Forward the homepage of this blog (maldivesvoices.wordpress.com) onto people you know! We have to spread information about this so that people realize what an epic thieving this is they’re doing to us. Spread the word, knowledge is power!
“Miee mihaathanah ufedhunu emme zimmaadhaaru majlis” – MP Musthafa
“Miee haqqu laari.. aharumenge musaara aa kulhenyaa ehen emmenge ves kudakuran jeheyne” – Reeko Moosa
“Magey bank accountuga neiy bai laarives save kurevifa” – MP Mahuloof
“Miee varah fair varah insaafuveri imthiyazeh… varah ragalhah visnaafa dhiraasaa kohfa kuri kameh… aharemen emmenah engey e oi evvunthakakee political party thakun hingi kameh kan, aammun ge kameh noonkan. aammunneh ekamakaa alhaeh nulaa, ekamu e 20,000 kuri namaves nukuri namaves e party thakun e evvun thah hingees eii emeehun ge kameh aammun ge kameh noon… membarunnakee varah meehun dhimaakoh jassaalaafa hunna bayakah vaathee mikamaa ehaa bodu massalaeh e ufedhenee…” – Deputy Speaker Nazim
In light of this sort of crap… here’s a rundown of the basics:
Majlis just voted to give themselves a 20,000 pay rise to their earlier pay of Rf 62,500 per month. They also voted to give themselves a bunch of various other extremely extravagant perks, like tax-free import of cars for their use and them and their families getting free healthcare in any SAARC country.
Considering that the average civil servant or employee has to try and make do with salaries up to fifteen times less, it feels like a real slap in the face to the general public. While they claim we are in debt, and to not have the money for things like giving scholarships to deserving students or upgrading our airport without giving the rights to a foreign company among many others, they are able to justify increasing the Majlis wage bill- for just 77 people- to a total of over 85 million Rufiyaa every year.
Comparing this to how broke the government seems to be for everything else puts exactly how corrupt and stupid this new measure is in sharp relief:
It is even more insulting when you consider how for pretty much every other issue, the parliament has trouble with the quorum not being met (that is, more than THREE-QUARTERS of the members not showing up) and how every time they do show up, it ends up descending into a fight- but now when it’s to rip us off, they manage to do a nice bipartisan agreement job of it.
Just to emphasize just HOW MUCH they’re taking, check out the following charts and numbers:
And what that money, which they tell us they NEED, could be doing instead of padding the pockets of some fat-cat politicians.
Well, so what do we take from this?
That while they may screw us over now, we WILL remember this when the elections come around. And we WILL never vote for somebody who will cheat the country out of it’s money, steal what should be ours, and trample on our rights- while insulting our intelligence by trying to justify it.
What they did is wrong, unconstitutional, cruel, conniving and insulting. They have slapped the people who voted them into power, the workers on whose backs they get their living, and the country they defile which they are supposed to serve.
We’ll remember this.
