Working class will ‘pay through their noses’ for ministers’ increases salaries – Rohee
Monday, October 19 2015, Source
GUYANESE have spoken, according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee, today at a news conference.
And he charged that the nationwide rejection of the increased salaries for Government Ministers is a “true manifestation” of the voice of the people.
“This national consensus has dealt a devastating blow to the much touted “good life” promised by the APNU+AFC coalition. In effect, implementation of the salary increase will result in the working people paying for it through their noses,” Rohee said.
The PPP General Secretary stated too that in light of the fact that a national consensus has emerged on “this vexed matter” it should not be ignored nor brushed aside.
He said, “In the view of the PPP there seems to be an unfortunate misunderstanding that rather than granting rewards and incentives to those who produce the wealth, the rewards and incentives should go to those who rule over those who produce the wealth.”
“Small wonder why the APNU has embarked on ‘operation educate and pacify’ among its supporters in those villages traditionally supportive of the PNC in an effort to explain and justify the salary increase and to shift the blame on to the PPP for using the issue to ‘stir up trouble in the country’,” Rohee added.
The PPP General Secretary also called attention to a “class analysis” of the nature of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), which President David Granger
“He has moved significantly away from its working class support base and morphed it with the inchoate APNU – a conglomerate of urban, professional middle class elements and a bureaucratic elite whose class nature is basically contradictory and vacillatory. Granger himself personifies this class collaborationist and accomodationist approach to the resolution of matters intrinsic to the interest of the working people,” Rohee said.
He added, “Granger has succumbed, if not surrendered, to this elitist cohort of “managers and supervisors” of the productive forces in our country. As a consequence, he ends up pursing policies that are contrary to the self-interests of his constituency.”
All considered, the PPP General Secretary concluded that the Granger-led Administration is now acting according to its own wishes while denying itself the opportunity to be deflected by the realities on the ground.
The September 25th edition of the Official Gazette confirmed that the Prime Minister and all Government Ministers have received a salary increase.
Nagamootoo, at the top of the earning bracket, will now earn $20.6M, a 10 per cent increase from what former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was paid.
Senior Ministers have had their pay packets doubled from $6.9M to $10.5m.
Junior Minister will now be paid $8.3M. House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, will also benefit and his salary has been upped from $6.9M to $10.4M.
President David Granger will also benefit from a salary increase of 5 per cent, equivalent to $1.2M more a year.
