Walwyn addresses legislators’ salary hike
Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn says he understands the public’s anger over recent salary increases for legislators and supports reforms to parliamentary procedures that he argues foster secrecy and distance the public from decision-making.
Walwyn stressed that while the salary adjustments were not carried out in secret but in line with the Westminster system of governance, the public perception is different — and that perception, he said, cannot be ignored.
“The people are telling us that they want to be more included in the decision-making of their country. They want those of us elected to be more transparent in our dealings,” Walwyn said during the constitutional review debate. “It might call for us to interrogate the system we operate under because there are some tenets of the Westminster system of government that are outdated and inconsistent with a modern society. There’s too much secrecy in it.”
He continued: “They are cursing us right now — saying we’ve given ourselves an increase in secret. It wasn’t done in secret based on the Westminster system that we follow, but to the people outside, it seems like a secret, and we have to hear what they’re saying.”
Among the Constitutional Review Commission’s (CRC) recommendations is an amendment to Section 72 of the Constitution to ensure standing orders uphold representative democracy, accountability, transparency, and public participation. The CRC also proposed that all hearings and meetings be made public where possible, and that the House of Assembly publish its annual schedule in advance to allow members of the public to prepare and participate.
Walwyn said these reforms are essential to rebuilding public trust.
“I strongly support recommendation number one from the CRC,” he said. “It’s time to make committee meetings public. It’s time to make the process open, including the work we are doing now on the constitutional review. This is a document that belongs to everybody.”
His remarks come amid growing backlash on social media and in the wider community over the timing and manner of the salary increases. The Auditor General reported that legislators voted in an informal meeting to approve pay adjustments that more than doubled their previous salaries, without considering the impact on their already enhanced pensions.
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The bill gone thru yet?????
Smooth Talk, Sour Truth
Walwyn sat in velvet silence,
when gold rained from the sky,
your pockets swelling quietly,
while the people scraped to buy.
Now you strut with polished phrases,
Westminster on your tongue,
but where was that brave conviction
when the secret vote was sung?
It is not the system guilty,
it was you who also kept it still,
eyes wide, lips locked,
while you feasted on the till.
Do not dress your shame in riddles,
nor mask your guilt in law,
the people saw the shadows move,
they heard the greedy draw.
You benefited, you knew it,
you swallowed without a fight,
and now you wag your finger,
pretending you love the light.
Secrecy did not bind you,
nor Westminster tie your hand,
but hunger for the silver coins
that glittered on the sand.
So spare us your reforms and sermons,
your promises of trust renewed,
for silence when it mattered most
reveals the core of you.
GO SIDDUNG!
Set of RH poetry. go help run de goddam country with all that cerebral fuel.
PS- FR, FR, FRRRRRRRR….. Its reaaalllllly awesome writing though. LOLOLOL!!!!!!
Time for TERM LIMITS!!
This good gentlemen knows he speaks with a forked tongue. He fought tooth and nail to become Leader of the oposition and when he was supposed to OPPOSE he was silent. That tells you all you need to know.
Set of hypocrites.
with all due respect I understand your frustration, but at the time of the pay increase for legislators it was Mr. Skelton who was the leader of the opposition.
All the same lets hear who will Accept, refuse, reject this. You aint doing s**t to deserve this.
Myron is the biggest hypocrite in the house
Prices keep going up, and nothing serious is being done about it. Minimum wage is still a joke, and even though some people make just enough to pay rent and bills, it’s not enough to actually live well or save. Meanwhile, none of you in government are feeling the pressure that everyday people are under. It’s also unfair that allowances are being counted in your retirement packages. If that’s the case, then people in other jobs who get allowances should also have those counted in their pensions. That’s only fair.
On top of that, some of you came into politics with no experience, and after just one term, you’ll walk away with more money than someone who worked 25 to 30 years in public service. The new salary changes don’t even help the people who’ve been working hard for decades. It’s completely unfair to the rest of us. Saying it’s “public knowledge” or blaming the Westminster system doesn’t make it right; it’s just a way to dodge responsibility. The real problem is the significant disparity between what you receive and what the average citizen has to contend with. And it seems like you and the rest of the lot think we’re just going to accept being treated this way.
Please miss me with the nonsense!
Hon. Walwyn, come better than that. You say the deliberations were “not secret” because they followed the Westminster model but let’s not play semantics. The committee’s discussions may be private, yes, but what about the results? Should those be secret too?
Even Cabinet, which operates behind closed doors, releases a snapshot of its decisions for public information. So why should the public be left guessing when it comes to something as consequential as salary increases for legislators?
