Dear Editor,

I thought I must have misunderstood the report in the paper which seemed to suggest that Prime Minister Perry Christie believes that members of Parliament should receive pay increases and that constituency allowances for MPs should also be increased.
If accurate, this would support the view that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) election plan was to win the government and then share the Public Treasury's funds to handsomely pay the PLP inner-circle - hence, the Gussie Mae Cabinet and the excessive appointment of senior PLPs, their family members and close friends to chairmanships and posts on statutory boards where they are all paid stipends and honorariums. Now we have talk of pay and allowance increases for MPs? This is shameful.
I would think that Bahamian parliamentarians, many if not most of whom are successful professionals with prosperous private practices, businesses and fat bank accounts, could wait for any increase in salary until such time as our economy rebounds and our unemployment numbers decrease. Why a minister of government who receives a ministerial salary of $60,000, plus a MPs salary of $26,000, plus entertainment allowances, health insurance and use of an official vehicle with fuel and liability insurance all paid for by the government needs a salary increase more than unemployed Bahamians need jobs escapes me.
As for the others, with the exception of Picewell Forbes, all PLP backbenchers have been appointed as parliamentary secretaries and as chairmen or members of statutory boards posts that all come with salaries and allowances attached, plus in some cases use of a corporation's vehicle is included. Again, why would parliamentary secretaries and chairmen of statutory boards need salary increases ahead of unemployed Bahamians being afforded the opportunity to obtain a job earning a minimum wage salary?
Christie has not been clear on the fate of the 52-week skills and job training program put in place to employ and train some 4,000-plus unemployed Bahamians. This program needs to be continued and expanded before any consideration can be given to increasing the pay checks of parliamentarians.
As to Christie's call for increases in constituency allowances for MPs, it is more than a little ironic that Christie, who found it impossible to spend the special constituency allowance of $100,000 provided by the Free National Movement government for small infrastructural projects in his constituency, now claims that MPs need more money if they are to adequately represent their constituents.
The prime minister needs to explain to the Bahamian people exactly what his election campaign pledge of believing in Bahamians and investing in Bahamians means, because for far too many of us increasingly it's looking like what he really meant was that he and his party believe in PLP parliamentarians and that they will use the country's resources to invest in those parliamentarians and their families.

- Disillusioned

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian