Kenya: Govt caves in to doctors after unnecessary posturing and stonewalling

[Guest guest]

Bitter pill: Govt caves in to doctors after unnecessary posturing and

stonewalling

Posted Saturday, February 11 2012 at 14:16

The Tanzania government has finally caved in to the demands of striking doctors

in a move that has once again shown the futility of unnecessary grandstanding

against legitimate claims of rights long denied.

When their demands first came to the attention of the authorities, the response

was to tell them they could not strike and those who dared to do so would face

dismissal; the authorities even promised to call in medics from the armed forces

to take their places. In due course, we indeed saw soldiers in uniform taking up

positions at the main hospital in Dar es Salaam, but it was all for show.

It is hard to believe that the military medical personnel had all this time been

sitting idle in their hospitals waiting for their government counterparts to

strike so they could take their places. That would have meant that we had a

corps of paid and competent medical personnel seriously underutilised in a

country where one doctor serves tens of thousands of citizens!

There was also the irritant of the proposed hike in parliamentary allowances,

which sat very badly with the refusal to accede to the doctors' demands. This

was another demonstration of the shameless selfishness of our politicians, to be

observed in most African countries, where a political post is a licence to loot

the Treasury.

Lessons

That the government has now changed tack and accepted the doctors' demands is

commendable, albeit unnecessarily delayed because of pointless posturing and

stonewalling. One hopes this episode will provide those in government with

valuable lessons for the future. My worry is that the government has shown a

singular lack of capacity to learn from its own mistakes, and that's why it

seems to be stumbling from gaffe to gaffe.

Indeed, they will soon need to put those lessons to use. Now that the doctors

have had their way, other cadres are going to follow suit and demand their own.

No one can stop them, for what is good for the goose will have to be good for

the gander. So expect the teachers to be next, and after that the floodgates

will have been thrown wide open. Where will it all end?

We are already running the risk of appearing like wrangling cabals fighting over

spoils accruing from looting the country, while the rightful owners of the

country, the people, look on uncomprehending. It also looks like whoever can

shout loudest and threaten most ominously will carry the day, while whoever

plays softball and sounds conciliatory will get the short end of the stick.

It is inelegant and it definitely is not meant to be this way. There should be a

mechanism through which all the salaries, allowances and other emoluments and

perks will be fixed and reviewed from time to time. A salaries and emoluments

commission would be in order, much in the same vein as the so-called Adu

Commission soon after Independence.

To continue to allow each group to negotiate its own terms in a confrontational

way wherein the preferred weapon is the threat of the repercussions likely to

arise as a result of that particular group laying down tools, could look like

blackmail. If doctors strike, people will die. If teachers strike, children will

not learn, including future doctors, so people will die. If our cops strike,

public peace will be jeopardised and people will die. If the army strikes, it's

a mutiny and people will die. And so on and so forth.

As a result of all these comings and goings, at the end of all the wrangling and

arm twisting in a dialogue of the deaf, two senior officials of the Ministry of

Health — the permanent secretary and chief medical officer — have been

suspended, no doubt as sacrificial lambs to atone for the sins of their

political principals whose dillydallying, stonewalling and duplicity caused the

problem in the first place.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Govt+caves+in+to+doctors+after+unne\

cessary+posturing/-/434750/1324596/-/5jihrjz/-/index.html

[Guest guest]

Bitter pill: Govt caves in to doctors after unnecessary posturing and

stonewalling

Posted Saturday, February 11 2012 at 14:16

The Tanzania government has finally caved in to the demands of striking doctors

in a move that has once again shown the futility of unnecessary grandstanding

against legitimate claims of rights long denied.

When their demands first came to the attention of the authorities, the response

was to tell them they could not strike and those who dared to do so would face

dismissal; the authorities even promised to call in medics from the armed forces

to take their places. In due course, we indeed saw soldiers in uniform taking up

positions at the main hospital in Dar es Salaam, but it was all for show.

It is hard to believe that the military medical personnel had all this time been

sitting idle in their hospitals waiting for their government counterparts to

strike so they could take their places. That would have meant that we had a

corps of paid and competent medical personnel seriously underutilised in a

country where one doctor serves tens of thousands of citizens!

There was also the irritant of the proposed hike in parliamentary allowances,

which sat very badly with the refusal to accede to the doctors' demands. This

was another demonstration of the shameless selfishness of our politicians, to be

observed in most African countries, where a political post is a licence to loot

the Treasury.

Lessons

That the government has now changed tack and accepted the doctors' demands is

commendable, albeit unnecessarily delayed because of pointless posturing and

stonewalling. One hopes this episode will provide those in government with

valuable lessons for the future. My worry is that the government has shown a

singular lack of capacity to learn from its own mistakes, and that's why it

seems to be stumbling from gaffe to gaffe.

Indeed, they will soon need to put those lessons to use. Now that the doctors

have had their way, other cadres are going to follow suit and demand their own.

No one can stop them, for what is good for the goose will have to be good for

the gander. So expect the teachers to be next, and after that the floodgates

will have been thrown wide open. Where will it all end?

We are already running the risk of appearing like wrangling cabals fighting over

spoils accruing from looting the country, while the rightful owners of the

country, the people, look on uncomprehending. It also looks like whoever can

shout loudest and threaten most ominously will carry the day, while whoever

plays softball and sounds conciliatory will get the short end of the stick.

It is inelegant and it definitely is not meant to be this way. There should be a

mechanism through which all the salaries, allowances and other emoluments and

perks will be fixed and reviewed from time to time. A salaries and emoluments

commission would be in order, much in the same vein as the so-called Adu

Commission soon after Independence.

To continue to allow each group to negotiate its own terms in a confrontational

way wherein the preferred weapon is the threat of the repercussions likely to

arise as a result of that particular group laying down tools, could look like

blackmail. If doctors strike, people will die. If teachers strike, children will

not learn, including future doctors, so people will die. If our cops strike,

public peace will be jeopardised and people will die. If the army strikes, it's

a mutiny and people will die. And so on and so forth.

As a result of all these comings and goings, at the end of all the wrangling and

arm twisting in a dialogue of the deaf, two senior officials of the Ministry of

Health — the permanent secretary and chief medical officer — have been

suspended, no doubt as sacrificial lambs to atone for the sins of their

political principals whose dillydallying, stonewalling and duplicity caused the

problem in the first place.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Govt+caves+in+to+doctors+after+unne\

cessary+posturing/-/434750/1324596/-/5jihrjz/-/index.html