ACCU: Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda

It is deplorable for one to make fun of those he considers as less privileged. The Minister of Finance as reported in The Monitor Newspaper of Wednesday, 26, 2009 precisely did just that. It some times perplexes one to note the level of indifference that our leaders have towards some sections of our society. There is now no doubt that persistent poverty levels and the suffering of the majority of Ugandans does not bother our ‘patriotic’ leaders as long as they themselves are catered for.

 

A Minster of Planning and Finance is certainly talking policy and is not making a casual statement on behalf of the government. It was against this background that when a shadow Minister (of an alternative government) presented what he considered was the plight of the teachers, the government of the day said NO. This rejection of propose pay raise for teachers means it is not in their political interest to alleviate the condition of teachers, after all Shs. 200,000 was already even on a higher side.

Fellow Citizens, money is too much or too little depending on who the giver is or who the receiver is. Just imagine it were the same Hon. Minister whose pay is Shs.200,000 per month for  attending to hundreds of students in dilapidated conditions without any allowances, would the same pay appear to her to be on a higher side or is because in this case she would be a giver not a receiver (of tax payers’ money)? We surely know that her utterance is due to selfishness and indifference to others.

 

Do all Uganda serve under the same conditions that she does with  allowances such as; free housing, free vehicle (of Shs.200, 000,000 ), daily Parliamentary allowance, state paid security, conditioned offices, and  insurance of all sorts to mention but a few? What on earth else does she need? In fact in her mind the rest can go to hell. Does the Minster think teachers have no dependants to take care of, no future to look forward to and therefore no need of government policy to protect them? I wonder if the Minster still has a soul, or she has already mortgaged it for political recklessness and survival.

 

The Minster should be called to order and reminded that the teacher that she so much despises not only as government or in her heart, but also public policy pronouncements, constitute part of the tax payers who continue to the consolidated fund - Pay As You Earn (PAYE) not pay as you eat, from where her big earnings come, will at an appropriate time remind her of this. In fact it is high time she clarified on this statement and retracted her remarks and or resigned.

 

One would like to believe that she was misquoted, and if so what did she actually say? Politicians should be mindful of their tongue and policies, because their audiences are also their voters. Now they are teachers and irrelevant employees and during the next election they are the people to whom power belongs. Come on, what is this called in moral science? Do people only matter as a means for their continued political existence, a stepping stone for their glories, whose values rise and fall with electioneering, and who are largely devoid of rights worth respecting?