Day: December 6, 2012

President Waheed meets US ambassador and British high commissioner in Male’

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan yesterday held separate meetings with both the Ambassador of the United States accredited to the Maldives Michelle J Sison and the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Maldives John Rankin in Male’.

According to the Presidents’ Office, Dr Waheed spoke to both diplomats about the current progress towards scheduling presidential elections for next year. The US was also thanked for the assistance it provided in investigating the murder of MP Dr Afrasheem Ali.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Rankin used his meeting to stress that the UK would continue to support political stability in the Maldives, while reiterating hopes that elections in 2013 were carried out “smoothly and independently”.

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Maldives omitted from 2012 global corruption index due to “insufficient data”

The Maldives has been omitted from Transparency International’s global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2012 after it failed to receive required data from one of the three sources used to determine how it fares against other nations in terms of transparency.

The CPI ranks 176 nations in terms of their perceived corruption. States such as Denmark and Singapore rate at the top, while nations such as Zimbabwe and Somalia fall at the bottom of the index.

Last year the Maldives found itself placed 134 on the CPI, a slight improvement on 2010, despite continued fears of a “systemic failure to address corruption” by Transparency Maldives, the NGO’s local affiliate.

Transparency Maldives Project Director Aiman Rasheed told Minivan News that the Maldives’ failure to be included within the 2012 CPI “would raise a few eyebrows” internationally.

However Rasheed said that he did not expect there to be a significant detrimental impact in how the nation was already perceived by financiers, investors and other development groups.

“We have been included [on the CPI] for the last few years in 2011, 2010 and 2009, so I don’t think the ranking for this year will have been a big departure from these,” he said, adding that the challenges facing the country as a result of corruption still existed in 2012.

Rasheed said the CPI was a composite index based on information from a number of sources including the World Bank. He explained that of the three sources on which the Maldives’ CPI position was determined, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) had this year not supplied the required information needed by Transparency Maldives to compile its findings.

“We don’t have any reason for why this has happened and I would not wish to speculate,” he said.

However, a source with knowledge of the matter told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that there could be a number of reasons for the ADB failing to provide information on the Maldives.  These reasons were said to include a possible failure by the government over the last 12 months to provide statistics and figures to the ADB.

The ADB was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press.

Questioned as to how the country’s omission from the 2012 index would reflect on Transparency Maldives’ own work, Project Director Rasheed said it would be vital to clearly communicate with international groups the reasons for not being included this year.

“It does present us with some challenges. We have to hope people understand that there was insufficient information received,” he said.

Transparency Maldives last year alleged that the Maldives continued to be rated as having more perceived corruption that many other neighbouring countries, a situation linked to what it claimed was a lack of accountability and transparency across the country’s judiciary, parliament and members of the executive. The NGO maintained that last December that there remained a “systemic failure” within the national mechanisms established to bring accountability to the branches of state.

Just last month, a senior legal official who served under the current and former administrations has claimed the country’s legal system is wide open to corruption by allowing individual judges to schedule court hearings at their whim.

The legal figure, who has been involved in some of the country’s highest profile cases heard in recent years, told Minivan News it was “quite evident” that the lack of a centralised system for scheduling legal hearings was not only resulting in massive inefficiency, but also allowing for corruption within the country’s court system.

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MNDF officer arrested in connection with Dr Afrasheem’s murder

A Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officer has been arrested in connection with the murder of MP and religious scholar Dr Afrasheem Ali.

Although police and MNDF did not initially confirm the arrest, local media confirmed the report through the defence lawyers of the MNDF officer arrested.

Police Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef told Minivan News that police policy when providing information about Dr Afrasheem’s death was to keep all information until a next press briefing.

The MNDF has meanwhile confirmed that a MNDF officer was arrested earlier last week.

The MNDF told the local press that it was not the military’s policy to provide information on the charges, but said it would cooperate with the police in their investigation.

Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz has claimed that the murder of MP for Ungoofaaru constituency Dr Afrasheem Ali was a well-planned murder and insisted it was politically motivated.

The Commissioner alleged that the assassins were offered MVR 4 million (US$260,000).

In a presentation shown during a press conference this week, Riyaz claimed that altogether 11 suspects were arrested with three of them later released.

He said that 200 items were collected as forensic and digital evidence.

“Over 500 hours of CCTV footage have been analysed, more than 100 people have been interviewed and about 13,000 phone call recordings have been analysed out of which 12,000 were from one single tower,” Riyaz said.

Afrasheem was killed on October 1. His wife discovered the body lying on the staircase of their home.

Dr Afrasheem was elected to parliament in 2009 as a member of the then-opposition Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP). Following the opposition’s split, Afrasheem sided with the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and faded into the political background.

Widely considered an Islamic moderate, Dr Afrasheem took outspoken and controversial positions on issues such as the permissibility of playing music, and praying next to the deceased.

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“Maldives can do whatever it wants”: Chief Justice of Singapore

The Supreme Court in Singapore has overturned an injunction blocking the Maldivian government from voiding its concession agreement with GMR and evicting the airport developer by midnight tomorrow.

“The Maldives government has the power to do what it wants, including expropriating the airport,” declared Chief Justice of Singapore, Sundaresh Menon.

The Maldives appealed the stay order which was granted after cabinet on November 27 declared the country’s concession agreement with the developer ‘void ab initio’, or invalid from the outset, and gave the company seven days to hand over the airport to the state-owned Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

The government rejected the injunction, with President Mohamed Waheed’s Special Advisor telling reporters: “I believe that the Singapore court interpreted the law wrong. We cannot wait for a hearing of the appeal. What I am saying is there is no damage to GMR but we face damages by not terminating the agreement.”

