Our Parliament or the House of Peoples Representatives has gone into the two month year end recess. This despite the fact President Nasheed was urging the House to finish the legislative business to hold parliamentary elections in February.
The parliament sits in three sessions. First session from March to April. Parliament is in recess for the month of May. The second session is from June to August with September as the month of recess. The third session is from October to December with 2 months recess January and February.
Last year MPs decided to give themselves a pay increase of 500%. They raised their pay from Rf7,000 (US $549) per month to Rf42,500 (US $3,333), with living allowances up from Rf5,000 (US $392) to Rf20,000 (US $1,568). That is a total of RF 62,500 per month.
It is outrageous that MPs are paid such hefty salaries when the average Maldivian has to survive on Mrf 2500 per month.
It looks like our parliament goes into recess at the drop of a hat. Most of the parliamentary work is done in parliamentary committees. MPs spend time not attending meetings and debating meaningless issues. It is unbelievable that such fat salaries should be paid from the peoples money to such an unproductive institution.
For 30 years, we had a government that believed the rich elites were more important than the ordinary hard-working people from the islands. As a result of their lopsided policies the rich became richer while the poor became poorer. While in opposition the MDP and independent voices in the parliament did some impressive work. But much more needs to be done. We need to hold President Nasheed to his promises. He has campaigned to reverse the injustice and bring equitable distribution of wealth. It is therefore not acceptable when president Nasheed fails to instruct his own members in the parliament to complete the legislative work without taking the recess. President Nasheed must know that the ordinary citizens have suffered for too long and he must get down to govern seriously if wants to put the system right. No organ of the state can afford to be lax.
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2 comments:
President Nasheed urging the Parliament to finish the legislative business to hold parliamentary elections in February would be nothing more than a public relations stunt if he did not dismiss his appointed members who voted for the recess. Period.
I still think culling the Parliament in favor of a more streamlined command structure is better.
But then again, with a government with those arab-wannabes, that'd do a lot more damage.
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