Posted By Staff Reporter
Political Commentary by Livingston Talex Fontenu in UK Just yesterday I attended a parliament session at the National Assembly of Wales and I gotta tell you, the answer to why UK is among the top economies in the work lies right within the chambers of that glass house! The level of debate, the audacity and professional conducts within the chambers of this house is just mind boggling. Now, let me run some few comparisons here to show you what it means to be a politician in a country like this. Wales Assembly is created and funded under the UK Westminster parliament. The total population in Wales is just little over 3million living in a country the size of all the highlands provinces in PNG combined. The Welsh governments annual budget, like for this year, is £15.3 billion pound – that’s equivalent to almost K68 billion kina. However, there is absolutely no glamour in the way politicians are treated here – something very common and widely accepted in PNG. The first question I asked one of the parliamentary staff was, “How much does a normal MP gets?”. “An MP earns just as much as a high school teacher here” was the response. So in Wales and UK generally, a teacher and a politician are both payed £55, 000 (K244, 000) annually or roughly K9, 000 per fortnight. Though it is K3000 short to what a normal PNG MP earns, it’s just too shocking yet too pleasing to note that a teacher earns the same as a politician.
Being a politician here is a full time job. Parliament sitting happens every Tuesdays and Thursday, every week, every month – exceptions if on public holiday. The sessions start at 9am and ends at 7pm on the dot! There is no minister for government businesses here who can stand up and adjourn parliament to whenever he wishes! On the floor of the parliament, there are huge monitors running count down for speaking time. An MP has exactly 3mins only to make his point. When 3mins is up, too bad the speaker will interrupt you to take your seat. This improves the sharpness in debate as well as creates more time for more agendas to be discussed. If an MP asks a question and is not satisfied with the response, the speaker will allow him to ask the same question again and again and again without interruption, until he is satisfied with the response. In front of every MP, a computer connected to a reliable internet is placed. In the rooms nearby, every MP has a team of researchers, analysts and policy makers who are on stand-by to feed the MP with up to date intelligence during grievance debates. The floor was definitely not for the slumber. Furthermore, every agendas and bills deemed for discussion on the floor are circulated to all MPs a week in advance. The MPs then research on those abstracts and come into the chamber prepared. Issues are discussed thoroughly to satisfaction. Oh and once an MP is nominated as a speaker, he automatically leaves his political party and is declared an independent member of parliament to maintain impartiality. And then, there’s this issue of sitting allowance. I had quite a difficulty explaining my question on sitting allowance because they have never heard of such. “Why would we pay someone twice to do the same job? It’s absurd, unfair and is bribery to pay someone to do his paid job!”. Wow PNG! Just wow, getting K5000 allowance every parliament siting and we thought that’s normal – let along instead of actively debating, most of them sleep throughout the session! Looking back to our country, there is absolutely a gross error in the definition and statue of what a politician should be. With such a big population (8million) to support, the rugged topography and environmental challenges and the small and disproportionate annual budget (K12 billion), one would expect the government to be honest with itself and have stringent measures in place to curtail unnecessary expenditures. Instead of been treated as a public servant, becoming a politician in PNG is fast becoming a lucrative industry and its too embarrassing to see this politicians becoming celebrities. There’s no end to this madness – passing unnecessary and unjustified laws, acts and protocols to divert more public fund into personal purse. Our government needs to go through a lot of reforms in all these areas! Next : Southern Highlands Provincial Government Investment Note: Let Your Views be heard : Send all your Political Commentaries to us through our email : pngfacts@gmail.com Share this Comments are closed.
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