This country is in serious trouble. It’s a broken nation, to say the least. Economist, Paul Collier, in his TED talk “New Rules for rebuilding a broken nation” offers some serious advice that the leader of a broken nation like the Maldives could use.
Paul Collier makes it very easy to see what our small country under President Nasheed is doing wrong.
Firstly, we prioritized politics instead of security and economics. Our experience over the past 15 months have shown that an election doesn’t produce an “accountable and a legitimate government”. What it produced for us was a rather murky win for MDP coalition and a humiliating loss for DRP. The result is disastrous. An unreconciled pugnacious DRP is on the verge of taking this country to the brink of a civil war. Estranged coalition partners are acrimoniously bickering over MDP’s betrayal to them. So, from the standpoint of most political parties this has become a bitter zero-sum game - we can only go up if we bring those guys down!
Secondly, our government, both during Gayoom’s last few years and now, is focused on seizing ad hoc short-term opportunities and do-good projects with the help of unprincipled politicians (they are ubiquitous - you can’t stretch a leg without poking one in the ass ;-) . The result is an unsustainably large fiscal deficit and overall bad economic policy. Instead of focusing on front-loading economic reforms and creating an inclusion agenda on the political front our meager resources are being spent on doing-nothing commissions and frivolous political posts to fight the ghosts of Gayoom era.
Thirdly, Nasheed’s Government seems to be doing very little to address what Paul Collier calls “the three critical things” in a post-conflict situation: creating jobs, improvement of basic services especially health and providing a clean government. Government did ‘create’ jobs, in fact hundreds of jobs - not for the ordinary men and women but as rewards for activists and political cronies. Health services? Well, I only hear from my wife’s doctor friends that they are using normal thread to tie the umbilical cords of newborns at IGMH. As for the issue of ‘clean government’ my dubiety is fuelled by what a highly influential friend of mine told me a few months ago - ‘mi fas aharu nimey iru aharumen dhemigannaanan’. With an attitude like that among senior officials I don’t see our government going too far with creating a ‘clean government’.
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18 comments:
Dude, what made uthink that President Nasheed needs advice from a u?
ok. This country needs to be fixed. but we know how to do that. To fix this country we need to terminate the DRP infestation and thats what president is doing. We will do that and make this nation a proud nation. We dont need advice from gayoom worshippers like you.
@anonymous. this blogger was never a Gayoom worshiper. your arrogant attitudes will take you nowhere. i also voted for MDP but will not do it next time. so go to hell.
naimbe
This country may not look like Iraq or Afghanistan. But the troubles are somewhat similar. And given the resources we have to deal with our problems the problems would be more difficult to over come than those problems Iraq and Afghanistan has. It is high time that the politicians creating probelms for the country realize this and start working for the betterment of the country.
good post. salam
Rauf
@Anon 11:10, Boss, at least watch that Ted talk and stop at 2:56 when he says "I can only go up, if you go down". What makes your breed any different than Gayoom's?
@anon 11:10
this is the kind of attitude that is just not helping im afraid. this us-against-them mentality. What is so different with these two (apparently) political parties?
can someone draw the lines for me. what ARE the end goals both of these parties are offering.
You can not go ahead with ideas like terminate DRP infestation when DRP members are too citizens of this nation and human beings to say the least. Aren't we all working for a better life for everyone?
OR is it still a fight for a piece of pie. everyone on their own, with nothing but selfish motives and like naimbe outlined without any long term plan or goal for the nation?
Nqaimbe. What you have said is very true. Things are only going from bad to worse. I think more and more people are realizing that this is not the democracy or aneh dhivehiraajje that we wanted. And more people are also realizing that Anni cannot deliver the aneh dhivehiraajje that he promised. Niether can DRP. These are two failed parties. We need someone from the middle ground to emerge strong now. These 2 big parties only see this as a zero sum game. One pary wants to topple the other party so that they can come up. What they dont realize is that if there is no national development and progreess they will also suffer ultimately.
one more comment. what ur friend told u isthe attitude of most of the senior ppl in this government. They are all working for ‘mi fas aharu nimey iru aharumen dhemigannaanan’!
body 2 party ves eggoi hama. amilla jeebu bodukurun. kithanme foni vaahaka eh dhekkiyas kithanme bodu political promise eh kuriyas ihulaas therike nethiyya kuraane evves faidhaaeh nethey.
fas aharu nimuneema demigannanan. does that mean the senior people ae planning to leave the country after 5 years? please clarify...
