Expressing "concern" by the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) would be the mother of all understatements. Words like appalled, disgusted, horrifying and traumatised would have been more accurate in this instance.
The Judges Salaries and Pensions Amendment Bill and the Retiring Allowances (Legislative Service) Bill which proposes increases via retirement allowances for judges and legislators is nothing less than obscene. I have read of golden parachutes for high flying executives but the ridiculousness of this bill introduces golden landing pads and golden planes to take up the "sky divers".
Would this be collusion at the highest level in this here country? Any possible dissenting voice would benefit. So that leaves just the ordinary tax-paying citizens of T&T.
Citing that former judges and parliamentarians are living in impoverished conditions is nothing less than insulting to all the blue collar workers who have toiled for their lifetimes only to be living in similar conditions. All of the beneficiaries of said bill would be or were men and women of means. Educated, settled, no debts and with sufficient sense (hopefully) to have invested in retirement schemes or annuities.
If what is proffered is assented to, I demand that all Government employees be given the same treatment immediately, only in the interest of fairness. Imagine John and Jane Public would have voted in a government to seek "their" interest. The word "their" is referring to the interests of John and Jane. Interpretation is a hell of a thing. The time has come for the working class to form their own political vehicle so that they could seek "their" own interests. Apparently nobody else is doing it.
Andy Jangeesingh,
via e-mail