The President’s partiality: A lesson in governance? [Archives:2007/1035/Opinion]
By: Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb
Because he is a President with a penchant for the rich in Yemen he has been notiibly silent about the necessity of reducing prices, reviewing the situation of supplies or discussing the demands of retired employees form the universities and civil and military institutions. Nor has he been very vocal on the maintenance of their rights.
Nobody wants to remain in employment for life, but the employee and the administrative apparatus have to give sufficient warning to government employees or soldiers nearing the end of their service that they will be referred to pensions by the end of the year. In so doing the authorities concerned will ensure that a loyal employee will not be deprived of a salary for several months as is the case at present necessitating frequent trips to insurance and job security authorities.
Maintaining labourers' and citizens' rights has been one of the basic principles enunciated by President Saleh in numerous political addresses. Saleh has emphasised the necessity of providing protection and safety for labourers and government employees who represent the cornerstone of national development.
I think that such rights constitute a red line which is impossible for anyone to overstep without serious political consequences. It has to be the basic principle in dealing with peoples' lives: job security and stable salaries are the rights of all employees as well as access to pensions. The civil service ministry is not empowered to unilaterally suspend, “review” or cancel republican decrees as the decrees are usually placed in effect as soon as they are issued. This only reflects badly upon the project of creating a new Yemen founded upon the rule of law and order rather than the defunct system of whim, patronage and nepotism that characterised the old Yemen from which Saleh promised to deliver us.
Yet regretfully, the government knows more than its opposition parties that state employees have become accustomed to improving their living standards before attaining their pensions through the granting of four allowances. Such employees expect the government to treat them like soldiers in terms of the promotions and privileges they believe to be theirs by right. No one agrees with strike action, legal or illegal, as a means to attain rights given that such rights have been constitutionally guaranteed in the first place. Especially when the situation is made all the more difficult by the recent wave of price hikes which has affected everyone. And nobody accepts that a small minority of people should stop the progression of economic reform and development. Nonetheless, the fault lies not in those forced to strike but in legal, institutional and procedural imbroglio which refuses to grant the retired their legal rights. We suggest that the ministries of civil service and job security and finance sit together to discuss and resolve the case of those referred to pensions before the end of their contract and those denied pensions upon completion of their term of service.
Most Yemeni's of my generation still remember the socialist ideals of days gone by such as a healthcare and education system for all citizens. But please don't misunderstand me; I am not arguing for socialism one country, we have greatly benefited from an open market. What we don't need is a totally free market 'red in tooth and claw' in which the survival of the fittest (or most nepotistic) becomes the only ethic. The dignity of labour must be complimented with the dignity of rights and the freedom to enjoy them.
Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb is an economist and a professor in Political Science. He is the head of the Arab Group for Investment and Development.
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