Paying for quality politicians has campaign headaches

OCTOBER 29, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

Every governmental spokesperson that defended the substantial increase to the Senior Ministers and Vice-Presidents (why does a small economy like Guyana need four Vice-Presidents; the PPP regime didn’t have such) have openly postulated that the state needs to pay highly qualified people who become ruling politicians. The argument is simple; a water engineering professor becomes the Minister of Agriculture, then he must be paid what he got when he was a high-priced consultant. So far, so good. But if you bring that person on your election list with that framework you have endorsed, do you expect to win votes when other opposition parties are telling the nation that they have professors on their list who will not demand a huge salary if they win the elections? It is a virtual headache for the APNU-AFC unity team and I would like to see them get out of it. Let us break it down for the readers. Local Government elections are around the corner. For sure the PPP and Mark Benschop’s Independent Party will be contesting. Now the PPP and Benschop say that they have a few billionaire businessmen on their list who are fierce nationalists and they want to see the return of local democracy and Georgetown resuscitation. They will take leave from their daily business routine and work for free. Opposing the PPP and Benschop would be the APNU-AFC slate. This slate has on its list a quality heart specialist, a quality brain surgeon and a superb agricultural engineer. What are the choices facing the electorate? Well, there isn’t much. Voters will say that they will choose the party with the billionaire businessmen because the PPP and Benschop have not asserted that their top earners in private practice will want the same money when they devote their time to the Town Councils in Regions Three, Four, Six and Ten. The APNU+AFC will be at a disadvantage because its stated policy is that when high earners move into politics and win elections you have to pay them good money because after all, they are accustomed to earning solid cash. It would seem that APNU-AFC has boxed itself into a corner with its quality pay for quality people and as the coalition progresses in office that rationale will haunt it relentlessly. The turning point will be people’s attitude. Will Guyanese accept to pay foreigners and foreign-based Guyanese who take up appointments here, the kind of money they earn in Saudi Arabia, the US, Canada, Qatar etc? The appointment of a UG Vice-Chancellor is going to catapult the APNU-AFC in boiling controversy. The current Vice-Chancellor of UG was a senior lecturer at UWI when he took up the position. His current UG salary with all allowances included is about $2 million monthly. This sum is far below what a university Vice-Chancellor earns in any oil-rich country in the Gulf and in the US. It could be argued that the Vice-Chancellor at most American universities earn far more than two million Guyanese dollars. One of the leading contenders for the UG top job that becomes vacant in March next year is a current Vice-Chancellor in the US. If he takes the job and given the salary framework that APNU-AFC has embraced, could Guyana pay the next UG Vice-Chancellor $4 million monthly? If the answer is no, then will the guy come? If the answer is yes, then I don’t believe that. This economy cannot sustain a $4 million income for the UG Vice-Chancellor. But that leaves the APNU-AFC salary blueprint intact – government has to pay quality money for quality people to serve in public office. We will have to wait and see how the UG Vice-Chancellor thing plays out. There is another nightmare that the quality argument has brought into being. If the Government requests highly qualified persons to sit on Boards and in situational commissions of enquiries, they could also demand good bucks citing the rational of the APNU-AFC that high qualifications carry high money. How much did a scholarly giant like Dr. Clive Thomas get for sitting on the Guysuco Commission? How much is a top class professor like Harold Lutchman getting for chairing the Public Service Commission? I did say in a recent column that I would look at the disadvantage of this quality theory during an election campaign. This column is the analysis. Come 2020 when the next General Elections are due the APNU-AFC may lose support. Voters are going to look at the big names on the APNU-AFC slate and yell out; “Not me boy, dem names big, me ain’t voting for dem; when dey get into power, dey gun want big money.”