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Topic Discussion IV
Achieving Good Governance
Controlling Corruption, Improving
Administration
and Strengthening the Rule of Law
Room 1
(13 of 22 pages)
Chair: Thank you for sharing those experiences. They don't seem to be very
encouraging. But you've made a point that I think has been made by previous speakers and that is, in some instances
you have countries -- or in most countries you have corruption, irrespective of whether or not you have laws or
mechanisms, as if they aren't employed you won't the effect that you want. And it seems to me that we're coming
back to the issue -- sort of the intangible factor of having the political will to combat corruption in a meaningful
way. You also mentioned the issue of having a collection public commitment to pressuring the government officials
to take the issue seriously and I would ask whether or not there are any education campaigns in the countries along
these lines.
You also raised two other issues that I had suggested that we address during the course of this session, we have
58 minutes left, and that was modernizing the government bureaucracy and the issue of whether or not decentralization
has proven to be effective.
Jarhalla Omar: Thank you. My name Jarhalla Omar from Yemen. The corruption issue as being discussed by some
of the colleagues around the table is a universal topic and a universal issue and combating in corruption defers
from one country to another, according to the judicial system and the power of the public and the power of the
media and the political system, as well.
I think that the good government or the good governance is the governance that doesn't stay in office forever,
because staying in office forever continuously creates corruption and it creates also power, back power that defends
corruption and protects the corrupted people in society. The regular change of people in office or in the cabinet
would help limiting or even eliminating corruption.
The second issue which I want to talk of in this respect is the rule of law. It is an important role and an important
issue, but it cannot be applied until there is an independent judicial system. The main problem is the control
of the executive power and the cabinet under the other authorities in the country and it has -- it is the judge
and the persecutor at the same time and the defendant at the same time, so once the judge or the person in the
domain of defending the power of those people would be independent, it will help prevailing the law and the good
governance.
In our country in Yemen, there is talk of the corruption. We all talk of corruption, the opposition, the ruling
party, the media. Everybody talks of corruption, but attention should be drawn to two basic issues in this regard.
First of all, there are certain centers or authorities that cannot be tackled or cannot be discussed or nobody
can come closer to such authorities.
The second issue is that we haven't presented any corrupted person to -- or bring any corrupted person to court,
so it is part and parcel of the public life now, corruption, so this is one of the problems we really face. So
that's why I personally think that the issue starts first by the regular changing of the chief officials in power
and also to guarantee the independent way of having an independent judicial system that would split the powers
and also to have free press with no limitation, free media and free -- to have a transparency and also the right
of the people to have access to information and to be given information. It should be a right similar to any other
basic rights, the right to have access to information in order to involve the public opinion in decision making
and the auditing and control. The fifth if we call -- auditing, which should be jointly conducted by the parliament
and the people and also the opposition parties in doing so.
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