Happiness Vs salary

Posted On June 3, 2010

The Bhutanese government says, primary objective for it to meet is making citizens happy but individually, all members in the Bhutanese family yarn for money, to which they see strings of happiness.

Since a few years, GHN has overshadowed the debates of GDP at least in this tiny kingdom though leaders are yet to replace growth development indicator GDP with GNH. It seems leaders and bureaucrats fail to digest the food they consume without talking GNH a few days.

The long fact that Bhutanese leadership ignored is that happiness is intertwined with monetary possessions and material prosperity to some extent. The global village cannot now live unlinked from the material prosperity. If it is, it is utopia. Bhutan cannot run away from this development.

The heated public debates are on salaries and allowances in the last few years, especially after the elected government took over the job in early 2008.

The government, after months in deck, decided to increase salaries for government employees by an average of 35 percent. The private sector rejected to compete with the government. For months, the government remained mum over the cabinet decision that salaries for employees in revenue department and corporations were heavily increased, double to those in other sectors, though the general increment made public.

The hefty salary increase was kept in such secrecy that finance minister even threatened a journalist last year for seeking details of the cabinet decisions.

The parliamentarians are in front row in demanding pay rise. They raised their pay to Nu 60,000 including perks and benefits. The members of the former parliament were paid just Nu 30,000 a month. Additionally, the current lawmakers lobbied for constituency development grant, allowance for driver (many of them do not have), house rent, concession for purchasing luxury vehicles and now they want constitutional post holders and top bureaucrats must not be paid more than they receive.

The joint session of the parliament on Thursday (June 3, 2010) is expected to debate and decide on salary and benefits of constitutional post holders. NA wants House to fix while NC wants a pay commission to do so.

The constitutional post holders include chief justice, supreme court and high court justices, the chief election commissioner, the chairpersons of royal civil service commission and the anti-corruption commission, attorney general and the auditor general.

The new bill proposes Nu 73,240 for chief election commissioner, ACC and RCSC chairpersons, auditor general and the attorney general, Nu 78,000 for country’s chief justice and chairperson of the privy council and Nu 66,000 for supreme court and high court chief justices.

The salary scale for high court justices, election commissioners, RCSC and ACC commissioners and members of the privy council has been proposed at Nu 55,010. NA speaker get Nu 78,000

In December 2009, the NA had concluded that chief election commissioner, ACC chairperson, attorney general, auditor general, Supreme Court judges and the chief justice of the high court would receive only Nu 55,030 a month. Similarly, chief justice of the Supreme Court would receive Nu 78,000 and commissioners of constitutional offices would get Nu 45,860.

Majority of the lobbyist for lower pay scale for constitutional post holder are from the ruling party DPT, whose president and incumbent prime minister in his most speeches derides monetary values over happiness.

The big thing that made me wonder about DPT is its members running for money, vividly contradictory to what the party stated in its manifesto for elections two years ago. Practically, happiness is hyped propaganda for seeking monetary benefits. That would not be awesome, if the DPT lawmakers rally for increase in their basic salary once the parliament approves pay scale for constitutional post holders.

Above all, the MPs are the lawmakers; even the executive and judiciary cannot revoke the law parliament makes. All the best for these supremos.

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