(Turquoise: Preisdent of Republic $12500; Yellow: PM/Speaker $11825 Blue: Minister$8625;Red: MP $8500; Orange: Minimum wage $450)
Any reasonably aware person knows very well that there are
major problems domestically, are the elections going to be held on time and
under which set of laws, regionally, when would the Syrian uprising manage to
force Bashar Assad out of office and what kind of a regime would replace the
Baath or even globally, is the EU going to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial
hat, an deux ex machina, if you will or are we about to witness the total
meltdown of the EU and its Euro currency. Not to mention the saber rattling
between China and Japan over the status of two rocks in the ocean, the
possibility of a major confrontation between Iran and Israel, The disappearance
of Arctic Ice plus the real possibility of a radical climate change that will
impact everyone all over the world.
In spite of all the above I have chosen to highlight the
problems associated with the wages that the Lebanese parliamentarians
appropriate for themselves. In a sense this is a very small issue that is not
of much interest to many including the Lebanese. Had the Lebanese been well
informed about government and had they been acting as responsible citizens then
this would have been a non issue. Many sociologists have claimed that it is the
small things that matter. Just ask any New Yorker about the Rudi Giuliani
philosophy that had reinvigorated life into the greatest city in the world. He
started with the squeegee kids.
What concerns us is the quality of life in the Arab world in
general and the Lebanon in particular.
There aren’t many people in the world who are not familiar with the
phrase the Arab Spring and the fact that it has lots of promise. Many hope that
this Arab reawakening will end up in bringing forth a true democratic tradition
to the Arab world. Lebanese politicians, such as our president Suleiman never
lets a day go by without issuing a statement about the potential for Arab
democracy and the role that Lebanon will have to play in promulgating it.
Unfortunately president Suleiman forgets that he is not in a position to give
lectures about democracy since he was unconstitutionally elected, people will
never forget that, and that he is the president of a country whose parliament operates
as if it is farm of the speaker Beri who never tires of pretending that he has
created democracy. (It does predate him by 2500 years). But what is the
absolute worst case is that the parliament that never meets and that rubber
stamps decisions taken by instructions delivered to non elected officials keeps
on pilling insult to injury by increasing its pay, its pension and its perks
when the country is in a fiscal mess, an economic slowdown, a political
standoff and an exploding sovereign debt.
Yes parliament members need to make two ends meet, just like
any other citizen. Being a member of parliament is not meant to be wage free
work. If it was then only the wealthy will be able to perform that function.
But no one wants the rules and regulations that affect the life of each citizen
to be dictated by the people at the top. But maybe we do. That is why the Lebanese
members of parliament have one of the lowest workloads in the world. They
barely meet and when they do they never discuss anything important and each
represents only about 35,000 citizens. Their annual compensation in a country who’s
GDP per capita is less than $10,000 when that of the German, EU, British, and
French, Spanish, Portuguese Canadian, Australian and US counterpart is more or
less in the same ball park. Actually most of the countries pay their
parliamentarian less than Lebanon while they ask them to work harder and under
much more transparent conditions. As a general rule a Member of Parliament
should be limited to only twice to 2 ½ time the median household earnings.
Anything above that and the legislatures will be living in a cocoon. They will
not understand the realities that their constituents have to deal with on a
daily basis. But in Lebanon this does not appear to be a problem. Our MP’s get
maybe six times what the mean household income receives which explains why they
live in a world of their own making. Their children do not go to public schools
and they do not have to worry about social security since they have their own
tight social safety net in the form of a generous pension. When confronted with
the question that some constituents are finding it difficult to by bread they
typical response” Let them get biscuits”. What is truly shameful is that the
Lebanese press has not made an issue of any of this.
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