Proceedings in the Majlis were brought to a premature conclusion for the second time in 10 days after pro-government parties proposed and passed a resolution assembling a temporary committee to investigate the alleged illegal actions of former President Mohamed Nasheed.
The motion to form a seven man committee was passed before the session was halted after vehement protests from the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) parliamentary caucus.
MDP spokesman Hamed Abdul Ghafoor described the scene within the chamber: “The deputy speaker looked visibly shocked when the MDP started shouting ‘arrest the speaker, arrest the speaker’. Then they began to shout ‘arrest Gasim, arrest Gasim’”.
Ibrahim Gasim is the leader of the Jumhooree Party (JP), one of whose members, Abdulla Jabir, proposed yesterday’s resolution, according to Ghafoor.
Yesterday, MDP members were invited to sit on the proposed committee, with the local media reporting that they had refused the chance.
Ghafoor, however, claims that the PPM had intentionally selected MDP members who were absent from the Majlis.
The two cases against Nasheed, concerning the arrest of Chief Justice Abdullah Mohamed and the alleged discovery of alcohol containers at the former president’s residence are currently with the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office.
The Deputy Prosecutor General Hussein Shameem said that a decision on these two cases was expected by the end of next week.
When asked if he felt the Majlis resolution would encroach on the work of the PG’s office, Shaheem replied: “The procedure is within the Majlis’ regulations – it would not be a criminal investigation. The findings would not come to us but will be for the Majlis.”
Deputy Leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Umar Naseer told local media earlier this week that he was confident the PG would ensure Nasheed would be jailed before the next elections.
Later the same day, speaking before an audience in Washington DC, Nasheed commented that there was always somebody talking about putting him back behind bars.
Ghafoor stated his belief that Nasheed was keen to have his day in court to defend himself over the arrest of Abdulla Mohamed.
“Nasheed is intending to defend himself – he wants to. It will be a landmark case, “ said Ghafoor.
When asked about the utility of such an investigation alongside the work of the PG, Ghafoor suggested the proposition may have been for publicity purposes.
He suggested that pro-government parties may begin to target independent institutions such as the PG’s office, describing this as the “reverberations of the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI)”, which he is confident will find the February transfer of power to have been illegal.
The January 16 arrest of the judge, who had been accused by the Home Minister of “taking the entire criminal justice system in his fist”, raised the intensity of the protests against the Nasheed government
These protests culminated in a police mutiny on February 7 and the resignation of Nasheed.
The judicial crisis was sparked after Abdulla Mohamed filed a case in the Civil Court granting him an injunction halting further investigation by the Juducial Services Commission (JSC) into his alleged misdeeds.
This was followed by a High Court ruling against a police summons on January 16, which prompted police to request that the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) take the judge into custody.
The crisis prompted the Foreign Ministry to request international assistance in reforming the judiciary.
The judge was released from detention immediately after Nasheed’s resignation and no
Local media reported that the Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim said that the party leaders will have to meet to discuss the failure to assign members to the committee.
At the time of press, spokesmen from the government aligned PPM and Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) were not responding to calls.
Similarly, Minivan News unable to illicit a response from Dr Ibrahim Didi, President of the JP, whom a JP spokesman had assured would be willing to comment on yesterday’s resolution.
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My dear fellow citizens. This country is a joke and we the public are the jokers. Look into the history of this Nation from time immemorial, political leaders keep playing the same game, each one thinks he is smarter than the other, but the end result remains the same. Unfortunately this country will remain the same without much progress, we all will die as our fathers died. Because this is how we Maldivians want this country to be. We are ignorant, lazy, unthankful BUT ambitious and dreaming people. We EXPECT things to happen and we complain when it does not happen.. what a government, what a parliament etc we have. Yet we are proud to be Maldivians, a country where there is NO 100 million RF in their National Safe...a Nation CLAIMED to be rich in FANTACY but poor in REALITY...
Seriously my dear monkeys, is this the most pressing item to be on parliaments agenda?
The whole country is gone!!! Best advice is to leave this god forsaken land for good!
Monkeys are funny. Maldivians are monkeys. So, Maldivians are funny. This makes sense. The argument is according to Aristotelian logic.
We are neither monkeys nor comic geniuses.
Constitutional violations can and should be addressed by our newly formed democratic institutions to uphold the rule of law and strengthen democracy in our country.
Especially when it comes to gross violations such as the arbitrary arrest and detention of a senior State official , arbitrary arrest and detention of political leaders and serious attempts to constrain political space for the opposition.
