Good Governance

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)". The term governance can apply to corporate, international, national, local governance  or to the interactions between other sectors of society.

The concept of "good governance" often emerges as a model to compare ineffective economies or political bodies with viable economies and political bodies. Because the most "successful" governments in the contemporary world are liberal democratic states concentrated in Europe and the Americas, those countries' institutions often set the standards by which to compare other states' institutions. Because the term good governance can be focused on any one form of governance, aid organizations and the authorities of developed countries often will focus the meaning of good governance to a set of requirement that conform to the organizations agenda, making "good governance" imply many different things in many different contexts.

Forms

In international affairs, analysis of good governance can look at any of the following relationships:

between governments and markets,

between governments and citizens,

between governments and the private or voluntary sector,

between elected officials and appointed officials,

between local institutions and urban and rural dwellers,

between legislature and executive branches, and

between nation states and institutions.

The varying types of comparisons comprising the analysis of governance in scholastic and practical discussion can cause the meaning of "good governance" to vary greatly from practitioner to practitioner.

Reform and standards

Three institutions can be reformed to promote good governance: the state, the private sector and civil society.However, amongst various cultures, the need and demand for reform can vary depending on the priorities of that country's society. A variety of country level initiatives and international movements put emphasis on various types of governance reform. Each movement for reform establishes criteria for what they consider good governance based on their own needs and agendas. The following are examples of good governance standards for prominent organizations in the international community.

IMF

The International Monetary Fund declared in 1996 that "promoting good governance in all its aspects, including by ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and accountability of the public sector, and tackling corruption, as essential elements of a framework within which economies can prosper." The IMF feels that corruption within economies is caused by the ineffective governance of the economy, either too much regulation or too little regulation. To receive loans from the IMF, countries must have certain good governance policies, as determined by the IMF, in place.

UN

The UN flag

The United Nations emphasizes reform through human development and political institution reform.[9] According to the UN, good governance has eight characteristics.Good governance is:

Consensus Oriented

Participatory

following the Rule of Law

Effective and Efficient

Accountable

Transparent

Responsive

Equitable and Inclusive

World Bank

Main article: Worldwide Governance Indicators

The World Bank is more concerned with the reform of economic and social resource control. In 1992, it underlined three aspects of society which they feel affect the nature of a country's governance:

type of political regime;

process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic and social resources, with a view to development; and

capacity of governments to formulate policies and have them effectively implemented.

International humanitarian funding

Good governance defines an ideal which is difficult to achieve in full, though it is something development supporters consider donating to causes. Major donors and international financial institutions, like the IMF or World Bank, are basing their aid and loans on the condition that the recipient undertake reforms ensuring good governance . This is mostly due to the close link between poor governance and corruption.

Democratization

Because concepts such as civil society, decentralisation, peaceful conflict management and accountability are often used when defining the concept of good governance, the definition of good governance promotes many ideas that closely align with effective democratic governance. Not surprisingly, emphasis on good governance can sometimes be equated with promoting democratic government.

Example

A good example of this close association, for some actors, between western democratic governance and the concept of good governance is the following statement made by Hillary Clinton in Nigeria on August 12, 2009:

Again, to refer to President Obama’s speech, what Africa needs is not more strong men, it needs more strong democratic institutions that will stand the test of time. (Applause.) Without good governance, no amount of oil or no amount of aid, no amount of effort can guarantee Nigeria’s success. But with good governance, nothing can stop Nigeria. It’s the same message that I have carried in all of my meetings, including my meeting this afternoon with your president. The United States supports the seven-point agenda for reform that was outlined by President Yar'Adua. We believe that delivering on roads and on electricity and on education and all the other points of that agenda will demonstrate the kind of concrete progress that the people of Nigeria are waiting for.

Role of Political Parties

Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have criticised past studies of good governance to place tool little importance on developing political parties, their capacity and their ties to their grassroots supporters. While political parties play a key role in well-functioning democracies, elsewhere political parties are disconnected from voters and dominated by elites, with few incentives or capabilities to increase the representation of other voters. Political parties can play a key role in pivotal moments of a state's development, either positively (e.g. organising and instigating violence) or negatively (e.g. by leading dialogue in a fractured society). While differences in the electoral system play their role in defining the number of parties and their influence once in power (proportional, first past the post, etc.), the funding and expertise available to parties also plays an important role not only in their existence, but their ability to connect to a broad base of support. While the United Nations Development Program and the European Commission have been providing funding to political parties since the 1990s, there are still calls to increase the support for capacity development activities including the development of party manifestos, party constitutions and campaigning skills.

Criticism

According to Sam Agere "The discretionary space left by the lack of a clear well-defined scope for what governance encompasses allows users to choose and set their own parameters."In the book, "Contesting 'good' governance" Eva Poluha and Mona Rosendahl contest standards that are common to western democracy as measures of "goodness" in government. After applying political anthropological methods, they feel that governments believe they apply the concepts of good governance when executing their activities, however, cultural differences result in conflict with the standards of the international community.

The Ahmadiyya Chanda Fraud

Which word is mentioned with the same frequency as the word “salah” in the Noble Qur’an? No prizes for guessing “Zakah“, unless you’re Ahmadiyya top brass, in which case you’d really want it to be “chanda“. And what is chanda aam, other than a 6.25% tax on your income? Well, it’s bid`ah of course, an innovation, as according to the Ahmadiyya, it’s obligatory. It’s an alteration of the shari`a and is therefore totally unIslamic.

