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After the news that MPs are trying to increase their salaries 'without much noise'

2023-04-27 23:23:29Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA FATOS TARIFA
After the news that MPs are trying to increase their salaries 'without much
Fatos Tariff

We don't like newspapers. Many times we speak badly about them and about many journalists. Some deserve it. But we can't do without the few newspapers that are good. Because from them we often learn useful things and receive eye-opening news. Such news was what I learned yesterday.

At a meeting of the economy committee in the Parliament of Albania, during the review of the draft law drawn up by the government for raising the salaries of state administration employees (at a time when, "due to a technical problem", as it was said, the television broadcast was interrupted), "the MPs of the majority and those of the opposition have agreed that the law also foresees the salary increase for them".

The news continued with this clarification: "The socialists and the democrats have agreed on this point, but they have not agreed on which of them will propose this amendment" in the draft law, since "both sides are afraid of the public reaction" if they publicly propose this favor for themselves.

For those who fear the public backlash if they were to claim such a privilege, this is good news. Finally, the public who elected them as their representatives in that parliament really mattered, and our parliamentarians are afraid to pass laws that the public might not approve of.

On the other hand, our parliamentarians (who are more in number than the parliament of a small country like Albania needs, without talking about the quality of many of them), like all the citizens of this country, with whom they are equally, they would have need and reason to ask to be paid better.

But with these two conditions:

First, higher salaries for members of parliament should be requested only after having approved by law the significant increase in salaries for all categories of employees of the country, a significant increase in the minimum wage and, especially, an even more significant increase in all pensions.

Our parliamentarians must not forget that none of the Albanian citizens, who voted for them to be elected to that parliament, will ever receive any kind of supplementary pension like the one they will have the privilege of receiving as parliamentarians themselves, even if they are elected only for one term, even if they did not deserve the vote they received and did not once open their mouths to speak on behalf of their voters in that legislative institution.

Second, even if it is deemed reasonably necessary for the salaries of members of parliament to increase, it would be undignified, unjust and morally wrong for current parliamentarians to pass a law to increase their salaries. When I was serving as ambassador to the Netherlands, the Second Chamber of the parliament of that wealthy kingdom passed a law to increase the salaries of its members.

BUT, that law would enter into force after the next legislative elections, so it would become effective for members of the Dutch parliament who would take office after the elections, not for those who approved that law. This should be the moral and political standard for the behavior of Albanian parliamentarians. If they deem it reasonable - and if the financial possibilities of the country are - that the members of the Parliament of Albania are paid better (hopefully they will serve better in the function they have been elected by the people), it would be moral and it is dignified for them that the requested change should come into effect for those deputies who will be elected after the next parliamentary elections, not for today's.

Are our parliamentarians of today such that they think about those who will come after them, or do they want the highest salaries for themselves. That's the point. And this is not just or purely a financial issue. This is a deeply principled issue, an issue that has to do with the morality of politics as a profession, that is, with a moral policy or not.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

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