Education The First Model of Good Governance

"If a dog dies of thirst at the bank of Euphrates, how shall I answer for that to Allah" was the basic idea of good governance, for the very first time in the human history introduced to the world by the Caliph Umar bin Khattab. Umar bin Khattab has always been a subject of executive education to learn good governance. Some Incidents behind his Establishment of good governance: a) Once he saw a woman not feeding her infant child, who was crying for milk. On enquiring she said, "The Caliph has announced stipend for every child who completes his or her feeding on mother's milk, so I have to make my child stop feeding before time so that he could get his stipend. Umar was shocked and regretted for his ordinance. He altered it by announcing stipend for every new born. This is was the first time in the history of mankind that the state took upon itself the responsibility of fulfilling the basic necessities of life. b) Once he saw a Jew begging. He asked him why he was begging. He replied, "To pay the tax on me". Umar was moved. He declared, "We have been getting advantage of their services when they were young, now when they are old we cannot forsake them." Not only he waived the tax on him but issued a regular stipend for him. This measure plied the foundation of pension. c) Once there came war spoils in Madinah, in which there were a number of shawls. Umar distributed them among the people and every body got one shawl. The next day Umar appeared wearing a dress made of two shawls. Umar in his address to the people said, "O People listen and obey." An ordinary man stood up and said, "We will not obey until you tell us how you are wearing two shawls while every one of us got one. Umar was known for his hot temper. But instead of shut him up he very calmly said, "My son will reply." His son turned to the man and said, "As you know my father is a tall man. One shawl was not enough to cover his body, so I gave him my shawl." On this clarification the man sat down saying, "now we listen and obey." This was the era when kings and monarchs across the world were held as son or avatar of God or gods, who had god's blood in their veins, that Umar established such a democratic atmosphere in his regime. The world took centuries to come to this point freedom, which Umar had established in 7th century A.D. d) He provided free and speedy justice to every one, regardless to one's status and means. Once a common Egyptian came in Madinah to see Umar with a complaint against the son of the governor of Egypt, he was granted justice in the presence of the governor and his son. His innovative mind kept on embellishing the foundation of the welfare state to model for all times to come. Some more of his initiatives, which taught the world good governance: 1. He issued fixed stipends to every person in the state. 2. He established a separate department of accountability. Muhammad bin Muslim was its head. The assets of newly appointed governor and official were noted down, and compared on his return after his tenure. Should some inconsistency be found, was asked for justification. If justification was found valid, he was allowed to keep the addition, if not, it was confiscated and attempt was made to return it to their lawful owners. 3. He created Majlis e Shura, in which selected knowledgeable and seasoned persons sat together for policy and decisions making. This gave the idea of modern parliament. Umar bin Khattab left a great legacy of good governance which will keep inspiring the world in the science and practice of good governance.