How to be a Great Maldivian Politician

We all know how busy and hectic the lives of a Maldivian politician is. Some established rules always helps. So here goes my 10 BEST Ways of being a Maldivian Politician;

1. PRETEND to know everything (if you feel like you are failing the debate … be ready to use the word MAUMOON … and you’ll be back in it)
2. Be Satanically Evil and always believe that God created two versions of Satan. The real version … and the U version
3. Dont give a F*** about anyone but your own self
4. Be self-flagellating AND say you would do it to others in the Parliament (if things get worse … have the faith in your PARTY since they’d do the same for you between them and the rival Parties)
5. Be Fundamentally DISHONEST (best would be to knowingly lie with great APPARENT conviction)
6. Be extremely GREEDY and keep in mind that RESORTS should be the ultimate prize of being in a great Parliament
7. Never READ entire documents (always the HEADINGS please cos you will be extremely busy being a Politician)
8. Attend FRIDAY prayers
9. …
10. …

Corporate Tax or a GST System in Maldives?

I’ve read with great interest the article published on Minivan News (1st of July), titled “MPs Debate Bill on Corporate Profits Tax”. What was most interesting in this article was the fact that none of the MPs really had discussed or raised the fundamentally significant questions that would no doubt require “technically sound” answers. Could this then be the price we pay for just electing “anyone” to the Parliament? Or could it simply be that the Journalist had just published what he thought was significant. I gathered that most important issues that was discussed in the Parliament was with regards to Fishermen being taxed, adopting a flat versus a variable or marginal tax rate, to issues regarding NOT taxing smaller businesses.

Honestly the biggest challenge we would face with regards to the introduction of a tax system, be it corporate or income, would be the tackling of the currently enormous CASH ECONOMY that we are all so accustomed with. Did any of our so called leaders (MPs) raise this issue? I seriously believe that if we were to introduce and maintain a corporate or income tax system, the most basic concerns that could decide the success or failure of the system would be the extent of our cash economy. Talking about taxing or not taxing the fishermen is IRRELEVANT! The real question is how we could eliminate (to some reasonable extent) the existing cash economy AND how we could discipline businesses to be disciplined enough to work in such a system (compliance)!

I have a feeling that what Maldives NEEDS right now is NOT so much a corporate tax system, but a SYSTEM that will force businesses to adhere to some disciplines (compliance). Their regular interaction with the government or a system which provides enough incentives for them to interact is what we really need.

Introducing a tax system is a big step .. a massive step! Its not only the paperwork or the bills or the procedures that really matters. More than these bills and these procedures are the BEHAVIOURS of these businesses that matter. We could say we will tax 20% of all corporate profits. We could say we will not tax the fisherman. But seriously speaking, given our way of doing businesses, do you seriously believe anyone would make a PROFIT? Do you seriously believe someone would declare their true rental incomes? Do you seriously believe that there will be BIG businesses in Maldives? Rather than wasting our time, money and resources, I suggest we first bring a smaller SYSTEM which provides the added incentive for businesses to collaborate with the Government and once a strong relationship is achieved, in the long run, we could slowly start introducing the so called Tax System.

What I have in mind is a simple Goods and Services Tax (GST) which basically passes the burden to the final consumer rather than the businesses. I know this is ultimately not fair on the consumers (You and Me), but do you think that the corporate tax system will not have an impact on the prices of goods and services we pay? THINK AGAIN!

With GST we will achieve some non-financial objectives, of which the most fundamental is compliance aspects. Let me just briefly outline how such a system works;

Two things will happen in such a system. Businesses will be “collecting” GST on behalf of the Government as well as “paying” GST. Take for example the taxi services. If the taxi driver goes and pays for Petrol, then this business (the taxi) will be “paying” GST on top of the normal price for the Petrol. On the other hand the Petrol business will be “collecting” GST on behalf of the Government. Bottomline is that the businesses will be regularly on a timely manner (monthly, quarterly, semi annually or yearly) submitting the Government details of their collections as well as the payments – in the form of a Business Activity Statement. If the collections are more than the payments, then the business will be asked to pay the extra collections to the Government. If the payments are more than the collections, the Government will issue a cheque to the business.

