Political Perspective

IT STANDS to reason that Namibians will fuss over the hefty 31 percent increase for our top politicians, which will not necessarily be ameliorated by the fact that civil servants are getting their eight percent after all.

Why is this so? It would be trite to mention again the fact that the income divide in Namibia is one of the worst in the world, and it’s not getting any better, but the fact remains that we’re not exactly flush as far as money is concerned and that’s going to get worse rather than better in the coming months. I would have been more of the mindset to cut back on salaries, rather than hike them, but according to our Public Office Bearers Remuneration and Benefits Commission, current earnings of the government elite are ‘hopelessly inadequate’.THEY didn’t, as far as I am aware, give any basis for comparison although they spoke of an ‘evidence-based’ approach to their recommendation, so it’s hard for people to decide whether they’re right or wrong, but what really piqued my interest was the fact that the head of the com- mission, also our Judge President Petrus Damaseb, said their earnings were ‘unfair’ relative to their responsibilities. It is the area of ‘responsibilities’ on which I would like to comment.I’m just not convinced the majority of our top office-bearers pull finger quite enough to warrant such a compliment. There are some hard-working senior politicians, but they are few and far between and the record of most of them shows they’re failing at the tasks to which they’ve been assigned. Will they perform better simply because they’ve had increases? I’d argue to the contrary. In fact this is precisely where our system, across the board, becomes pretty skewed. Normally, the increase is as a result of hard work and improvement and quantifiable successes, but in Namibia the increase, annual or otherwise, has become instead an (unworkable) incentive to do one’s job and this leads to a culture of entitlement. This is clearly the wrong approach, in my view, and partly the reason for our failure to perform as a country.I’ve been around the block enough to know that many Namibians think increases have to do with the fact that they work at all, albeit desultorily; that they have five children; extended family to support; manifold (foolish) monthly deductions for insurance policies; debt due to the fact that they’re living above their means with fancy cars and cellphones… The list goes on. None of which though, have to do with why they may deserve or not deserve a salary increase. It merely shows they are not managing their lives or their livelihoods for that matter. Politicians are no different.But if President Hifikepunye Pohamba agrees to the commission’s recommendations, whether he grants the whole or part thereof of the 31 per cent proposed, then Namibians have the right to expect real performance for a change and a zero tolerance of the slackers in our upper echelons. (The commission did mention the necessity of proper performance management, and they need to hold Government accountable on this score for once and for all). We also have the right to expect there will be rigorous scrutiny of their ‘personal’ business interests, and time to put to an end all the ‘proxies’ that mean we can never know their true financial worth and whether they are paying their way in terms of taxes. The president must make publicly available the assets of politicians, and journalists should not have to (mostly unsuccessfully) try to ferret them out. The Namibian public clearly has a right to know these things. Kickbacks and commissions and undeclared ‘gifts’ also have to be exposed.These are happening all the time and some of them are clearly not subject to taxation. Worse still, some of the politicians see absolutely nothing wrong with ‘procurement’ fees and the like. This is nonsense and must end. If the salaries are increased as the commission proposes, the politicians shouldn’t need to have outside interests at all.Suffice to say the country needs to get back to basics in terms of debt avoidance and not expect money to be the cure-all. Those who are not savvy enough in these tough economic times to stick to what they can afford and plan their families and their purchases, and their lives in general, in accordance with what they earn, will have to face the consequences of their bad decisions.The country should be able to afford more good news decisions that benefit the majority of the population like the introduction of free primary education from 2013, which the minister of education has recently announced. It can only do so if we more properly manage our wasteful expenditures and huge losses due to corruption and graft.Let’s make 2013 the year that ends entitlement and preferably replaces it with a new culture of taking responsibility to reap what we sow.
Follow me on Twitter @GwenLister1

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