Dear UAHs,
I would like to start by requesting the Presidents office to send a copy (cc:) of important letters, like the one on the link President’s letter to Makerere University Council ,to our forum because we in the Diaspora are a very important part of what is happening in Uganda and we have a lot to offer in these discussions, short of representation in parliament which I hope we will get in the future it will be very encouraging to many if your office reaches out to us.
From the letter, it seems like both parties had a fruitful discussion and currently reading from the Presidents side. I do agree with his line of reasoning in due to the fact that you can’t eat your seed and expect a great harvest. Many however would argue that the seed has been eaten for too many years and the harvest has always been short of what was expected. The government is in a very tough spot because each and every sector is requesting for more and they have reasons to do so. With a history of broken promises and ever accumulating arrears and late salary payments the presidents promise though very welcoming should be taken with a grain of salt.
The University has been there before, this is not the first time they have meet the President, students change lecturers and negotiators change but the problem still remains because as the cost of living increases the need for a raise will always be there.
As a mutual understanding and I hope this can be done within in all sectors since the President keeps talking of a better future which ideally implies a better financial standing and increase in government revenue. I would hope that the Ministry of Finance can meet with respective Ministries and work out a working formula. Its true there might not be enough money now and that is understandable so a legally binding promise of incremental increase in salaries corresponding to the expected increase in Governmental revenues will be a good place to start. Just the expectations of getting a rise when the government makes a killing will go along way to calm, create confidence in the government and prevent these kinds of interruptions in services.
If no money is made as expected the formula will still be binding. This will reduce these spontaneous strikes and for the negotiated period everyone will support those ventures which will bring in more government revenue because they will be able to clearly calculate and know their expected automatic increase in salaries. I am not an economist or mathematician but I figure there is a way that this can be calculated and also made legally binding. If this is already being done or it’s on the table I would like to know about it and see how it is working out to date or which kind of formula they have. We should keep away from just mentioning percentage of increase the formulation should be as specific as needed and easy to be used depending of specifically figured values.
To the President with all due respect sir there comes a time when promises are interpreted negatively, so I hope that the negotiators got more than promises. I look forward to what fellow forum members think of my suggestion.
Dr.Eddie Kayondo, M.D
Forumist in USA
