A Cry Against Deliberate Neglect!
The elderly man stands in the long bank queue, holding in his trembling hand a cheque that reads: Pay to the bearer: Nine hundred dinars only Nine hundred dinars only, he looks at it as if it were a cruel joke that brings tears where laughter should be, then lifts his gaze to the sky asking: For what crime has my dignity been insulted after all these years?
In the chaos of life, the noise of politics, the clatter of weapons, and the loud fuss of dialogue and reconciliation sessions, there is a segment of this society whose members are buried alive under the weight of deliberate neglect they are the retirees, those who gave the prime of their lives to serve this land, only to be rewarded today by those in charge with neglect and procrastination.
The Social Security Fund declares it openly without ambiguity it pays nearly 550,000 pensions annually, its investments have been damaged and delayed due to what the country suffers, known to everyone, and it needs additional funding estimated at about 6.5 billion dinars to implement the increase. The number is not small, but it is not impossible for a country with massive resources that distributes huge sums, described once by a former UN envoy as a place where a new millionaire is born every day.
The decision was issued, and the ink dried on paper, yet it remains hanging in the wind the increase has not been implemented, and the reason is the procrastination of the House of Representatives in providing financial coverage. A procrastination reminiscent of that same parliament whose members skip crucial sessions, to the extent that some sessions broadcast live were attended by fewer than twenty members meanwhile, they crowded the VIP stands of Benghazi Stadium days ago to attend a football match.
And amidst this procrastination, the Speaker of the House, Aguila Saleh, appears to tell us that the sixteen-thousand-dinar salary received by MPs is too little and adds that if it were up to him, he would raise it to fifty thousand dinars!
How astonishing Sixteen thousand dinars seems little in his eyes, while the retiree attempts a miracle with nine hundred dinars to cover an entire month an amount we all know does not suffice to cover even a week’s needs in these times of insane inflation.
The man stalling the increase if not for his membership in parliament, earned through nine hundred votes in his city of Qubba would himself be a retiree today suffering what his peers suffer.
When will we rise as a nation and look toward this group silently groaning under the burden of need? They are the teachers who raised generations now neglecting them the engineers, doctors, police officers, civil defense personnel, soldiers, and others who spared this country not even a drop of sweat.
Today, sorrow devours them for being unable to meet the simplest needs of those they support some cry blood, killing their own pride, forced to accept help from those whom they once supported.
The General Syndicate of Retirees announces that their number has reached approximately 470,000, expecting the increase to include about 350,000 of them and Law No. 5 of 2013 stipulates raising retirees’ pensions by the same percentage as salary increases for active state employees. A clear law that needs no interpretation but it needs a political will that is absent.
The syndicate has been awaiting parliament’s discussion of the decision since last August and retirees wait with fearful hearts and trembling hands, waiting for consciences to awaken, for hearts to rise from their slumber, for mercy to fall upon this group worn down by time and humiliated by poverty.
Have mercy on our fathers and mothers give them their rights for they gave this country the flower of their lives, and the least we can do is grant them dignity in its twilight.