Maldives lacks Good Governance

Despite various attempts to adopt the basic principles of Good Governance in both public and private sector, till today many institutions have totally failed to achieved such. Primarily the situation is much worse off in the public sector though the audience to serve is bigger and challenging. Good governance aims to reach correct decisions but best possible process. Accountability , Transparency & Participation has been considered core elements of such a system. Impartial enforcement of rule of law & frequency of responsiveness along with equity, justice can not be ignored when we talk such a topic.

Doors to corruption & abusive political power are main bottlenecks to achieve good governance whereby people , state, institution promotes the concept of self-interest rather than nationalism.

Statement on Passing of the Bill on the Amendment to the Judicature Act

The Commonwealth LawyersAssociation (CLA), the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) and theCommonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association (CMJA) are concerned about thepassing of the Bill on the Amendment to the Judicature Act which reduced thenumber of Supreme Court Judges from 7 to 5. We are also extremely concerned that the Judicial Services Commission,as a consequence,  recommended theremoval of Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz, Justice Muthasim Adnan to the Presidentwhich is contrary to Article 154 of the Maldives Constitution which statesthat: 

“154 (b) A Judge may be removed from officeonly if the  Judicial Service Commissionfinds that the person is grossly incompetent, or that the Judge is guilty ofgross misconduct, and submits to the People’s Majlis a resolution supportingthe removal of the Judge, which is passed by a two-thirds majority of themembers of the People’s Majlis present and voting.”

 

In passing this Act and thesubsequent hasty removal of two senior judges,The Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles on the Accountability of and the Relationshipbetween the Three Branches of Government (2003), have beenignored and that as a result the judiciary and the Rule of Law has beenseverely damaged.  The Principles statethat “Judges should be subject tosuspension or removal only for reasons of incapacity or misbehaviour thatclearly renders them unfit to discharge their duties”

It further states that:  “Inaddition to providing the proper procedures for the removal of judges ongrounds of incapacity or misbehaviour that are required to support theprinciple of independence of the judiciary, any disciplinary procedures shouldbe fairly and objectively administered. Disciplinary proceedings which mightlead to the removal of a judicial officer should include appropriate safeguardsto ensure fairness”.

 

Due to the haste in which thislaw was passed and the subsequent immediate removal of Chie Justice Faiz andJustice Adnan, such procedures have not been followed. 

The Associations urge theGovernment and Parliament of the Maldives  to respect the independence of the judiciaryand in particular to comply with its constitutional safeguards and theCommonwealth Latimer House Principles and international standards.   

Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA)

Commonwealth Legal Education Association(CLEA)

Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’Association (CMJA)

15 December 2014

Privatization of Universities in Maldives - Do we really need them? Is this Right Time?

Every country has its own path to higher education from history with the establishment of different educational institutions. MCHE had played a vital role in transforming tertiary education of the country to the next level, leaving many hopes for future with the birth of the Only University in the country, which is a public university, The Maldives National University.

As a citizen, I believe this is not the right time for the privatization of universities as  we must give enough time for the National University of Maldives to create research knowledge & time to establish their faculties with affirm foundations.  The work of them seems very progressive adding more to infrastructure & to the human resources of the institution.  Its in parallel importance to recognize the contributions of private institutions to the tertiary education system creating oligopoly market with price-competition and more choices for the people. University, being the highest educational institution, enlightens the culture and standard of living of the nation creating brilliant minds of the future.

Detrimental to quality of education could the biggest threat from an immediate privatization of universities here, Private Universities will run on profit-motive and quality and ethics is expected to be compromised for self-interest.

Maldives in strengthening its existing Judicial Dictatorship - The Democracy Curtailed

In modern societies, civilizations are progressing based on very fundamental principle of Separation of Powers. An idle state with Zero level of Corruption may exists only in theoretical backgrounds but it is an agony to live in a society where democracy is curtailed, where there does not exist transparency & where the master-slavery relationships emerges in our statesmanship. 

