News Desk
In an unprecedented display of institutional selflessness, the Maldivian state has resolved the perilous issue of administrative inequity by doing what any sensible, election-bound government must: ensuring that those at the very top are paid enough to endure the hardship of high office.
With an upcoming election season looming over the archipelago, the People’s Majlis gathered on Wednesday to tackle a glaring injustice. It had come to the assembly’s attention that the Chief Justice and the Speaker of Parliament were laboring under the indignity of earning slightly less than the Deputy Speaker.
To remedy this tragic oversight, parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to raise both salaries to a harmonious MVR 95,125 per month.
Cabinet ministers, too, were rescued from fiscal austerity. Each will now receive a modest top-up of MVR 17,000, discreetly packaged under the essential headings of “petrol allowance” and “driver living costs.” After all, in an island nation spanning hundreds of miles of turquoise sea, navigating terrestrial traffic is a burden best cushioned by state funds.
The President, demonstrating a degree of restraint that could only be described as saintly, did not asked for an increment for himself. Instead, his benevolent vision extended to the island councils, where local presidents, vice-presidents, and members will now enjoy handsome pay hikes.
Ruling party MPs defended the package as a vital effort to “eliminate pay disparities” across top government branches. Equity, it turns out, is most effectively achieved from the top down.
A Tale of Two Circulars
The grand gesture arrives mere hours after a rather different exercise in fiscal discipline unfolded within the lower rungs of government.
Just a short while prior, the Civil Service Commission had gladdened the hearts of long-serving public sector workers by issuing a circular announcing long-awaited salary increments. It was a brief moment of celebration for school clerks, hospital staff, and mid-level bureaucrats—until a second circular arrived, hastily revoking the first before the virtual ink had time to dry.
The message to the rank and file was clear: public funds must be safeguarded with unyielding vigilance, particularly when ordinary workers are involved.
Opposition MPs from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) staged a token protest against the executive increases, labeling the vote “shameful” while pointing to unaddressed public grievances. But their 12 votes were easily drowned out by the 42 members of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) who saw the moral imperative of keeping leadership well-fuelled.
As island voters watch local council budgets expand while civil service increments vanish into thin air, the state has delivered a masterclass in modern governance: true benevolence is knowing exactly whose pockets need warming before campaign season officially begins.