If we are to endorse any such actions for the sake of expressing support for our personal heroes then I am truly sorry to say that we are nowhere near prepared to accept several of the concepts introduced in the 2008 Constitution.
There is essentially no problem with that. However political leaders selectively call for such rights as is most convenient for them at the time and thereby prevent us from making any real effort at articulating a clear and effective system of values to govern us for a longer period of time.
We are a society in flux and extremely unstable. Yet we have a rare opportunity at this crucial juncture to come together and iron out a plan for peaceful political activity within a framework that accommodates a multiplicity of competing interests. Yet the major players on either side seem to be veering towards a winner-takes-all strategy.
Nasheed flocking to his allies in the West in efforts to downplay his failures and emphasize the slip-ups by the current ruling coalition.
Qayyoom strengthening ties with his allies in the Middle-East while directing his local supporters to amp up efforts against Nasheed supporters across the country.
By the look of things these ideals will come to loggerheads with Nasheed using his support abroad to blacklist this country while Qayyoom with greater local support tries to target Nasheed supporters with ever-increasing venom.
The Monkeys of the illegal coup government are SO PREDICTABLE!
The only way they can beat Nasheed is to stop him from competeing and kill democracy at the same time.
DISGUSTING!!!
These morons are elected to make legislation that helps to improve the lives of poor fisherman of this Banana republic. But this assembly has become Tom and Jerry show, always trying to kick some one back. This is typical fisherman type, no hope with these semi evolved apes.
Look at Waheed in all this: he can say: "ooh, the Majlis moved against Nasheed, I have no seats in the Majlis." Then he can say: "ooh, now the case is with the courts, I have no influence over the judiciary." Then he can say: "ooh, Nasheed has been convicted but out of the goodness of my traitor's heart, I shall pardon him."
Of course, if this scenario happens, Nasheed will be debarred from standing in the next elections. Which is the whole point of this charade in the first place.
Maldives has reached a stage whereby public security and safety of people can no longer be ensured by an elected Government. The country has now past the tipping point.
No matter who (MDP or PPM), is elected by referendum, the other parties will not accept and most certainly would stage protests. UN/EU intervention to mediate in the next election, just like in Kenya, is most certain.
Maldives has to be run as a 'nanny state' by the security forces. But who is in charge of the forces?
Singapore is the best example of a 'nanny state'.
Great comment 'tsk tsk'.
Rest of the comments by MDP apologists calling our elected representatives 'monkeys' show their true colour; undemocratic and unable to digest anything else except yellow.
Funny how tsk tsk believes Gayyoom have grassroots support while Nasheed have "western" support. Literate as it appears, a fundamental flaw is the deranged (denial!) speculation on grassroots attitude. I have reason to believe President Nasheed enjoys both grassroots and "western" support. Gayyoom's problem is he has was never been ready for a free and fair election simply because he is a dictator by design.
The monkeys are yellows parties and chimpanzee is Nasheed.
The dictator Nasheed need to be jailed for the crimes that he had committed and the money that he had robbed in last three years.
Nsheed is not above the law and he also need to be questions for his actions and if he is found guilty then, he should also be deserved to be punished. Our constitution is not only applicable to people other than yellow party members or only to poors but it is for the whole nations.
Anni had taken huge amount of money from GMR deal and he need to be arrested and need to be jailed for his life.
In my opinion Maldivian should leave this country before it's too late, cox we won't be able to develop our kids brain in this climate. In the other hand Golhabo's family want to distroy our future, if not qaulity ppl gonna distroy Golhaabo's family, they got enough money to play with uncivilized ppl in Maldives. This country is not safe for ppl to live any more.
tsk tsk, why don't you just come out and say secularism is the answer instead of repeating the same garbage everyone already knows?
@tsk tsk so the thousands of people marching on the streets of Male are foreigners? Dude you need your eyes checked n while at it park your pseudo intellectual anaylitic garbage for a while since you are unable to give objective summery of events to the point of being blind to reality.
Tsk Tsk
I agree with you that "Constitutional violations can and should be addressed by our newly formed democratic institutions to uphold the rule of law and strengthen democracy in our country".
I also believe that until and when we have Gayoom in jail this will never happen.
Because the culture of corruption, brutality and indifference to human rights is so ingrained in the people who served Gayoom that they will not accept the leadership of anyone who stands for democracy, human rights and integrity.
This is what we saw on February 7.
I believe as many of us do, that the source of all the problems we have today lie in the failure of the Peoples Majlis not to hold Gayoom accountable for the injustices we experienced during his rule. It was the representatives of the people who are accountable for restoring integrity in government.