GMR dug in its heels, clinging to the injunction, with the backing of the Indian government, which urged the government to take “no arbitrary and coercive measures pending the outcome of the legal process underway.”

CEO of GMR Male International Airport, Andrew Harrison, told Minivan News on Thursday afternoon that it was “too early to say” whether the withdrawal of the injunction meant company was now obliged to hand the airport over to MACL before the deadline on Friday.

“We are waiting to review the full judgement, which is currently being written up. We’ve always been advocates of following the law. We will have a staff briefing tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

MACL meanwhile released two statements claiming that it had met with airlines operating at the airport and advised them that it would be taking over the airport from midnight at December 7. Details of the meeting were not provided.

MACL’s website remains inaccessible a week after it was targeted by Indian hackers, who replaced it with the slogan: “If you don’t know how to secure a website, can you run an Airport securely, MACL?”

GMR held a press briefing for journalists in Delhi yesterday.

Asked about whether GMR had felt the involvement of another country such as China in the development of the Male’ airport, the company’s CFO Sidharth Kapur said “I can’t say that for sure. But, looking at the political situation and political framework in Maldives, I can’t rule out anything.”

GMR had received no response from any attempt to communicate with President Mohamed Waheed, he said.

President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad meanwhile told Indian newspaper The Hindu today that after reclaiming the airport, the government would again float a tender for its modernisation “and get more parties in to take the work forward.”

“The tender will be floated by the Maldives government in a transparent manner and after consulting investors. The mistakes made during the float of the tender which has been cancelled will not be repeated,” Imad told the paper.

The Waheed government has previously accused the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank entity, of being “irresponsible” and “negligent” in advising the former government of President Mohamed Nasheed in the concession of INIA

The IFC has denied the accusations, stating that its advice was geared towards achieving the “objective of upgrading the airport and ensuring compliance with applicable international regulations” and providing the Maldives government “with the maximum possible revenue”.

“A competitive tender was organised with the objective of selecting a world-class, experienced airport operator, who would rehabilitate, develop, operate and maintain the airport,” said an IFC spokesperson, in September.

Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela has separately appealed to China for financial and technical support, telling journalists from the Chinese government’s authorised web portal China.org.cn that the Maldives “needs funds for infrastructure building.”

“We are obviously in need of funds and technical assistance as we do not have the financial means, the technical know-how or the capacity to address these huge climate change issues,” said Mariyam, in an appeal for assistance with climate adaptation.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed, under whose administration the concession agreement with GMR was signed, called on the government to reconsider its decision to take over the airport and “pull back from the brink and cease its counter-productive behaviour, which is damaging the nation’s economy and bilateral relations.”

Nasheed said the Maldives was “rapidly developing a reputation among foreign investors akin to Zimbabwe, where government might is right and contract law counts for nothing.”

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Maldivian government appeals stay order as GMR eviction deadline nears

The Maldivian government is appealing an injunction granted by the Singapore High Court halting its eviction of Indian infrastructure giant GMR from the Maldives pending the outcome of arbitration proceedings.

Minivan News understands that the hearing began at 10:00am this morning Singapore time, and is expected to take most of the day.

The government at the time denounced the injunction as an imposition on the country’s sovereignty. At a press conference hours after the stay order was granted by the Singapore High Court, Defence and Acting Transport Minister Mohamed Nazim pledged the government would “continue the airport takeover and Insha Allah from next Saturday onwards [the state-owned] Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) will be running the airport.”

“The government remains firm and committed towards implementing its decision to terminate the agreement. We will not reconsider it,” he said at the time.

The deadline for the government’s eviction of the Indian airport developer is midnight tomorrow (December 7).

GMR on Tuesday “categorically” refuted claims by the government to international media that it had agreed to vacate Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), following a meeting between airport CEO Andrew Harrison and Defence and Acting Transport

Harrison told Minivan News that Nazim had said that “no force would be used to take over the airport” and that “media reports that the MNDF would take over the airport are untrue.”

“Our position, which I communicated to them, remains crystal clear,” said Harrison. “The Singapore High Court has issued an injunction which clearly prevents MACL or the Government of Maldives or any of its agents from taking any action that interferes with GMIAL operating the airport.

“The injunction clearly prevents them from taking the action outlined in their notice issued to us stating that the airport would be taken over at the end of the seven day period. We remain resolute in our position and there is no question of an offer being made and certainly no question of any alleged offer being accepted as we will simply not agree to our rights nor the injunction being undermined in any way.”

The Civil Aviation Authority has however informed the developer that its aerodrome certificate will be withdrawn at 23:59 on December 7, without which GMR has acknowledged it cannot operate the airport. The impending stalemate potentially has ramifications for tourism disruption at the start of the peak season.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Affairs Abdullah Mohamed was reported in local media as telling a press conference yesterday that “GMR has the opportunity to seek fair compensation if they are not satisfied with the government’s decision.”

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has meanwhile issued a statement calling on the Maldivian government to allow the “legal processes involved in the GMR case to take their own course based on the contractual obligations of the parties involved. The Maldivian government should not allow the situation to go out of hand.”

“In this context, it is expected that no arbitrary and coercive measures should be taken pending the outcome of the legal process underway. Resort to any such actions would inevitably have adverse consequences for relations between India and the Maldives,” the MEA Spokesperson said.

“We are concerned over reports from the Maldives about continuing violence and intimidation against elected representatives and expressions of radical sentiments. There is need to ensure that the rule of law is upheld and principles and tenets of democracy are maintained. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

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