But it’s actually worse than that. Why? Well there’s an argument that if chanda was used for the benefit of the membership, that it’s not such a bad thing, but is it for the benefit of the membership? That remains to be seen. Let’s now have a look at how the Ahmadiyya defines its activities for the benefit of the Charities Commission:

Of particular interest to us is the bottom line. “Assistance to deserving and needy”. I’m fairly certain that in years past, they had a provision for helping the deserving and needy amongst its membership, and given that they have Humanity First as an outfit that takes care of those last two lines, the question of redundancy for the purposes of deception does arise.

In Britain, the needy have access to Job Seeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Income Support. That is how the State looks after the needy. The State is of course funded by the taxpayer. That’s you and I. It’s by and large a very useful system, preventing the weakest members of society from total financial breakdown, without needlessly incentivising them to remain unemployed for long periods. It isn’t a massively dissimilar system to that of zakah in a truly Muslim society. As such, it should be praised.

Now I can tell you from personal experience that it’s very hard to live on Job Seeker’s Allowance. The way I managed in 2004 was to sell almost everything of value that I owned. I ate cheap, packet noodles for most meals and I just about got by. Alhamdulillah. If it hadn’t been for the odd bit of help from family and friends, it would have been impossible. I was in genuine need and the State stepped in and helped me. On a side note, I praise Allah for this period of my life. It was tough, but I learned a lot.

From previous experience, I didn’t expect the jama’at to assist. I was not in the least bitter about this, I just accepted it as the way things were. In the early 90s when I was previously in a tight spot, Mirza Tahir recommended that I buy some Premium Bonds when I asked him for a short-term, interest-free loan off the back of the thousands in chanda I had previously paid. Being the gullible cultee that I was, that’s exactly what I did. I bought an investment that is riba-based.

So in 2004, despite being by far the highest chanda contributor for years to the North London jama`at, at times happily paying £200 per month, I didn’t ask, and I didn’t expect. In fact, I never told the jama’at about my financial difficulties and just upped my involvement, doing more security duty and going to more meetings. I was in genuine need, but I relied on Allah (SWT). Thank God then, for the Welfare State.

Now, leaving aside the high number of Ahmadis who engage in paid cash work whilst claiming benefits (as my late father always lamented)there  is the bigger issue of the Ahmadiyya making chanda payments obligatory, whether you are employed or not. In fact, chanda is payable even if you are on benefits. That’s right. The Ahmadiyya taxes its poorest members. The Welfare State helps poor Ahmadis and the Ahmadiyya taxes them. Don’t believe me? The Khuddam web-site states clearly what “net income” means:

* In this context when we talk about net income it means the following:

1. Income from Employment and State Benefits

- This includes (i) Salaries and Wages, (ii) Pensions from former employer/s, (iii) State Pension, (iv) Child Benefit (v) Social Security Benefit including Unemployment Benefit, Income Support, Family Credit etc (vi) Any other regular income

I wonder how long before they close this site down? No worries. I have it archived and cached. I recommend that everybody else does the same.

They take money from the poor, the sick and the old. It’s so breathtakingly wrong, that you almost can’t believe your eyes. Other than the rank-and-file Ahmadi knowing about the reality of the situation, there is also a plainly visible chanda calculator. The gall of this is breathtaking. No Zakah calculator is available on any Ahmadiyya site that I am aware of, only a chanda calculator. Now, I don’t know how much JSA is nowadays, but in 2004 it was £55 per week. Based on that figure, The amounts payable are in the tables extracted from the site below:

(As a Khuddam (aged 15-40) you’d have to pay £277.58 per year. Note, the amount isobligatory and it’s about 10% of income! )

That is bread from the mouths of hungry children. If these poor people aren’t the ones who are supposed to be helped as “deserving and needy”, then who are?

One might ask how this collection is enforced? Most sincere Ahmadis know exactly how. They get an unbearable office-bearer (it used to be me!) calling them up demanding money. I don’t recall an office bearer ever calling up for anything other than “where’s your chanda?” or to advise of a meeting, where the question was asked. Direct debits are encouraged. Non-compliance can lead to the cruel practice of excommunication, which robs you of your community connections and is a pretty brutal effective boycott. In reality, this rarely happens, but the threat is usually sufficient to make people comply. This is not the issue though. The Ahmadiyya makes it very clear that chanda is obligatory on every earning and non-earning member. the British taxpayer is subsidising the expansion of the Ahmadiyya’s property base and poor Ahmadis are losing out.

Why are ordinary Ahmadis not allowed to say anything about this? Simply because dissent within the Ahmadiyya is ruthlessly suppressed. If you sound like you might be turned into a troublemaker, you’re excommunicated. People are so enmeshed in the cult that they daren’t say anything in public. That’s where I come in. I’m not saying anything more than what I know a lot of Ahmadis are thinking, and talking about privately, but are too frightened to complain about. Believe it or not, I am the voice of the downtrodden Ahmadi, who has my complete sympathies.

The operation of zakah is not always clear to the lay-person, but there are some easy to understand precepts. Zakah is collected from eligible Muslims and is then used to help the needy. In terms of utility, there is a lot of overlap between zakah and chanda, which rather begs the question of why the Ahmadiyya couldn’t function with just zakah. Obviously, with a Welfare State in Britain, Muslim organisations don’t give money to everyone on JSA, butneither do they ask for collections or donations! In fact, if you have debt, or even if you don’t and your income is low, you pay no zakah! That is Islam. Ahmadiyya is not Islam. It is a heretical movement that taxes the poor to promote itself. Why take money from the British taxpayer to fund your expansion? It is outright theft!

Ahmadiyya is not just a fringe movement with questionable theology, it is a de facto cult that keeps its victims mentally, spiritually and financially enslaved. It’s about time it got investigated.