Stop ducking behind Westminster. If UK parliamentarians doubled their salaries overnight, the whole world would know and the public would have had their say before, not after.
This isn’t just about process. It’s about respect. Transparency isn’t a courtesy; it’s a constitutional obligation.
Bro you done got your money so it don’t matter now. Greedy bill and now this. Yeah want to look like you siding with the people now. Please. Tired of this clown show.
WE ALL ARD HUMAN AND WE ALL LIVE ONCE AND DIE ONCE , AND WD UNDERSTAND THAT ITS AN INCREASE ( BUT ) WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO ARE ON PENSION / CIVIL SERVANTS ETC ? FOOD PRICES GORNE UP ( DON’T TALK ABOUT HOUSE RENT, THESE LANDLORDS ARE LIKE SHARKS – HOPE THEY WILL TAKE ALL THE MONEY THAT THEY RIPPING FROM POOR PEOPLE IN YHEIR CASKETS WITH THEM WHEN YHEY GOING FEET / ANYWAY BACK TO THE TOPIC – SHARE THE DOLLARS ALL AROUND , NOT JUST FOR YOU ALL SELVES ALONE
Myron, I was rooting for you to form a team and secure a victory at the next election because I felt that you have what it takes to lead us. But you have completely lost me on this one. Whether or not it was done in secret, the fact remains that you gave yourself the maximum level of increases in salary and left the majority of the civil service with crumbs! And this was supposed to be a review for the benefit of the civil servants. Elected officials are not civil servants. If you felt that your salary and benefits as elected officials needed to be looked at, commission a separate review and do it so that there is full transparency. I am disappointed in you because this shows us that you are no different from the rest of them. You showed your true colors. It was clearly more important to line your own pockets than to do right and fair by the civil servants. You and whatever team you pull together, do not come looking for my vote at the next election unless you fix this situation. Roll back the increases. Stop taking from the public purse like this! It is not yours to take!
The only thing on grown hard back humans does change is their clothes. He has not changed his mindset and it will not change. Camouflage is the game.
As you can see his stance on this is quite mild knowing that when it comes to money, he would not put up a stern challenge especially if it could favor him. Here he is just bla bla bla for talking sake hoping that one day he can benefit significantly from it.
As he said during the last uproar, “The bill gone through yet?”
Lets not forget about the greedy bill
BOTH SIDE NEEDS TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND RETRACT THOSE INCREASE, IT SET A DANGERIOUS PRECIDENT FOR FUTURE LEGISLATOR. IT IS WRONG AND UNCONSIONABLE ESP DURING THIS TIME OF OUR HISTORY.
The Premier should be elected via a popular vote rather than a district vote. You want real change put the power back into the hands of the people.
…says the one who outed the government for lack of transparency on the greedy bill. He was making it loud then and was fully aware, at the time of taking the pay increase, how the people feel about transparency when it comes to these things. Don’t come with no “this how they do it in Westminster” because they could have laid the same excuse about the greedy bill. Just told on himself that he would have operated the exact same way if he was part of the greedy bill government.
THE CRIME THAT NEED TO BE COMMITTED WAS TO BE AYO IN THE HOUSE WHO ROBBING WITHOUT A CONSCIOUS TALKING PISS NOT THE PRIVATE PARTY IN THE HILLS
One of the biggest reasons why you jumped ship from the NDP and took two PVIM members with you was to get that sweet new salary increase for the leader of the opposition, so no excuses. At the end of the day the Opposition does not have the votes, but it is important to stand up and holler at the people when bad things are going down in the HOA.
In my opinion, this is another reason why the news media should be sitting in on meetings of the HoA 100 percent of the time. This is not private business. It is the people’s business. We pay the bills.
He took recommendation 1 about meetings being public but I hope he also takes the recommendation that the Premier and Deputy should be At Large members and not from a district rep!
The majority of the population agree that at least our premier in this first instance needs to be at-large. No district candidate for Premier at all and it need to be someone with lots of experience under the belt because there obviously is a lot to be fixed.
Some of you politicians really dumb!!! If one of you only one of you had stand up and objected your votes would of been secured plus you would of still get the increase. Cause all the others still voted in favour some of you all really need political sense.but money blinds you all it turns you stupidy!!
Mr . Walwyn,
All of a sudden, you’re talking about the Westminster System that we use here. But really, what percentage of the Virgin Islands population is familiar with that System?? Once you have that answer it will become easy to see why people are vexed and will continue to curse you all out.