Sadly, the Peoples Majlis failed us.
If we are to blame anyone for this, blame ourselves. Wasn't it we who selected the mahujans and the servants of Gayoom to parliament yet again and gave them the numbers in Majlis to strangle the Executive?
Much is being said of President Nasheed being too "hiththiri" and his reluctance to bring Gayoom to court.
I ask you, was it because he was "hiththiri" or because he was smart enough not to get entangled in a batlle he just could not win?
I am sure you will agree with me that there really was little President Nasheed could do, even if he wished in the face of no agreement from a Majlis dominated for much of its life by Gayoom supporters, a judiciary packed with his people, and a civil service commission and the top management of the civil service led by Gayoom loyalists.
We must recognise the reality that charges against Gayoom for the blatant robbery of our financial reserves and assets may never be laid as he has outsmarted us by burying every evidence for what he took from us.Most of what he took from us and what his comrades took from us is invested in the economy of countries that now protect him.And he has collected powerful friends in the 30 years he ruled the Maldives. I understand that even Mahathir from Malaysia is implicated in the Oil for Burma scam.
I doubt if we will ever get any of that money back.
What can do, and must do is make sute this does not happen again, that Gayoom will never, ever, be given the opportunity to rape our nation and destroy our nation the way he did.
How do we do that? Peoples Power. The Peoples Majlis.
The Peoples Majlis must create a structure asap to give us the opportunity to take Gayoom and his associates to court. If they don’t, we will just have to wait a bit longer and make sure all those in parliament who oppose such a move do not get elected again.
Tsk, Tsk, don’t you worry, no matter how long we have to wait; Gayoom will have to pay for the crimes he has committed.
And constitutional violations can and will be addressed by our newly formed democratic institutions to uphold the rule of law and strengthen democracy in our country.
if you went out on Friday afternoon to Majeedheemagu you will see the thousands of people marching calling for what you have said here.
How about you join them and get a taste of it at grassroots?
When are you going to take a stand for democracy?
mohamed. Yes MDP has lot of members and MDP is the most active polical party in this country and MDP is the most violent party also.
Both Mauomoon and Anni are dictators and both had robbed this country and both need to be put in jail for life . They need to be sentenced to life imprisonment for what they had done.
We need go away from Maumoon and Anni cult and then only this country will move in the right direction.
To eradicated corruption , it is going to take some time but one need to start working honestly to improve it.
Current parliament is a disgracefully failed parliament.
If the parliament wants to do anything to the people they elected, queue up time lines since Gayyoom took office to the day Nasheed left office, investigate their wrong doings without prejudice. Punish them accordingly and do justice!
Be patriotic for an instance, think of the future of the nation!
Gayyoom could never be an angel, neither could Nasheed.
But do justice without siding!
Investigating only Nasheed and his wrong doing will make thing more dirtier!
@mode
True. No need to chose the lesser of two evils M or N while there are many other letters in the alphabet.
An investigation, prosecution and a sentence to put Nasheed in jail before 2013 elections maybe the fantasy of the band of leaders governing this country today, however, they forget that Maldivians are no longer a flock of sheep to herd as Gayoom pleases.
Inciting violence, using religion to instill fear to deteriorate the "civil"ness of our society maybe what the old regime desires at this point so that they can assume absolute control.
but they forget, the people now have new tools in hand - freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, freedom of press, political pluralism, civil liberties, stronger human rights than we had ever before.
if Nasheed is sentenced to trying to get rid a known and documented pedophile judge, the people will call for equality before the law and exercise their right to petition all those who committed outrageous crimes of corruption, misused powers while in office and in many cases day light robbery of state funds during Gayooms regime.
But the way the judiciary is structured, prosecuting corrupt people like Yaameen and Gayoom is close to impossible. And that is why perhaps Nasheed should be declared a hero for boldly trying to defend the sanctity and integrity of the judiciary while he was in power.
I fully support and endorse a president who has gone "out of the chart" to reform a judiciary that is biased and corrupt.
Investigate, Prosecute and Jail Gayoom, Yaamen, their brothers, sisters, half brothers, half sisters, friends, allies and associates for 30 years of crime against the people. Then i will accept even the hint of an investigation for what Nasheed may or may not have done to violate the constitution of this country.
It is such hypocrisy and ludicrous when Yaameen, Gayoom and his cronies call for Nasheed to be sentenced when they know and everyone else knows that they are corrupt to the bone when they pretend to be save this country from Nasheed's government.
Maldivian Drug Party ( MDP ) leader will be punished soon.