You write quite well, but I am a bit worried about your claim of "imthinking"! You somehow refuse to recognise the adaptive features of the new budget and opposition's continued negative stance to legislation on income generation and decentralization in Parliament. You also seem hardly bothered to keep up with local news. Even an occasional reader of Haveeru (probably your type of newspaper) would feel a level of "ethical stress" to accuse the government of wasting time and energy on a "witch hunt" . Furthermore you seem to have got our specific situation mixed up with the speaker's scenario of a "post conflict" situation. The Maldives is undergoing a process of "political transition", which is a whole lot different from the post conflict scenario you assume. Please!?!#@!....are you some "Google consultant"?
A key issue is the lack of education on how things work in a democracy. Both DRP and MDP uses this lack of knowledge among the masses to build loyal support bases around personalities rather than issues. In most countries the political division is along Left and Right. They are divided on how to address the key issues of economy and society. It's not about personalities. So to break the current political situation the first thing to do is educate people about politics. DRP and MDP instead rely on misinforming the public. I agree with Bodu Kanneli that we need someone other than DRP&MDP. But rather than form a separate political party, we need to first form a group to spread information about how politics ought to function in a democracy. If enough people get the knowledge they'll form their own parties or force the current parties to abandon their current tactics.
Totally agree with @Bajiya. We need to educate the public and stop the "Goggle consultant" disease that hardcore activists from both parties, like @Anon 8:35 are spreading. People have take off their party goggles for everyone's sake.
@ anon 11:10 – You are seriously mistaken. I’m not advising anyone here. I am only writing here on my personal blog about my thoughts. Anyway, who am I to advice a head of state? I know where I stand very well. ;-)
@ anon 7:46 – from the context of the chat I understood the meaning of the phrase ‘mi fas aharu nimey iru aharumen dhemigannaanan’ as expressing an intention to retire with lots of money by the end of this term.
@ anon 8:35 – Calm down, my friend. Relax. I’m not attacking anyone here. It’s very clear that you don’t agree with what I have said but I honestly don’t think that warrants a personal attack on me. ;-)
Have I accused the government of going on a “witch hunt”? You are imagining things, my friend. What I said was “resources are being spent on doing-nothing commissions and frivolous political posts”. I don’t think I am very wrong to say this when (a) the Presidential Commission after more than a year’s ‘work’ is yet to prosecute anyone involved in any of the alleged high profile corruption cases (b) a government that came to power on the promise of a leaner bureaucracy has 54 state ministers, 73 deputy ministers and countless other political appointees to run the affairs of just over 300 thousand people.
“Haveeru (probably your type of newspaper)?” – I'm not laughing. I can understand your emotions. As Bajiyaa 9:19 says “both DRP and MDP uses lack of knowledge among the masses to build loyal support bases around personalities rather than issues”. When your support is for a personality you get badly hurt the moment you get the slightest feeling that someone is against the person you admire. If I were you I’d just try not to be too passionate and over-zealous about personalities.
Thank you for pointing out to this ignorant man that the Maldives in undergoing a "political transition". ;-)
"Google consultant"? - I honestly don’t know what to say.
naimbe,
reading through your comments above i figured out ur very mild even when people try to ridicule u. Ragalhah vidhdhaalabala. You can do it man. LEts get into war.
naimbe,
reading through your comments above i figured out ur very mild even when people try to ridicule u. Ragalhah vidhdhaalabala. thihaa lonu madukoh blog eh nukureveyne ingey. kerigen vaanee. You can do it man. LEts get into war.
kon goreh hedigentha mi faadu faaduge echihi liyanee. kaley varah molhu ingey. ekan gaboolu koffeemey. dhen huttaalaa. ok.
In Bengal, Mustard oil is the preferred oil for cooking. it is also applied on the hair and sometimes on the male genitalia for enhancing erections and erectile duration.
some sourced from Wikipedia
Its fun to read the comments that start mild and end in #$%^&. hehe
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