A pay rise for a part time parliament

MPs perform the most important job in the country; making the laws of the land. Therefore they should be on the highest pay scale in the public service. But this should only apply to a full time parliament.

It is irrelevant whether our crop of MPs deserve a pay raise or not.  Many are mediocre products of the current stagnant duopoly.  A few like Evarist Bartolo who has just presented a courageous bill defending the rights of transgender people are are not.   For me  giving a  fair renumeration for parliamentary work  is a question of giving value to public service and democratic representation.

Unfortunately the Maltese tend to give little value to public service in general. It is a general trait. People tend to be shocked by high wages in the public sector but not by similar wages in the private sector. How on earth do we expect people to give up highly paid private sector jobs if we are not ready to offer them the same remuneration when they become public employees? 

People express disgust at MPs getting a raise but do not express the same sentiment against a parliament which meets a couple hours a week and where MPs do not have time to research, hold meetings with civil society and draft their own laws.  We tend to favour a system which promotes mediocrity rather than professionalism. 

The only difference between private and public employees is that the latter are paid from tax payers money. Therefore the salaries and perks of all high ranking public officials should be published on the gov.mt web site. The same applies to private companies paid for their services by the state or by state owned corporations.

Secrecy only serves to augment envy and suspicion. The same applies to the recent increase given to MPs. The government’s position has been aggravated by the timing of the pay rise (at a time of economic uncertainty) and by its lack of transparency.

Giving a pay rise to MPs behind people’s back is not exactly the best way to sell an innately unpopular decision. Even if there was consultation with the opposition (a claim denied by the PL), this does not replace the need to inform the public directly. Why did we have to learn of all this from a simple reply to a PQ by an opposition MP?  This simply confirms the impression that this government has lost the plot.  Not only does it show a lack of political tact.  And by linking  the moderate increase in MPs honoraria to the more massive increase in the salary of cabinet members, the government has given the impression that it was trying to buy the silence of the opposition by offering them a share of the cake. 

Neither am I impressed by opposition MPs individually renouncing the pay rise in an attempt to pander to popular sentiment projecting themselves as some sort of Mother Teresa.  A collective decision to accept or renounce the rise would have been wiser as it will be easier for richer MPs to renounce the pay rise and get some good pr in the process.  Any way I have an aversion to populism in whatever guise it takes.

The same populism can be easily directed against the opposition just demand for a system of state financing for political parties. 

It stands to reason that the current MP salary of €1,600 a month is ridiculous.  We should call a spade a spade. That sum reflects the mentality of a part time parliament where MPs are expected to make money in their private practice rather than from their public position. 

But increasing that sum without reforming the way parliament works also defies logic. MPs should become full time public servants with no private practice on the side.  As long as they remain part time €1,600 is a fair wage for half a day's work.