Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Are Most Parliamentarians fit to be in the Parliament?

Its been more than a week since a proper work has been done in the Parliament session. The Parliamentarians continue to draw Rf62,000 per month out of the State budget, do not care about the critical economic situation of the country, do not adequately address the growing social problems and crimes, and as the Human Rights Commission has recently highlighted, the Parliamentarians have neglected the rights of all Maldivians by not being engaged in making important laws needed for the country. And yet, nobody seems to be doing anything about this. The Constitution says that the "all powers of the State of Maldives are derived from, and remain with the citizens". Hence, even the Parliament and the Parliamentarians derive their powers from the people; and does that power still remain with the people? Is it the people's will, to halt the Majlis sessions, their representatives shout at each other, and delay passage of important laws? Is it the people's will, the Parliament do nothing to mend the economic, monetary, financial, social, and judicial problems in the country?

Well, I dont think most of the citizens in the respective constituencies have the power or influence over their member. If they don't, I'm sure its time, we start exercising that power, and pressure our Parliament members to act in good faith, to show sincerity towards the country's well-being. And also, to show respect towards each other, maintain discipline in the Majlis chamber and elsewhere.

One of the flaws in the Constitution is that it assumes that the members of the Parliament will act in good faith, and make all decisions for the benefit of the society and the country. But the problem is, its a very dangerous and a wrong assumption. Some Parliamentarians understand very well, the dangers of having a huge fiscal deficit, and its impact on the macroeconomy. However, even this year, we saw a State Budget that was passed with so many amendments leading to further increases in the expenditure and the deficit. Some educated Parliamentarians understand the importance of increasing government revenue through taxation, however, not enough effort has been put to pass the necessary legislation.

And some Parliamentarians, simply do not understand at all. The consequences of their actions, their words, and their inactivity. Some of them do not fully understand their responsibilities, and their duties towards the people and the country. Some of them do not have the values and principles that are necessary and prerequisites to become a Parliamentarian. We can fix the country and the economy very easily, if we have a sincere, honest, and respectable bunch of Parliamentarians.

4 comments:

  1. It's time, a much Supreme power emerge, and discipline those majlis members.

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  2. the parteys are a supreme power that people fear. maybe they can put some sense in MPs

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  3. If taxi drivers and drummers can be elected as parliamentarian ... we should expect a little bit ignorance ... and may be some chaos ...
    you cant really totally blame the parliamentarians ... they were elected by us Maldivians !!!

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  4. Dear Naseer, the parlimentariand from the opposition and government has no sense of what is going on with our economy and their ultimate goal is bully each other and etc...

    I would like to ask if the President and his cabinet and political appointees are competent to rule the country.. We know that you will know how the fiscal policy is implemented and you will know what problems are we are going to face in future.. SO lets call for a change for entire system rather than pointing at parliment only

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