A proper checks and balances system must develop cohesively among three organs of government, to reduce overlapping and conflict of roles. We, being the citizen of islands must be afraid for this execution of judicial dictatorship. Also we can not agree on Judicial Supremacy. Neither government nor Supreme Court can strike down any legislation which encroached upon the basic rights of the citizens. Judicial Supremacy and Judicial Dictatorship can not be favored and we must bring an end to these doctrines of past centuries. 

Due to the conflicts with organs of state, common citizen must not become slumps or street dwellers at the end of the day in search of our daily bread. We always promote welfare state concept with self-interest of political will and political influence. Most of the times, sudden decisions by central government of Republic of Maldives is creating anarchy among the minds of people leaving the future-fogged. We always claim to maintain the rule of law, but only based on political circumstances. 

All in all, today Maldives is in strengthening its existing Judicial Dictatorship -  The Democracy Curtailed. The constitution of the Maldives is framed to protect the sovereignty of its people, but not to protect the sovereignty of its supreme judges. 

Allowing People Bubbling Ideas Lead Organizations

Organizational behavior theories supports organizations can move towards performance management and efficiency when people are allowed to bubble their ideas. This could be , perhaps, a very core of modern democratic management style and research evidence that nearly 55 % to 65% time of managers are spent on listening others. All ideas bubbled by staff & other stakeholders may not be always at the interest of the organization but these ideas may show a better path for arriving decisions by company directors. As diversification reduces the risks of investments, bubbling ideas reduce the risk of making improper decisions. 

The more autocratic management style preferred by BOD, and establishment of bureaucracy may hinders a free expression of opinions, suggestions & recommendations.  CEOs must believe in nothing to hide behind, and employees must enjoy giving transparent bubbles at work place. This culture needs to be more advocated and developed to drive organization towards efficiency & improving employee motivation.

Political Preferences & Political Activism

Political scientists have investigated the roots of political preference and political knowledge for decades and it is finally believed that the political activation is a result of family dynamics and professional experiences. Also educational attainment and socioeconomic status of individuals lead to this political activism. It is a fundamental principle to believe the idle political socialization happens at home at early stages of life from the experiences and communications.  In many cases, political career for people sparks in relation to a particular issue; protests, a war, schools, environmental factors etc. Advocates for press freedom & liberty has become real political activists and they prompts political activism with masses of people.

Political science literature signifies us , "self-interest" being the core mainstream of political motivation & existence of a political parties  or any other politically motivated organization. All governments created through political party system, people are recruited to jobs based on their political opinions, political affiliations and political activism. These governments finally ended up with top-heavy political structure, increasing the recurrent expenditure of government. Political parties promote "self-interest" principle rather than patriotism like private sector promotes "profit-motive" rather than welfare motive.

Nation-wide issues become too often worse-off when it is attached with political preferences & political activism. It is a real threat to society when both ruling party & Opposition politicize the nation-wide issues due to their thirst for power & political influence.

Water Scarcity - Resource Optimization can be a solution

It is a universal fact to say the water scarcity affects every continent; despite the size of population or possessive of resource availability for different nations. It is believed always 1/5th of the world's population live with water scarcity and this means nearly 1.5 billion are affected now 500 million  additional people reaches to this situation. Economic water shortage happens when countries fail to develop the infrastructure to access water from rivers and aquifers. It is estimated 2 billion people in the world sustains their life with economic scarcity of the water. 

The use of water and the demand for water accelerates twice more than the growth in population due to effective demand created from industrialization, from agriculture and farming sector and due to undoubtedly human factors like wastage of water. Some waters are polluted and unsustainably managed to leave a benefit for the masses of people.  Due to this years ahead are more prone to global water scarcity. Evidence suggests that world has huge reserve of fresh water which is sufficient for seven billion people in the world , however, till today we are not able to find a way to distribute evenly the water resource to these seven billion people and even distribution of water logically is impracticable but only theoretical. 

All in All, water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon.  Today, we, Maldives faced Water scarcity due to damages for water plants and we strive for it. We spent hours restlessly in queues to access for clean , potable drinking water.  Water is the foundation for life & it is not surprising to know some people spent their entire days in searching for it. For future consumption, we need to develop strong boundaries for resource optimization rather than over-exploitation of resources. 

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