Dear Editor,
I was blown away by the news that the PUP government resorted to media ads to publicly discredit unions, leaders of the Public Service Union in particular. This tit for tat, this cutting off their nose to spite their face, is nothing short of immature and dangerous.
In taking such a stance against the unions, not to mention subjecting the Constitution yet again to the whims of political rivalry, this administration has brought governance spiraling to a new low.
It is an unfortunate development that is especially telling of the People’s United Party — a party conceived by the people in solidarity with the union movement, no less.
Have elected officials forgotten, perhaps never really believed, that government is indeed of the people, and is the people, not an entity separate from the people? I borrow from St. Paul: one body, many parts; therefore, the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you, nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
All public servants, not only office workers, are the nuts and bolts of the mechanism by which an elected government functions and carries out its mandate and Constitutional obligations to the people. They deliver essential services to the population. They work to improve living conditions and to make the nation a better and safer place.
Are they to accept salary cuts, be treated like troublesome appendages, lap their tails between their legs and just go about making the country run, with little say in the running of it, while watching its wealth not only being undervalued but squandered, even siphoned out of the country?
With a disillusioned and demoralized public service, a government is weakened; the nation collapses.
A house divided against itself cannot stand (St. Mark).
Beryl Young