At a time when even prime minister Andrus "Don't worry, everything's fine" Ansip is talking about belt-tightening, there is a select group of people in our society already living the high life whose salaries are going up yet again this winter - this time by 20 percent! And they'll be going up again in the coming year, and the year after that, and will keep on going up.We're talking, of course, about the 101 members of the Riigikogu (the Estonian parliament - Ed.), whose salaries are four times the national average. At the beginning of the '90s this kind of pay was justified if normal people were ever to be enticed to enter parliament. But the system has long since become very unfair in the eyes of the majority of Estonia's citizens.
The overweening lifestyle our parliament leads has deepened disillusionment in politics as a whole and is damaging Estonia's reputation. Parties and politicians, wake up and smell the coffee! Agree that things can't go on the way they have been. Figure out a new salary system that doesn't fly in the face of fairness. And if you can't come up with anything yourselves, find some intelligent people who can.
We've had it up to here with party BS and politicians not being able to come to any agreement. For Christ's sake, just do it!
Daily broadsheet Postimees conducted a poll in response to the issue the Eesti Ekspress article raised, asking readers who they thought she be responsible for determining how much the country's parliamentarians get paid. 0.5% said the Riigikogu itself, 3.5% said the president, and the remaining 96% were united in saying the job should fall to an impartial commission. But who appoints the members?
1 comment:
This is hardly unique to Estonia. Their backs will be put to the wall when the revolution comes.
Wait.
It already came.
Post a Comment