There is no way to sugar-coat this: the world is on its knees. And our country is no exception. Jobs are being lost by the bucketful, food prices are soaring beyond reasonable limits, insecurity and anxiety have already gained ground and the fear of a social crisis is real. Until vaccine assembly lines can crank out enough doses of the magic vaccine the world is waiting for, this situation is unlikely to change.

For the record, our economic situation was showing signs of illness even before the coronavirus hit the world and spread into our shores. Many sectors of the economy were ailing and our public debt had become uncontrollable and inflation was threatening. Covid-19 came to make an already bad situation worse and – as if that were not enough – the Wakashio environmental and economic crisis pushed us further down onto our knees.

“When you see the government spend nearly Rs400 million on a few seconds of advertising and a few photo ops; when you look at the prices paid to friends and acquaintances for medicines and medical equipment without tender…you start wondering if there are two countries living side by side on our island.” 

Everyone in the private sector is suffering: salaries had to be slashed, benefits don’t even mention them and job insecurity had never been so high. The Contribution Sociale Généralisée (CSG) brought another blow to a sector dealing with so many worries. In the middle of this, I didn’t want you to miss the brave voices of civil service unions, who were asking for the PRB and vehemently protesting against the freeze in public sector recruitment. I don’t know if they have insisted on an end-of-year party this year or not but they should.

It is not our intention to pit one category of employees against another. In fact, we are happy that public sector employees continue to draw their full salaries and advantages and that they don’t even have to pay the CSG. Their pension will be catered for from the reduced salaries of the rest of us. But the unions are still not happy. “This is unfair!” they said. “The government has promised them the PRB and that should be backdated to January 2020!” They also feel that the service in the public sector has deteriorated because of lack of recruitment. Our public servants must be overstretched! Or so the sound coming from unions living in cuckoo land seems to be suggesting.

The sound of such arguments is indeed indecent. Having said that, I don’t blame them entirely. When you look at our ministers and MPs drawing their full salaries and allowances, crisis or no crisis; when you see the government spend nearly Rs400 million on a few seconds of advertising and a few photo ops; when you look at the prices paid to friends and acquaintances for medicines and medical equipment without tender…you start wondering if there are two countries living side by side on our island. 

There will come a point when the backs of those working hard to pay for pensions we can’t afford, promises we should never have made and demands we should never entertain will break and the economic and social crises that will follow will not be easy to control. I wonder if even then the union leaders and leaders will find it in them to do their mea culpa.