The beauty of this system to Maldives is not so much to do with the actual payments or the collections. In my opinion it forces businesses, with an added incentive, to interact with the government, it forces businesses, small and large, to adopt a record keeping system. It forces all of them to start managing their cash flows. In the end, we will be breaking that old habit of not taking the invoices or the receipts or the manners in which we create our invoices seriously AND by time we will all adopt to a more disciplined approach which kinda ensures we will be ready to a more complicated system!

I aint any expert on these things. But at least I know what I am talking about. I know we’ve had experts from the world giving us consulting services, and more serious recommendations. Whatever it is, I don’t think an expert consultant from World Bank or Asian Development Bank could tell me who a Maldivian is! The point is, there will be many loopholes which will be explored! The point is … we need a lighter system first that allows some sort of flexibility. A corporate tax system is not yet that light system.

Political Competition – Dhiraagu vs Wataniya OR MDP vs DRP

For 30 years Maldivians have seen the harsh realities of what its like to be ruled and lead by a single party system. For 30 years we’ve seen the makings of a country which revolved around the ideologies and vision of one man! No one questioned it for 30 years. No one really could! That’s until hell broke on 20th September 2003!

Contrasting the political history of Maldives with that of a typical business economy, we can quite rightly point out our system of governance to what’s known as a Monopoly! In economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual (say our former President) or an enterprise (say his influential cabinet or family) has sufficient control over a particular product (the citizens) or services (what the citizens could do or not do) to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. Obviously in the past one regime controlled ALL the resources, ALL the options, ALL the choices and of course, ALL the decision making!

When an individual or a group of individuals gains too much control (with power and money), obviously there would be many things that could go wrong and many things that could potentially go very wrong! In business, or in politics, the consequences would be similar. Decisions would be made in favour of the minority (who control the resources) instead of the very people (be it citizens or be it consumers)! Think back at what went so wrong when Dhiraagu (the telecom giant) was a monopoly in that industry!

That 20th September 2003 changed many things for better or for worse! I could very much write here a list of things that had changed for good as well as for bad! But my focus is with regards to breaking a Monopoly! The government was forced to give away power, they were forced to give away resources! Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was the recipient of these, together with some fringe players such as IDPs and other much smaller parties!

Today we see that in Maldivian politics there exists the so called Duopoly system where the majority of votes is controlled by just two parties (MDP and the DRP). Alternatively with the smaller fringe players, you could even call it an Oligopoly!
I’d like to paint a picture of the battle between Dhiraagu and Wataniya to demonstrate a simple point here. When Dhiraagu controlled the entire telecom industry, they pretty much did what they saw best for the corporate benefits. Be it increasing prices or be it giving a real bad service! Dhiraagu as a brand wasn’t something we wanted to associate with. Most of us were sick and tired of hearing the bad experiences of people struggling with Dhiraagu’s services. Hmmm … maybe we have forgotten all that yeah? Time heals many wounds guys … I bet one day you will all forgive the 30 years of autocracy too!

Anyways back to the point! When Wataniya entered the market, what was so different? We all felt that what ever these two parties did, they’d have to make us (the customers) happy! We all felt that suddenly we were empowered! Suddenly they all started calling our names. We started seeing their campaigns filled with “touching” us! Touching our hearts and minds! Using the ordinary Maldivians in their commercials! Ahh yeah … the consequences of breaking a Monopoly!

What’s so good about Dhiraagu and Wataniya today? I don’t know much about the current situation with regards to the Telecom industry, but I still do know this … we as customers have a choice! We as customers have forced certain things to change! Dhiraagu had to reconsider many things they did in the past! They had to put US in the center of their blueprints! They had to organize themselves around us! Some say Wataniya have been struggling keeping up with Dhiraagu! Well guys, that could be true too. But in business, sometimes you got to have that extra bit of patience to find out what’s so weak about your competitors and strike at that!

Contrasting the above with the Maldivian politics, I think there are similarities. I think there are many lessons we could learn and there are lessons that the parties could learn. At the end of the day, it is … and it must be about the people. At the end of the day, you might just have to change the true identities of the parties (be it DRP making a significant structural change)! In the end competition will bring out many answers that we are looking for! But sometimes its not just competition that matters. Its also about the way we compete that could become crucial! Bottomline … both MDP and DRP should learn from the experiences of Dhiraagu and Wataniya!

