Deputy Ministers, Executive Directors, Director Generals and a whole lot of other formidable appointments are frivolously being made everyday by our government. Not a week goes by without half a dozen new difficult-to-pronounce titles being added to the already disproportionately top-heavy civil service. I skimmed through the ‘veringe’ list on Information Ministry’s website today and was horrified by both the enormity of the top cadre of our civil service and the ‘exalted’ nature of the titles. Some ministries have at least a couple of deputy ministers and several executive directors and director generals.
I of course recognize quite a lot of the names in the ‘veringe’ list. Some of them were my former classmates, friends, and boys and girls I tutored not long ago. Some of these top civil servants took 20 years or more to reach where they are today while for others it’s a matter of leapfrogging up the ladder within less than five years. In any organization or culture there are competent, hardworking and sharp-witted people who move up the ladder quickly. I don’t know the basis for Maldivian government’s promotions - perhaps Maairaskalaange and our authorities would know. But one thing I’m absolutely certain is that in our government’s hierarchy, neither competency nor intelligence seems to be the underlying reason for these incredibly comical promotions.
Let me give you an example. I was utterly flabbergasted by the news of the appointment of a young man to the post of ‘Commissioner of Legal Reform’. Maybe this is just plain jealousy but someone who has just a basic degree in law and paper-pushing-experience at a government office does not suit my notion of a ‘Commissioner of Legal Reform’. No ill-will intnded towards the good young man.
I’ve met ‘commissioners’ from other countries. I’ve talked to their ‘Director Generals’. They are mostly the type of top class people whose presence and vast knowledge in their respective fields makes you feel humbled. These titles are the culmination of illustrious and extremely distinguished careers. They are not everywhere - and definitely don’t come a dime a dozen.
In countries several times larger than us, they have only a handful of these titles. But it baffles and hurts me to even think about why we need so many of them in our government. The bottom-line is do we have the resources to support this? Tell me.
I of course recognize quite a lot of the names in the ‘veringe’ list. Some of them were my former classmates, friends, and boys and girls I tutored not long ago. Some of these top civil servants took 20 years or more to reach where they are today while for others it’s a matter of leapfrogging up the ladder within less than five years. In any organization or culture there are competent, hardworking and sharp-witted people who move up the ladder quickly. I don’t know the basis for Maldivian government’s promotions - perhaps Maairaskalaange and our authorities would know. But one thing I’m absolutely certain is that in our government’s hierarchy, neither competency nor intelligence seems to be the underlying reason for these incredibly comical promotions.
Let me give you an example. I was utterly flabbergasted by the news of the appointment of a young man to the post of ‘Commissioner of Legal Reform’. Maybe this is just plain jealousy but someone who has just a basic degree in law and paper-pushing-experience at a government office does not suit my notion of a ‘Commissioner of Legal Reform’. No ill-will intnded towards the good young man.
I’ve met ‘commissioners’ from other countries. I’ve talked to their ‘Director Generals’. They are mostly the type of top class people whose presence and vast knowledge in their respective fields makes you feel humbled. These titles are the culmination of illustrious and extremely distinguished careers. They are not everywhere - and definitely don’t come a dime a dozen.
In countries several times larger than us, they have only a handful of these titles. But it baffles and hurts me to even think about why we need so many of them in our government. The bottom-line is do we have the resources to support this? Tell me.
2 comments:
Hello my name is Megatron, Im the Lord of Thundercats in Maldives.
What I was completely flabbergasted by was the new Commissioner of Legal Reform's gut. I think the Commissioner can start his job by doing society some service by getting rid of that astounding shock of flab above and falling over his belt.
The role of the maldive government is as a public circus because we don't have them in Maldives. these sessions of jugglers, musical chairs, clowns and elephants (zahiya education minister).
Society needs a comic element and our government is that circus. but like most things in maldives it;s a circus that doesnt perform too well. it's only funny for the number of freaks and ugly, funnily incompetent people in it.
let me add, a circus costs a few dollars for entrance. but our circus costs us many billion rufiya a year. the maldivian government is proof that there is a level of astounding failure that's several trillion miles deeper than what civilized people rate as failure.
Megatron, Lord of Thundercats (Maldivian branch)
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