President Mohamed Nasheed has said the country’s crippling budget deficit of 26.5 percent will drop to 15 percent in the upcoming 2011 state budget, and potentially 10 percent by the end of the year.
The government’s aim had been 18 percent, Haveeru reported the President as saying following the laying of the foundation stone for 1000 flats in Hulhumale’ last week.
Nasheed noted that when the present government came to power in 2008, “the deficit was 44 percent compared to net national productivity.”
The government is under considerable pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce the deficit, and earlier this month delayed its third disbursement to the country because of the government’s inaction on the matter this year, pending the release of the 2011 budget.
While the IMF program itself is worth US$92.5 million, other foreign donors and investors consider the IMF’s opinion of a country’s fiscal policies when making decisions.
While acknowledging the political pressures faced by the government during 2010, particularly regarding its ability to cut a crippling public sector wage bill which increased 400 percent between 2004 and 2009, the IMF has stated throughout 2011 that the country is “living beyond its means.”
In June 2010, the IMF published its Country Report for the Maldives, and calculated that if the government continued to pursue economic reform at its current pace and policy, the country’s fiscal deficit would increase by one percent of GDP in 2010 and 4.5 percent of GDP in 2011.
Attempts to increase revenue by passing a Business Profit Tax bill has been obstructed in parliament by vested business interests, while the Civil Service Commission has taken the Finance Ministry to court over its refusal to restore a 15 percent salary cut.
The forthcoming 2011 budget, explained leader of the Maldives IMF delegation Rodrigo Cubero, was “a crucial opportunity for the government to implement the austerity measures much needed. At the moment, the current policy stance is not sustainable.”
The government has not yet revealed how the 2011 budget intends to reduce the deficit by such a margin as stated by the President.
Last year, parliament’s Finance Committee, headed by the opposition-aligned People’s Alliance MP Ahmed Nazim, amended the budget to include an additional Rf 800 million (US$62 million) in order to aid the restoration of civil servant salaries following a 15 percent pay cut, and subsidies for sectors ranging from fishing and agriculture to private media.
Finance Minister Ali Hashim had not responded to Minivan News at time of press.
The deal between the Maldives government and Apollo Hospitals to manage Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) has fallen through, local media reported Health Minister Dr Aminath Jameel as saying on Tuesday.
“We had to terminate the agreement because they [Apollo] were unable to meet the terms and conditions stated in the agreement. Every agreement specifies deadlines to settle certain matters,” Dr Jameel reportedly said.
“We have also informed them [Apollo] that the agreement has been terminated.”
Senior staff at the Health Ministry and Chair of the Privatisation committee Mahmoud Razee told Minivan News they had not been informed of the deal’s collapse and had only heard media reports. Minivan News contacted Dr Jameel but she was unable to confirm the reports as she was “travelling in the islands.”
The government reportedly terminated the agreement with Apollo after the Indian hospital giant was unable to invest the agreed amount to develop the hospital.
Apollo had estimated that it would cost US$25 million to bring the hospital up to global standards. The group also revealed intentions to make 80 percent of its employees Maldivian over a 15 year period, although it was unclear as to how this would be achieved given the lack of medical higher education facilities in the country.
Apollo planned to offer orthopedics, cardiology, gastro, neurology, acute care and trauma specialities in the first phase of the privatisation deal, as well as set up and operate a cardiology unit within the year, the Health Ministry stated when the deal was first announced in January.
CEO of IGMH Zubair Mohamed was not responding to calls at time of press, but expressed concern when the deal stalled in July, stating that uncertainly over the arrangement was making “little investments” more difficult.
“Apollo is an expert group and would bring a lot of benefits to the people,” he told Minivan News at the time. “They have the capacity to raise existing standards. But even if they do not come we will continue trying to improve services.”
However the agreement stalled after the private healthcare giant failed to submit a required operational management agreement by the July 2010 deadline. Both parties were required to cement the deal and sign the 12 year management agreement by the end of July.
The runway at Male International Airport is being repaired, according to Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), in a bid to solve problems of water retention. Managing Director Mohamed Ibrahim told Haveeru that an airline running Boeing 777 planes had complained of damage to the wheels, and had brought in a Boeing team to analyse the problem. The repair will be carried out overnight for the next two days, from midnight to 8am.
“We are repairing the touchdown area where the water retention occurs. We closed the runway early October for repairs. But there is a substantial area that still needs repairs,” he told Haveeru. “It will be problematic to close the runway for many days at once. Internationally runways are repaired by rescheduling the flights when the traffic is lowest,” he noted.
“We have to correct this problem as soon as possible. In the future, we will also have to re-tar the entire runway. That has to be done once every 15 years. It was last done at the beginning of 90s,” he told Haveeru.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described as “absolutely false” claims made this week by opposition-aligned People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim, that the institution had suspended its support of the Maldives because its program was not being followed.
MP Nazim, who is Deputy Speaker and also Chair of Parliament’s Finance Committee, told Minivan News yesterday that the leader of the Maldives IMF delegation, Rodrigo Cubero, “said so in a meeting on November 4.”
“I think [the suspension] will make it difficult for other international financial institutions and donors to entertain the requests of the Maldivian government in the future,” Nazim said.
“Even though the amount of the IMF program is only US$92.5 million, adherence to the IMF program would have led to comfort letters from the IMF to other donors assuring them of the sound fiscal policies of the government.”
