I THINK that the four fun-filled years we've had since elected municipal councillors first took office in Bahrain is long enough. With the voting season coming up, now is a perfect time to raise salaries for the position.

Yes, I know they don't deserve it. They were, after all, the people who gave us such classic innovations as tinted windows which prevent skyrise tenants from looking out and rules that would effectively segregate Manama by race. And who can forget the now infamous attempt to ban mannequins in Muharraq because they were supposedly causing, you know, physical reactions in certain desperate people in the area. But did you ever wonder why so few of these elected representatives seem up to the job?

Municipal councillors receive salaries of BD1,000 a month and, unless they own businesses, have to go on unpaid leave from their regular employers. This may have been considered a good wage 15 years ago, but nowadays it's only slightly above semi-decent. Remember that this is a nightmare job, where the ‘winner' of the election will be hounded day and night every time someone's drainage pipe explodes, or they find a dead animal at their doorstep, or someone starts an illicit relationship with an evil mannequin. As the saying goes: “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” But in this case I think even the monkeys would quit.

If someone only has the talent and ability to earn, say BD500 (and I'm being generous here), BD1,000 looks mighty attractive. But if you want quality, you're going to have to do better than that because there are much easier ways to earn a living.

Earlier this year, 25 municipal councillors went on a working trip to Kuala Lumpur. Instead of reporting back for duty, 20 of them made headline news when they later went AWOL on an unscheduled holiday to Bangkok. Hmmm…

Some of these guys are such amateurs that they used to ‘missed call' my mobile anytime they wanted to get something published in the paper, feeling no sense of indignity whatsoever. I'm sorry, Mr Councillor, your honour, but trying to save a measly 30 fils on a phone call that could give you exposure to tens of thousands of readers, is not the way to win political allies.

Municipal councillors deal with pollution, sewage smells and public parks, among other important issues. In many ways they have more power than MPs and influence our lives more directly. Of course, we're not going to get qualified people as long as voters continue to elect candidates based on ethnicity, religion or beard length, but setting the bar so low means that qualified people won't even be in the running.

And please give the poor guys a phone allowance, so that they can afford to top up their credit every once in a while…

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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