Treating pensioners fairly

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Freihat has disclosed on Monday in a speech to retired army officers that the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army will improve pensions for all retired military servicemen and servicewomen who retired prior to 2010. This gesture would cost JD78 million annually.

The announcement came in the nick of time for retired military servicemen and women who have been suffering from low pensions for so long, and have seen the purchasing power of their pensions dwindle annually in the face of runaway inflation in the country.

Military and security personnel deserve the best treatment by the country, and are entitled to pensions that are fair and commensurate with the rising cost of living in Jordan.

On the other hand, retired civil servants are also entitled to have their pensions periodically reviewed because they too are entitled to fair pensions that keep up with the high inflation in the country.

Civil  servants  perform duties different  from  those  carried out by the military but no less important, and are, therefore, equally entitled to a decent standard of living.

The government must not turn a blind eye to the needs of civil servants who spent their life serving their country and suddenly find that their pensions are  also  being  eroded by inflationary cycles.

The country must be fair-minded to both the military and the civil servants. Just as wages are periodically reviewed in order to stay abreast of the ever rising inflationary rate, so must pensions. All wage-earners and pensioned people, military or otherwise, are entitled to enjoy a decent standard of living, and this entitlement cannot be compromised by a time frame which is unfair and inappropriate.

Instead of stipulating the timing of  a rise in pensions at certain arbitrary dates, it must be reviewed periodically, every two or three years at the most, for all. This way the government can treat every pensioner fairly and justly without any form of discrimination.