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TAKE HARD, CORRECT DECISIONS

13/02/2019 02:24:00 The Editor

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His Majesty the King has set the tone for the government agenda for the next 12 months and beyond, giving a strict mandate to get the economy back on track with no less than a 1.8 per cent growth over the next 12 months.

To achieve this, he called for hard decisions to be taken along what he described as a journey of rehabilitation. He said sacrifices will have to be made and unconventional methods will have to be adopted to ensure we achieve this goal.

Well the first step towards achieving this mandate begins with the national budget and the strategic roadmap to be presented by government anytime soon. When doing so, it should bear in mind that these guiding documents will only be acceptable to the people if the correct decisions have been taken.

Hard decisions will have to be taken on the high costs of running the army, whose idle soldiers are among the best paid and catered for in the region. Hard decisions on corruption mean not being afraid to arrest the high ranking politicians. It means serious action on the drain that is our Central Transport Administration (CTA), the unsustainable number of parastatals and the duplication of roles by some of our ministries.

We need some hard decisions on what constitutes a priority project going forward. The list is endless.

These decisions can’t afford to make the wrong turn along the way, and they certainly cannot afford to be devoid of fairness – particularly with regards to the welfare of the civil servants, the elderly and the community at large. We cannot afford to take decisions that favour politicians who are set to get a full medical benefit aid from a circular that is responsible for contributing to the unsustainable wage bill, and derelict state of our country’s health and education systems. The damage is endless.

If done correctly, this journey of hard decisions provides plenty of opportunities to help us arrive at our desired destination to the benefit of most. However, if done wrongly, then such hard decisions will find an equally hard nation to work with.