By Don Robotham, Contributor 
A teacher holds her head during the JTA-Government salary negotiations recently. - File Photo
THE GOVERNMENT and the Opposition have begun to bow to public pressure and retreat on the issue of high salaries for politicians. But this is a tactical retreat. A temporary manoeuvre in order to resume the advance more securely in the future.
Civil society can draw two lessons from this whole sorry affair: first, pressure does work. As was proved with the issue of crime policy and as is slowly emerging with economic policy, it is possible to compel changes in public policy, against the bipartisan opposition of both the People's National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). But the pressure has to be
merciless.
Lesson number two however is this: the pressure must be sustained. As soon as either non-Government and non-Opposition appear to make a concession to public opinion, they look for ways to wriggle out and to give themselves a 'bly'. Eternal vigilance is required if civil society is to take Jamaica out of the hole into which we have put
ourselves.
In the case of the freezing of the 103 per cent increase for politicians, the Government is hoping to get political mileage out of this and even to get more increases through the backdoor. But this is not going to happen. For, although the impression was given that this was a reversal or a giveback, this is far from being the case. Look carefully at the fine print of what has happened. Both JLP and PNP politicians have already pocketed a huge salary increase. "Freeze' or no 'freeze', they will continue to be paid at the new pay scales. Absolutely no change there. Second, there has already been a payout of $91 million in back pay to politicians. Most Jamaicans have not realised that the salary increases were retroactive. Yes, retroactive. What this means is that even members of Parliament who lost their seats in the last general elections have received millions in back pay. What a game!
Third, what produced the decision to 'freeze' the salary bonanza was this: the increases were not awarded at one time. A big mistake. They were to be disbursed in instalments. A fresh instalment was about to fall due. In the middle of the fight with the teachers, the politicians were about to draw down a further 20 per cent increase in their salaries. Even the non-Government and the non-Opposition realised that this would have caused such a storm from the Jamaican public that the entire society would have come screeching to a halt. They would have to demit office. The gas price demonstrations would have been a joke. As they say in Grenada, the Government 'took in-the-front before in-the-front took them!
In addition we are being treated to the commission manoeuvre, made infamous by the Angus and then the Rattray commission into the Blythe affair. A commission has been announced to address the issue of salaries for politicians. Just as how a commission was appointed to deal with the Blythe affair. This commission is supposed to deliberate long and hard and to come up with a recommendation. As we have come to learn, however, if the commission does not report as the Government wishes, then a new commission can always be appointed to find some legal technicality to overturn any inconvenient recommendations.
The purpose of these tired manoeuvres which is the speciality of this PNP administration is to take the responsibility for salary increases out of their hands. It is the commission which will have to bear the heat of public opprobrium for
any increases which may
follow. Both Government and Opposition would have been innocent. But they may well have miscalculated on this occasion. Mr. Patterson should remember that 'unfair game play twice'!
THE REAL ISSUE
Take a careful look at the terms of reference of the commission and of the arguments being made by various members of the government in defence of the salary increases. In passing, note how low the Opposition is keeping, hoping in their shamelessness, that the public will
not take due notice of their
pusillanimity.
The first thing that strikes you in the terms of reference and the argument is that they leave out the single most important question behind the whole issue. The Government and Opposition and the terms of reference want us to confine ourselves to general issues only. The question they want us to focus on is the abstract general one: what is the worth of a Minister of Government and the worth of a Member of Parliament? What should be the worth of a politician? Let us do a job evaluation they say. Let us call in the human resource development experts. Let us look at the size of the budget being managed. Let us look at the number of employees being supervised. Let us consider the gravity of the responsibilities law and order, the economy, the education system, foreign affairs and so on and so forth. That is how they wish the public to think of the issue.
But that is rubbish. For not a single one of the above questions is the issue before us. The issue before us is not an abstract one of worth or of human resource management. Only the most textbook ridden person could imagine this to be the case. The issue is, should there be an increase awarded now, right now as you read this article, in the present conditions of economic crisis, and not in some abstract unspecified context. Let us consider, solely for the purposes of argument, that politicians and ministers are wonderful people efficiently discharging enormous responsibilities. This would still not answer the question: should these people be awarded a 103 per cent salary increase here and now in the present economic conditions that Jamaica is in?
Let me remind you of what these conditions are, in the event that you may have forgotten. The budget deficit is now 8.4% of GDP and rising. The dollar is obviously sliding. Government debt is about 136 per cent of GDP. Our credit rating has just been downgraded. About 60 per cent of the budget is devoted to debt servicing. Only 20 per cent of primary school students have 100 per cent attendance records. Only about 36 per cent of those who sit, pass English at CXC. Even less pass math. We have a massive crime problem which we have just begun to tackle. The Government itself declares that it cannot possibly afford to give teachers more than a 3 per cent increase. All sorts of budget cuts and new taxes are about to be imposed in the new budget in 2003.
Well, what are the teachers worth? What are medical technologists worth? Obviously, when dealing with teachers and medical technologists, the Government does not approach
