Even though the date of the general election is yet to be determined, we are seeing many candidates announcing their interest to run in the election and actively campaigning in their respective constituencies. Some wealthy business entrepreneurs had long been preparing for the big showdown by sponsoring various social activities – especially sporting events organized by youths – and by being surprisingly generous in their philanthropic activities. Now it’s time for us – voters – to evaluate the candidates and decide who the most suitable candidate is.
From what I have observed so far, still only few people seriously think about what the elected representatives do in the majlis when they decide the candidate to vote for. Many sees Majlis membership as a reward to the wealthy people who had used their fat wallets to help them in times of need and to those who financially backed them in sporting events and other similar social activities. In my view such people’s thinking is not wrong to some extent as we have to acknowledge and appreciate such actions of wealthy people. However I think we are going too far when we think such actions of them alone deserves them our vote to be majlis members.
If these people are helping the society just out of their love and affection to the society or out of their commitment to the development of the islands, then they will keep on helping us even if they are not elected to the majlis. Under such circumstances they don’t need to be rewarded by giving the chance to represent us in the majlis.
So while agreeing that the material support from a candidate in the past to the society and to the development of the island should be considered while deciding who is the best candidate, I think we should not take that as the sole criteria in evaluating our candidates. First of all we should think about the nature of the work they do in the majlis and see which candidate is more capable of undertaking works of that nature. We are not trying to elect welfare officers. We are trying to elect our representatives to one of the most respectable institutions in our nation and to an important pillar in a true democracy.
From what I have observed so far, still only few people seriously think about what the elected representatives do in the majlis when they decide the candidate to vote for. Many sees Majlis membership as a reward to the wealthy people who had used their fat wallets to help them in times of need and to those who financially backed them in sporting events and other similar social activities. In my view such people’s thinking is not wrong to some extent as we have to acknowledge and appreciate such actions of wealthy people. However I think we are going too far when we think such actions of them alone deserves them our vote to be majlis members.
If these people are helping the society just out of their love and affection to the society or out of their commitment to the development of the islands, then they will keep on helping us even if they are not elected to the majlis. Under such circumstances they don’t need to be rewarded by giving the chance to represent us in the majlis.
So while agreeing that the material support from a candidate in the past to the society and to the development of the island should be considered while deciding who is the best candidate, I think we should not take that as the sole criteria in evaluating our candidates. First of all we should think about the nature of the work they do in the majlis and see which candidate is more capable of undertaking works of that nature. We are not trying to elect welfare officers. We are trying to elect our representatives to one of the most respectable institutions in our nation and to an important pillar in a true democracy.
