Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 10, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
I am asking the media in Guyana that when they are announcing the appointments to senior public offices, they should not just provide the name of the person so appointed, but also the age of the person.
There is also a need for the media to find out whether the vacancies for these top positions were advertised and whether the selections of the persons appointed was done through a competitive process.
There was a lot of chat by the government when it was in the opposition about young people not getting jobs. It was also claimed that qualified people were not finding employment within the State sector. It was further contended that jobs were being handed to friends, cronies and supporters.
It therefore is coming as more than a bit of a surprise to be constantly reading about appointments of retirees to public offices. What has happened to the qualified young people who it was claimed are in need of jobs? What has happened to persons working within the civil service who should be eligible for appointments to these jobs? Are promotions no longer made?
One way to look at the recent salary increases made by the government is that it was a case of poor timing. Well, it could also be a case of perfect timing. It was the best time to make the sort of increases that will be paid to Cabinet Ministers because if, as anticipated, we have an early Budget for 2016, that Budget will most likely have to make an award to public servants, following negotiations with the recognized union in the public service.
Public Servants are not going to enjoy as large an increase as Ministers and therefore to have announced a small increase for public servants and then a large increase for Ministers would not have gone down well.
The present timing of the increases for the Ministers is therefore perfect. There is a lot of noise being generated by the increases. But this is Guyana and within six weeks all of the protests over the magnitude of the increases and the statement about no apologies being necessary for the increases are going to be forgotten.
Within six weeks, people are going to be more concerned about Christmas than they will be about what salaries Ministers are receiving. Christmas in around the corner and the pickpockets are already on the loose.
There is also a big concern that next year a large number of persons who committed non- violent crimes are going to be pardoned and put on the streets just at a time when large numbers of Guyanese will be in the country for the 50th anniversary celebrations.
I do not understand what is meant by non-violent crime. I do not understand how someone can be charged for stealing your cellphone from you in person and that crime does not involve violence. For me, if someone comes up to me with a knife and demands my cellphone, that is violence against me. If someone snatches my cellphone, that is violence against me. If someone breaks into my house and steals my cellphone, that is violence against my home.
It is always the tradition to pardon people at special occasions in the life of a country, but how about pardoning someone on humanitarian grounds, someone who has served a fair amount of time for a crime they committed and for which they are remorseful.
It is nice to want to keep young people out of jail but unless they are remorseful, then they will come out and do the same thing again and make a mockery of the pardon they have received.
Perhaps we should pardon some prisoners who are over seventy years old. Who knows, they may stand a chance of being appointed to a top public service position seeing that pensioners seems to be a favored category these days.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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