By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Time for all of you in the Public Service to speak up!
Do you agree with the FAST Government move to install their own people in the service to assure loyalty to them?
Is it fair for those deserving of the promotions after years of service to be booted out by political appointments made at the snap of a finger?
Would you accept in the service the uncertainties of what you are seeing now, with CEOs and reportedly ACEOs getting the boot?
The assurances at the outset by the Prime Minister echoes loudly that Governments come and go while public servants remain.
When they started purging the leadership in the service with ‘resign or be terminated’ demands, how reassuring is that for you and your job security?
Consider carefully. As a public servant this is now the future that awaits your dedication and loyalty to the service.
You are not alone, your children and other loved ones in the service are equally liable to face the same ‘resign or be terminated’ order.
This is the reality of what awaits you and your commitment and sacrifice over the years to move ahead and be justly rewarded.
There is an added twist that unfolded last Friday with the forced resignation of the Ministry of Finance CEO.
His crime was conflict of interest. His father was a rival politician made worse by being the leader of the opposition party.
If being related to a family member in politics or in any other positions of leadership makes you liable to conflict of interest you are in trouble.
The punishment is loss of job or being forced to look for a job elsewhere. Integrity or a high standard of professionalism is not a defence as in the case of the MOF boss.
What the PM Fiame government is bringing into the services is the adage; ‘either you’re with us or against us.’
As a public servant all this will have to be weighed up against a future under the FAST Government rule.
Are you prepared to accept it or not?
If the future you see is not what you want for yourself, children or all others you hold dear, do not sit on it.
Speak up or forever bear in silence whatever the burdens of injustices the future holds for the service.
There is strength in numbers so the more the better. The more voices raised in a union of concern the better the chances of being heard.
The issue is whether a policy system that rewards political affiliations rather than years of toil and dedication be acceptable in the service of Samoa.
Honestly! No it should not be accepted.
Political loyalty to a party is a personal preference. Keep it away from the office where service to the country and people rules above all else.
The FAST policy to assure loyalty to the party politicizes the integrity of the service.
Divisions will be created that will seriously disrupt the quality of the service compounded by the disarray whenever there is a change of new Government.
Murmurs of frictions are already rising at the grassroots level with the sudden injection of new casual staff.
The normal plodding of a working environment the old hands are familiar with is being thrown out of sync.
Rumours and misinformation are starting to surface. Job insecurities among other perceived treatments seen to favour the newcomers are being circulated.
Claims of higher starting wages clearly in reward for their party support are being whispered behind long angry faces.
Old work toes are seen to be stepped on, as the added staff appears to puff and strut their way around.
Whoever the new Government assigns to take over as CEO for the Ministry of Finance will definitely struggle to win the confidence and support of the staff.
The feeling of grave injustice done to their former boss has left some very deep emotional wounds that will take time to heal.
Work has to continue but with a strain that was not there before until politics intruded and threw the harmony of daily grind in the service upside down.
‘Resign or be terminated’ are the command words that have echoed like a snapped whip through the CEO corridors of service these past few weeks.
We have already seen and felt the misery and chaos it has brought not just to the service but to the families and to all the fair-minded people offended and shocked by the injustices.
The more this political clean up rolls out in the public sector the more it becomes obvious that the issue will extend beyond the boundaries of the service.
When the service is affected it sends off a ripple effect that will wash on to us the general public who are being served.
What that means is we the public should speak out too not just those in the service.
Do we or do we not accept the politicizing of the service by the purchase of loyalty at the expense of fair and just commitment to serve us the country?
What say you?
Lets hear it. Speak louder. Speak in unison. Speak in numbers.
Lord it is your day of rest but will you help us speak a little louder after you are rested.