Are You Happy with Our Parliament?

5 Challenges for our Parliamentarians

Now that the election results are pretty much sorted out, what can we expect from the New team of leaders? Do they have the necessary ingredients? Obviously it takes rather strong guts and courage to nominate your name in an upcoming election and surely every person (on a rather positive note) would have something to offer to the table. But then again, given the amount of information and knowledge one has to learn to be able to contribute to the ultimate table, I highly doubt that this team could master the art of being POLITICIANS! Not unless they personally challenge themselves!

Guess in everyone of us there lies deficiencies. Some of which we don’t have any control of and others to which we are directly responsible. Some of the major mistakes that we as individuals make and thus prevents us from being highly productive beings include; We wander without knowing where we’re going; Data and circumstances confuse us; Fear blocks us from acting; Change paralyses and last but not least, We talk more than we listen!

If our newly elected politicians don’t get the big picture, then obviously they are bound to be making the biggest sins of their careers! Their actions would ultimately harm the generations to come! Their decisions can either shape or destroy the very being of our societies. Bottomline, all of em’ seriously needs to (1) Find a clear Purpose!

Maldivians, regretfully, have the seriously bad habit of, concluding and passing judgements without taking a good look at the data in hand. Word of mouth to us (which obviously is the easy route) is more meaningful than the past actions and the very information and facts those actions have provided us with (obviously doing a big evaluation is the hard route – so why bother!). Guess this is one important milestone in everyone of their careers (MPs) and hopefully with it they would put in the necessary work towards (2) Learning from the Past.

Not just fear, but Maldivians, especially those good old politicians, are pretty much disabled from acting! Talk talk talk and more talk is the order of the day! Action action and more action is the work that only movie actors do! Guess that in itself sums up the whole point. Why bother talk and make bills and laws that none of us can follow! The world’s best ideas if not able to be implemented would mean nothing! Thus, (3) Maintaining a bias toward Action in all their thinking processors would no doubt be an important element.

Its sad to say, still we are not open to change. Its always easier said than done. For us Maldivians, even naturally change is not a variable or an option. Life is CONSTANT! We are born muslims, we live in Ma. Utheemuge (or whatever), we go pass Majeedhe Magu or the likes every single day, we meet people we know ALL the time, we know the sun will be shining, we know there’s only one temperature (29 degrees), we take our wives for a motorcycle ride every night (pretty much same roads and same routes and same timings!). Guess afterall change is not our best of friends. What’s different now? Honestly NOTHING! Neither MDP nor DRP is ready to embrace change! MDP wanted to change something (guess their first aim was right)! Once changed they wanted nothing else to CHANGE! DRP wanted nothing to change, but when things changed everything, they wanted to change to bring back what once was their order of day! Honestly, as long as Maldivians have no winter, spring, summer or autumn, we are naturally born with a deficiency of not being open to change! Well then my respected MPs, (4) Be open to Change!

Finally guys (5) Seek Feedback! You are there not because of how good, intelligent, clever or smart you are. You are there for the one simple and obvious reason that your party members didn’t have any other choice! For crying out loud, learn from that, listen to what’s around you, both inside your familiar as well as unfamiliar territories, and then SEEK that absolutely essential feedback!

Why the delay in VOTE counts?

How Can We VOTE Responsibly?

As every eligible Maldivian would march into their respective voting booths on Saturday (09/05/09), one question that would be at the back of every responsible voter would be “how can I vote responsibly?”

Guess different people would have different yardsticks in answering that simple, yet significant question. What one could hope is that our voters would decide the future of our country’s leadership, hopefully not by the poster sizes or its frequency. Nor based on who best mesmerized us, who appeared most, who gave more meaningful chit chats, and above all, not by who proved how big and fat their wallets are!

Let us hope today that Maldivians will vote for a better Maldives. And let us hope they will make the right decisions based on knowledge and reason! Amen!

What is TRUE DEMOCRACY?

Is there a difference between democracy and true democracy? Can a country embrace democracy and yet be unable to reap its beautiful rewards? Is democracy easier said than done?

James Madison (fourth President of the USA) once stated that “A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both”.

