“So
paying their salaries every month is not a small story... The world always has
rich people and poor people, and there are people who have high salaries and
low salaries, this is very normal.”
CPP prime minister Hun Sen, 11 March, 2014
“If we compare Mr. Hun Sen and his group to
us teachers since the past, he and his group has [sic] got more and more rich
but teachers are as poor as before. Their children can study overseas, but my
children don’t have the money to go to university.”
Elementary school teacher Kim
Darany, 53, 11 March, 2014
The CPP
prime minister may be right to claim that getting paid money every month is a
big deal for teachers who once upon a time used to work for rice, and later for
other necessities. He must feel invincible and proud of the achievement. He is
not too concerned that after his reign of 35 years, the monthly cash payment is
no longer sufficient without an appropriate amount.
While Hun
Sen is happy to cling to the past with any thread he could grab, primary
teacher Kim Darany prefers to live in the present. She is wise to point out the
widening gap between the rich and the poor. She can no longer remain apathetic
and wait for a step-by-step reform constantly promised by the Hun Sen
government that has claimed for at least the past two decades to give top
priority to education.
Has the
CPP government been so broke it can only pay teachers a starving wage?
The World
Economic Forum, as noted in the latest report by International Labour
Organization, estimates that 10 percent of Cambodia’s annual gross national
product (GDP) is lost to corruption. If the World Bank’s estimated GDP for 2014
of US$17.2 billion is accurate, then some lucky souls will pocket this year about
US$1,720,000,000. There are so many zeros at the end that many will have serious
difficulty in grasping the magnitude of the loot.
Nonetheless,
who are these lucky souls? According to the Hun Sen wisdom that in life there
are those with high salaries and those with low salaries, they must be the rich
and powerful government officials. There are about 600 top brasses in the CPP
government; thus, on average, each one of them would receive a cool US$3
million this year. Of course, the Hun Sen wisdom also applies in his cabinet,
which means the biggest bucket of cash must land at the Vimean Ekreach
compound.
However,
if the primary school teacher had her way with her wisdom, the US$1.7 billion
loot would give each one of the 110,000 teachers about US$15,600 in 2014. Or,
to be fairer, each one of the whole 200,000 public servants would receive US$8,600
for the year. There would be no need for anyone to moonlight, and this would put
to shame the opposition’s election promise of US$250 per month.
Considering
the fact that the average GDP has exceeded US$10 billion a year for at least the
past five years, it is only “normal” for the CPP prime minister to prefer going
back to the past to keep all the loots to himself and his personal interest
groups, leaving small potatoes like teachers to continue licking their empty
bowls.
And the
widening income gap cannot be any clearer to the primary teacher, or anyone
else with their eyes open, in addition to the wisdom gap.
Ung Bun
Ang
14iii14
No comments:
Post a Comment