders and have hatred toward them when it comes to pay.
Capable, qualified people make good money in the private sector. We should want the best Bahamians to feel comfortable stepping forward to be in politics.
We will only develop as a country when we get more capable people in the House of Assembly and Cabinet.
Many of the people I have heard complaining about the salary increase just like complaining.
If Hubert Ingraham were doing this in the 1990s when our economy was strong and growing, they would have complained then too.
I hope our Prime Minister stays strong and goes ahead with this move. He was elected to change The Bahamas.
There will be many more difficult decisions he will have to make and Bahamians will complain then too. But I hope he realises that it falls on him to do many hard things for the well-being of all of us in the long term.
Usually people remember leaders who had the courage to go against the conventional wisdom; and they are thankful then that the hard things got done. Keep doing the hard things, Prime Minister.
MARTHA S GREENE
Nassau,
November 6, 2017.
Comments
UserOne 6 years, 5 months ago
I agree completely.
Socrates 6 years, 5 months ago
agree with sentiments if it was a fulltime job, but the majority moonlight as politicians...
OldFort2012 6 years, 5 months ago
Very fine sentiments. The only problem is that there is no "best" to attract. There are only shades and combinations of "incompetent", "stupid" and "corrupt". But I might be wrong...Soooo: Let's tie it to performance. How about a scale like this: You grow GDP 2%/annum, we pay you $100,000. You grow GDP 5%/per annum, we pay you $1,000,000 You grow GDP 0%/ per annum, you pay us $50,000.
Would there be any takers? Would there be hell! There would not be a single "politician" in sight.
Porcupine 6 years, 5 months ago
More important than offering more money to get good representation is the idea that those "good leaders" actually exist. My experience in Andros is that $28,000/year is $27,000 too much. We have a culture of criminality and corruption here. Yes, it is worse some other places. But, we have no excuse for our ignorant backwards ways. Garbage in = garbage out. It won't get any better in our lifetimes. A savior would be crucified tomorrow in this great country.
CatIslandBoy 6 years, 5 months ago
This a well written letter. Thank you, Martha S. Greene. I totally concur with you 100%.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 5 months ago
Right now ....... a Bahamian MP is a part-time job at $28,000 ......... Every MP can continue working his job or running his business or profession ........ but a CEO-level position like a Cabinet Minister is grossly underpaid at $66,000 compared to the private sector ...... My God, the Yardie gal who was running BPL was making $400,000 per annum!!!!!! ...... now compare that with the salary of the CEO of Bahamasair, BOB, W&SC, Cable Bahamas, Doctors, Atlantis, BTC etc.
joeblow 6 years, 5 months ago
MP salaries is really base pay. They drive a gov't car and don't pay for gas. They have medical insurance and a dressing allowance. They collect monies for their constituency offices and many of them have ministerial posts or are appointed to boards where they collect another salary. That does not include the deals they pull while in office. So, they do not need salary increases unless we merge constituencies to reduce the total amount of MP's.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 5 months ago
We cannot reduce the constituencies below the constitutional minimum of 38 ........ But we can reduce the total size of the Cabinet to its constitutional size of 9 ........... There are far too many Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, Parliamentary Secretaries and Statutory Boards & Commissions (Chairmen), Permanent Secretaries, Under Secretaries, Directors and the perks that go with these positions.
That is where the Bahamian "Gussie Mae" Executive is a drain on the Public Treasury, compared to its ability to provide efficient and effective governance.
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