Hamilton Green and his pension

Dear Editor,

Reading the recent article in the newspapers about ‘Hamilton Green on his pension’, I first discounted it as the utterances of a mentally confused octogenarian. But then when I read the feature ‘History will not be kind to Hamilton Green’, I felt the need to add my ‘two bits’.

Mr Green speaks glibly about a period of drought for himself and his family of almost 25 years, referring to the period from 1992 when he was ousted from the position of Prime Minister due to his party’s loss at the elections. What drought is he talking about? He seems to think that people are unaware of the facts.

Since becoming Mayor in 1994, Mr Green has lived a Cadillac lifestyle, one which no other mayor in the world gets, but one that is more akin to the standard of serving heads of state and government, even though the Council always claimed to be cash-strapped.

Does Mr Green consider as austere all the bodyguards and security at his residence? His gardeners, cooks, chauffeurs, handymen and large administrative staff? Does he consider jetting first class to the farthest corners of the world frequently for 21 years as drought? Does he consider being provided with all-expenses-paid vehicles just being buoyant? Surely, he could not be serious. And all of this munificence was not provided by his wife, children, and many kind friends, as he is seeking to imply; but by the poor ratepayers of Georgetown.

And then he comes to the point of persons being crudely removed from office. But we need not go far back; let us look at his recent sojourn at the Central Housing & Planning Authority, which resulted in the departure of the CEO and so many other officials from that entity.

And let us look at his days at the Council, where he got rid of two female Town Clerks, an Engineer, and so many others.

Will the President, due to his wisdom and sense of justice, give them and their spouses the ‘fair deal’ that he has given to Green and his family? If indeed his wife was made to suffer because of politics, then she should be given some recompense; but so, too, should those who suffered under Green’s hand.

Mr Green talks about his finally being given a liveable pension, but what about the thousands of other pensioners? Don’t they deserve a liveable pension also, or do they need to be loyal party hacks to even get a fraction of the nearly 2 million a month that he is getting? Will they ever get a pension at 7/8 of the current salaries of their successors in whichever position they held?

And then he goes on to sing his favourite tune — and that is to blame the PPP for all of his misfortunes. Should he not blame his party instead, for removing him from parliament in 1992 and thus disqualifying him from a parliamentary pension?

All in all, now that Mr Green is in the departure lounge, I hope he donates most of his super pension to charity, and to the families that he wronged or destroyed as a sort of reimbursement for his misdeeds.

Sincerely,

Jason Howard