Need to develop a proper justice in Maldives
Politics aside, we can imagine what can worry most people on a day-to-day basis—the crime rate. The increase in the trafficking of heroin and hash oil, theft, gang violence, murders and infanticides. The conventional wisdom would call for reforms in law enforcement: increased police recruitment, harsher tactics, more sting operations, and harsher sentences on paper. However, reforms are just window dressing for a broken system—what we would need, I believe, is a proper set of legal codes that live up to international standards. We would have to bring the, yet infantile, Majlis to proper use and write up Acts on criminal procedure, a penal code, evidence law and juvenile rights.
The standardization of the Maldivian penal code and criminal procedure (with specifications on mandatory sentences, for instance) would allow us to categorize all possible crimes by principles and heuristics thereby preventing the need from passing individual laws for specific crimes. The formulation of a uniform ethical procedure would grant the courts greater independence in sentencing criminals based on their own understanding and comprehension of these principles.
Most criminal offenders in the Maldives are under the age of eighteen. In the current system, minors exist in a legal “grey area” such that there are currently no special laws or principles for juvenile offenders, nor is there proper detention facilities tailored for their rehabilitation.
There have been improvements lately, I admit. Although up until 2008, the Maldivian criminal procedure exclusively depended upon police reports: currently we have begun to see the introduction of material evidence and facts in the courtroom. A proper evidence law, I believe, would allow us to standardize this use and allow all the courts to follow, as stated before, a uniform ethical procedure while remaining, in spirit, independent.
After the popular movement for a change in administration, the current state of affairs in Maldivian politics finds us attempting to set up a “proper democracy”: specifically by means of better freedoms of expression and the press as per the new Constitution. While I do not doubt the sincerity in the current administration's intentions, we must consider the problems ahead and have realistic expectations of ourselves. History teaches us that countries have taken years, if not decades, to properly transition into what we can consider a “proper democracy”--riots, rebellions, nepotism and flights of corruption to blame for the delay. However, history can always teach us that we need not wait decades to see the pleasant change that most of us voted for: we can do this quicker and better with a good judiciary. If we wish to realistically expect a better economy and greater freedoms, we need to start with rebuilding the justice system.