Since the early hours of the morning, the vicinity of the Government Palace witnessed the influx of numbers of demonstrators, who besieged its entrances and exits. This came in response to calls from associations of military retirees to mobilize and impose popular pressure on the resigned government, and to demand effective solutions to their living crisis… and with the participation of public sector employees in public condemnation and strike, over what they considered a systematic injustice represented by the discretionary financial incentives granted by the Minister of Finance to a specific group of employees. Employees in several government departments, including his ministry. The demonstration, which was characterized by a peaceful nature unlike previous demonstrations, succeeded in postponing the date of the Council of Ministers session, when the caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, informed that this postponement was to avoid any clash with the military retirees.
“Retirees’ anger”
The list of demands carried by the participants in the demonstration included the following: “The government should stop discretionary tenders under their various names, which only aim to deprive the retiree of benefiting from them; determining the humanitarian minimum wage for the ranks and lower categories whose salary today does not exceed 120 US dollars, and thus determining its cost.” The total amount of the allocated appropriations; deducting from the appropriations allocated in the budget the value of the agreed-upon minimum cost and distributing the remainder after calculation equally to everyone, regardless of its value, in order to ensure monetary stability and the exchange rate; the government today approved a phased plan to correct wages in accordance with the growth of the state’s revenues and in a way that preserves stability. Cash; a portion of the increase must be incorporated into the salary basis to preserve the employee’s right to fair retirement compensation; and a plan must be developed with retroactive effect to correct the value of retirement compensation according to a fair exchange rate for the US dollar.”
As calls have become repeated almost periodically for a “day of wrath” for military retirees, to push towards taking away these rights that have been stolen from them, the calls are no longer able to mobilize huge crowds under one demand or speech. Today’s demonstration, which was attended by relatively small numbers, similar to the numbers that attended yesterday and in the previous few weeks, did not meet the aspirations of the associations calling for popular escalation in the permanent demonstration squares, as was the case months ago.
Despair and hope too
The reality is that the reality of the demand demonstrations, which are gradually declining, is in line with the spirit that the majority of retirees have come to embrace, which is oscillating between two opposite poles, which is the despair stemming from the official statements that convinced these people that they are unproductive groups, and that their demands can only be achieved at the expense of citizens, that is, by imposing taxes. Additional funds or even deductions from a specific budget to cover the shortfall that affected their livelihood. Or the false hope and unrealistic promises that emerge from other official statements, convincing these groups that their demands are preserved and will be fulfilled in the very near future, as the Minister of the Interior promised the qualified and qualified Ulin fuel months ago (and it has not been disbursed yet), or it comes in the form of a proposed law, As presented by a group of representatives (see “Al-Modon”), yesterday, Thursday, February 22nd.
The legal proposal aimed at “settling retirement pensions and end-of-service compensation in the public sector” did not enjoy wide popularity among retirees, as well as a significant number of jurists, who considered that it did not take serious and exclusive consideration of the conditions of retirees, and this is due to no doubt about the intention of the advance representatives. With the proposal, but rather due to the absence of an actual study of the role of such a proposal in actually improving the conditions of retirees, taking into account the differences between them, whether in job title, date of retirement (before, after, and after the collapse), and others. A number of legal observers pointed out to Al-Modon that the timing of the proposal is not appropriate, especially at the height of public sector anger, as if it were merely recording a position and spreading unrealistic hopes to retirees to absorb their anger.
New demanding ways
In his talk to Al-Modon, lawyer Ali Abbas indicated that he was legally authorized to appoint a new movement for retirees from various military services. He said that this movement is radically different from other associations and groupings, as the members of this movement are preparing to file a collective complaint (the numbers range from approximately 700 to a thousand) before the State Shura Council (as we previously indicated in “Al-Modon”), aiming to obtain end-of-service compensation, at its true value. , which eroded and disappeared as the years of the financial collapse progressed, and Abbas stressed, “This complaint contains a basic fact, which is the absolute manifestation of the principle of justice and equality, and it is considered a precedent in our current time, because the last similar complaint was filed by the Beirut Municipal Police in the eighties of the last century.” Noting that such a decision, even if it is issued, may have a relative retroactive effect (that is, it does not affect all retirees), or it may include everyone when each right holder submits his request to the competent authorities.
The lawyer added, when asked about the importance of such a step today, and whether it is actually achievable by saying: “The authority may use the excuse that there is not enough money to implement the decision of the State Shura Council (if it was issued in favor of retirees), but here lies the importance of this precedent and its real feasibility.” It is multi-level, as the decision forces the authority to pay its debts to those who have accumulated compensation from their salaries throughout their years of service, without any grace or pity, and does not allow it to claim that the way out is to raise taxes on citizens and that the rights of retirees come at the expense of citizens. On the contrary. The fact appears that the money owed is only collected from the drains of waste and corruption, and today the eyes of retirees in this movement are focused on chronic waste in pending files, such as marine property and customs evasion.”
2024-02-23 16:40:20
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