murchr wrote:When will we start evaluating people according to their expertise instead of tribes or regional balance? Is it the tribe that receives the salary? Who has ever gone to a hospital in pain and asked for a doc from their tribe?
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IMO, the drafters of the constitution were very well meaning in imputing the 30% rule on public appointments. However, there was no mention of merit nor practicality of its implementation. For instance if we profiled the universities enrollment today, I guess 5 tribes will dominate 85% of the places. Secondly, if we were look at the relative economic (read GDP) contribution of the tribes then we'd see a similar correlation. the top 5 would dominate again.
I submit, that this balancing act is a fallacy as it assumes that the tribe benefits from the appointment of one man or woman from its own. @Machr, the salary goes to the individual. So it is only the competition at the highest level (political elites) that fuels this pugnacious feeling that ethnic appointments are necessarily beneficial to the entire ethnic group.
That said, it is imperative that we correct what went wrong, by giving opportunities for advancement to the so called "marginalzed" groups so that 20 year from today the debate about appointment revolves around merit and not ethnicity. These opportunities may come in form of subsidized education and affirmative action to ensure that the groups that feel left out have an opportunity to catch up and not mere ethnic elites/chieftains who benefit in the name of entire groups.