Show Me the Money

By: Veronai Vanijaka (Bangkok Post)

The government is planning a 5% pay increase across the board for civil servants, and between 14.7% and 14.9% for members of parliament and senators, totalling 1.3 billion baht annually of taxpayers' money. In addition, chiefs of local administrative offices are demanding a 100% pay hike.

According to Suan Dusit Poll, 86.4% of Thai people disagree with the pay increase for MPs and senators, saying they don't do any work. Instead, they just bicker and make fools of themselves. They don't deserve it!

Bah humbug, I say! Bunch of Scrooges, I say! Where's the Christmas spirit, I ask.

Do politicians and civil servants deserve the pay rise? Of course they do. Just look at their job performance.

On Dec 30, 2008, the Abhisit government made four promises to the people of Thailand.

1. To protect and uphold the royal institution. While hundreds of thousands of websites have been banned, the government has many times alleged that movements are afoot to topple the monarchy. But no one has been arrested on that charge. No one.

2. To achieve national reconciliation based on justice and accepted by all factions. Just look at how the red, the yellow and the government get along so merrily. Why, it's just like Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

3. To fix the economy. The economy is picking up, even if the private sector says the government has little to do with it. But if Thaksin Shinawatra can take credit for an already healthy economy, Abhisit Vejjajiva can also take credit for an improving economy.

4. To develop Thai democracy with good governance and equal justice in ways acceptable to the international community. Just look at how the Constitution Court treated the Democrat Party with one single, just standard in two dissolution cases. Oops, the deadline has passed, throw the cases out _ both of them!

Do politicians and civil servants deserve the pay increase? Of course they do. See how hard they work on behalf of the 67.7 million Thai people.

In one year, an astounding 10 laws were passed. They have tirelessly, with strength, resolve and conviction, passed almost one law per month. Almost one! How many of us ever pass a law in our entire lives? Shame on us!

Last year, parliament was cancelled 11 times, because not enough MPs showed up for work. Why? Real work is in the streets, not in meeting rooms. They are so exhausted from walking the Earth and helping the people (like Caine in Kung Fu), that the few times a parliamentary meeting is actually held, many of them fall asleep, waking only to scream insults at each other. Why insults? Because they are passionate about work. Passion is good!

Do politicians and civil servants deserve their pay increases? Of course they do. Take a look at their noble and self-sacrificing actions during and after the recent floods in Thailand that led to 203 deaths, affected 1.4 million people in 30 provinces and ravaged 6.3 million rai of paddy fields.

There were reports of MPs claiming aid given by the private sector and private citizens as their own. Officials were reported to have stolen aid packages for their own use, or in some cases even selling them and making up fake receipts for reimbursement.

A total of 900 aid packages were given for flood victims in Sakon Nakhon Province. According to the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), of 150 cases investigated at random, corruption was suspected in 100.

In Roi Et province, the PACC randomly selected 21 flood aid programmes and detected irregularities in all of them. Local authorities have allegedly fabricated damage reports and issued false recommendations for the use of funds.

In one case, repairs to a bridge would have only cost 20,000 baht, but the district office put the price at 200,000 baht. 10 times higher than it should have been.

Blame the calculator!

Do politicians and civil servants deserve their pay increases? Of course they do. If they believe they deserve our money so much that they contemplate ransom tactics, how can we, the taxpayers of Thailand, refuse?

Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul has given his approval for a 100% pay increase for local administrative office chiefs.

The chiefs have already threatened to protest in Bangkok if the prime minister doesn't also approve their pay rise. The office in Uttaradit province warns that it will persuade people to vote against the Democrats in the next general election if they don't get the 100% rise that they so richly deserve.

Do politicians and civil servants deserve their pay increases? Of course they do. Just look at how transparent and incorruptible they are.

According to the PACC, its investigations into more than 400 cases of corruption are stuck with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, with little progress made. So instead, they'll work with the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

An Abac survey in November conducted in 17 provinces compared people's attitudes towards corruption from before the 2006 military coup with the present day. The results show 90.1% believe that there's been an increase in corruption under the present government.

The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Thailand 78th in the world (with first being the least corrupt).

Do politicians and civil servants deserve their pay increases? Of course they do. An MP or a senator lives on only about 3,000 baht per day. That's an abysmal sum unfit for even the sorriest of paupers. My shoelaces cost more than 3,000 baht!

Civil servants' pay is in general quite low, with a starting salary of approximately 7,000 baht for those with a bachelor's degree.

And while MPs and senators _ who already make comfortable six-figure salaries _ will enjoy an almost 15% pay increase, the minimum wage in the country is likely to be increased by only eight to 17 baht per day.

The minimum wage is currently set at 151 to 206 baht per day, depending on the cost of living in the province a worker lives in.

So, it won't be anywhere near the 250 baht the prime minister had promised.

Opposing the pay hike, Senator Ruangkrai Leekitwattana said, ''As a senator, I now earn 62,000 baht a month, plus 42,000 baht in monthly allowance. This is a total of 104,000 baht a month. After tax is paid, I am left with about 80,000 baht a month, or 3,000 baht a day. Is that not enough?''

There are families that live on 151 baht per day and there are families that live on 3,000 baht per day. The latter are set to get quite a bit more while the former will get a pittance.

Put all of these pieces of information together and it's no wonder we have reporters asking Mr Abhisit how officials and politicians _ especially the corrupt ones, or those who barely do any work _ deserve a pay increase?

To which the prime minister replies, ''It just had to be done, so deal with the realities,'' and ''if you don't like a certain politician, just don't vote for them.''

There you go! Do politicians and civil servants deserve their pay increases? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.