I have always believed that popularity can win seats in major elections, but it can never guarantee a true democracy. Democracy will not work (will not be a TRUE democracy) unless its citizens (the very people who made a government popular) are sufficiently prepared for it with knowledge and reason! Case in point is Hitler, and is worth remembering that he was elected by a democratic vote the consequences of which was the sufferings on the very people who elected him (due to the unacceptable degree of ignorance and lack of political education).

To understand this, you have to read the works of Plato, in The Republic! For those who might not know, Plato is one of the most remarkable philosophers to have ever lived, and will always be remembered with likes of Socrates (his teacher) and Aristotle (his student).

Democratic self-government does not work, according to Plato, because ordinary people have not learned how to run the ship of state. They are not familiar enough with such things as economics, military strategy, conditions in other countries, or the confusing intricacies of law and ethics. In their ignorance they tend to vote for politicians who mesmerize them with appearances and hazy talk, and they inevitably find themselves at the mercy of administrations and conditions over which they have no control because they do not understand what is happening around them (hence the consequences of Hitler era).

Plato’s argument against democracy did come as a mathematical equation (afterall he was a mathematician too!). His argument is based on one fundamental premise: Ruling is a SKILL (thus it is rational to always leave the exercise of skills to EXPERTS).

DEMOCRACY = PEOPLE RULING

But people are NEVER experts, thus DEMOCRACY IS IRRATIONAL.

Reading this, time and time again, my initial reaction was to obviously reject this theory. Since it is rather obvious that people elect their representatives (who have sufficient skills) to run a state. This same statement sorta supports Plato as he firmly believes that in a TRUE democracy, its people must be PREPARED for it with KNOWLEDGE and REASON. Further reading on this subject matter lead me to a very interesting fact! A fact which supported Plato’s views.

18th Century French Philosopher and Mathematician Condocert, in his explanation of probabilities had given just the answer that Plato must have implied in his philosophy. Plato himself was a mathematician too, and I bet this was no coincidence!

Here’s a simple illustration. If we have a voting body of 1000 individuals, each member of which is RIGHT on average 51% of the time, what is the probability in any particular instance that a 51% majority has the right answer? Well I aint no mathematician, and I don’t even intend on deriving the answer, I’ll just state this rather interesting fact. That probability is 69%. Meaning as a whole, the group of 1000 will get the RIGHT answer 69% of the time! If we raise total numbers voted to 10,000 then the probability of the group to get the RIGHT answer is an amazing 99.97%.

How it supports Plato is simply with the contrasting of “getting the right answer (in the above example)” with having majority of people prepared with “knowledge & reason” for a true democracy to prevail.
If the average competence of the group falls below 50%, then we are in danger that the above argument put forward by Condocert would reverse. If the argument is implied to be TRUE DEMOCRACY, then the reverse obviously would give way for COMMUNISM!

With that, I rest my case!

Election Poll

Better for a Leader to be Loved or Feared?

IN NOVEMBER OF LAST YEAR, there lived a man in an unknown part of the World, thinking to himself … “What have I done?” I had just quit my job at Activist PLC – the only company I had ever worked for-where I had enjoyed a long and successful career and had made lifelong friends. Now I am going to become the CEO of a troubled company in an industry I didn’t know anything about.

Rewind yourself exactly 540 years into the History.

On the 3rd of May 1469 the world saw the birth of Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, the founder of modern political science. Machiavelli posed the question of whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared, concluding that if you can’t be both (and few people can), being feared is more effective.

As it turns out, in 1517, Machiavelli wrote his famous dissertation on Power, titling it THE PRINCE. The philosophies set out in this work are today known as MACHIAVELLIANISM, which has been viewed and concluded by many as EVIL strategies to remain in power.

One of the famous quotes from The Prince include the following;

“…he (the leader of the state) must stick to the good so long as he can, but, being compelled be necessity, he must be ready to take the way of the evil.”(Machiavelli, 63)

Most of the commentaries on his work concludes that Machiavellianism is the political doctrine that denies the relevance of morality in political affairs and holds that craft and deceit are justified in pursuing and maintaining political power.”

Back to 2009 – the present time.

The CEO, having heard of Machiavellianism principles, wonders to himself, “Could this approach work in this troubled company”, “Could I become that leader who would rule with power and take this company out of troubled waters” and “Am I really gonna become the biggest failure this company has ever seen” …