“Absolutely false”
At a press conference held in the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) on Monday, Cubero stated that media reports based on the claims were “absolutely false. That is not the position of the IMF. What we have said is that the disbursement under the second review of the program has been delayed. We have not suspended our program or our relations with the country, and we continue strongly engage with the authorities to complete the second review, and put policies in place to restore fiscal sustainability and economic prosperity in the Maldives.”
The ‘delay’, Cubero explained, was due to the “fiscal slippages” caused by insufficient progress towards reducing the wage bill and passing tax legislation – most significantly, the Business Profit Tax.
Civil Service without a smile
The country’s financial deficit has exploded on the back of a 400 percent increase in the government’s wage bill between 2004 and 2009, with tremendous growth between 2007 and 2009.
On paper, the government increased average salaries from Rf 3000 to Rf 11,000 and boosted the size of the civil service from 24,000 to 32,000 people – 11 percent of the total population of the country, almost triple that of a comparative island nation such as the Caribbean.
Both these measures – salary increases and civil service hires – doubled government spending from 35 percent of GDP to 60 percent from 2004 to 2006.
Nonetheless, despite the fourfold increase in salaries, a legal scrap this year between the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Finance Ministry following a 15 percent cut to civil servant salaries has effectively immobilised the government’s ability to reduce the wage bill.
For its part, the CSC does not contest the crippling state of the economy, but argues that cuts must be distributed fairly. The Ministry of Finance meanwhile accused the CSC of hiding “a political agenda”, and in February filed a case with the police asking them to investigate it on suspicion of trying to topple the government “and plunge the Maldives into chaos.”
State Finance Minister Ahmed Assad explained that the President last year issued an executive order to bring the salaries down, but had been blocked by the opposition-majority parliament.
“The Majlis stood against it,” he said. The government had initiated discussion with the Civil Service Commission, “but it has taken us nowhere and there’s been little progress this last year.”
The disagreement over salary restoration culminated in the Permanent Secretaries of Ministries being ordered to submit differing wage sheets by both the Finance Ministry and the CSC.
Meanwhile, the country’s financial deficit has grown to 26.5 percent of GDP, among the highest of any country in the world, placing the Maldives at risk of economic catastrophe. The IMF refused financing to Sri Lanka because the country’s fiscal deficit reached 10.5 percent.
Budget for austerity in 2011, or else: IMF
The forthcoming 2011 budget, explained Cubero, was “a crucial opportunity for the government to implement the austerity measures much needed. We will return to Washington and wait for the the numbers to be finalised. At the moment, the current policy stance is not sustainable.”
He acknowledged that the government faced “enormous difficulties, political and legal, in implementing its policy decisions”, but reiterated that the entire country was “living beyond its means.”
“With the government borrowing at the rate it has, it reduces the amount of credit available to the private sector, and that constrains the ability of the private sector to provide jobs and employment,” Cubero explained. “That then constrains economic growth. Furthermore, by spending more than it earns, the government is putting pressure on imports and the exchange rate.”
“This is in reality a simple thing. Think of an individual – if a family is consuming more than it earns, the only way to finance that is by accumulating debt. At some point the banks or creditors may not be willing to finance your debt. “
Continued growth of the deficit would impact the population as a whole, Cubero predicted. “We do hope the gravity of situation prevails and a reasonably constrained 2011 budget is passed.”
Last year parliament’s finance committee, headed by Nazim, amended the budget to include an additional Rf 800 million (US$62 million), including the restoration of civil servant salaries following the 15 percent pay cut, and subsidies for sectors ranging from fishing and agriculture to private media.
Media subsidies, when they arrived, were also allocated by the Finance Committee with 50 percent of the Rf 4 million total going to the two wealthiest private TV stations.
The government took a dim view of the ‘extras’: “It has to be kept in mind that the budget is made up of numbers; it is a mathematical transaction. If things are done for political reasons, the numbers won’t add up,” said President Nasheed in December 2009.
His remarks were met with outrage from members of the Majlis, who interpreted his comments as an attempt to undermine parliament’s role in the governance of the country.
Cubero said the IMF had presented its views of the economic situation to parliament and the opposition, and had held “a frank discussion”.
“We explained that there had a been delay with the third tranche pending completion of the second review. It was a very good and positive discussion, and I sense they have the commitment to do what is needed. They have very good opportunity to contribute to passing a tight 2011 budget, and needed tax reforms such as the business profit tax. Their support and the support of all stakeholders will be crucial.
“Otherwise,” Cubero stated, “the implications will be negative for everyone. We hope austerity prevails.”
The Maldives fiscal deficit of 26.5 percent is among the highest in the world, says the IMF
Playing politics with the economy
The IMF’s announcement came not without ample warning. In January 2010 it warned that: “Measures that substantially raise the budget deficit, such as a reversal of previously announced wage adjustments, [will put] put the program off track, jeopardising prospects for multilateral and bilateral international financing.”
Asked to comment on that warning at the time, Spokesperson of the CSC Mohamed Fahmy Hassan insisted that according to Maldivian law, the finance ministry had to pay the increased salary that month. In response, Assad pointed out that the IMF only gave economic advice, and was indifferent to a country’s law.
In June 2010, the IMF published its Country Report for the Maldives, which calculated that if the government continued to pursue economic reform at current pace and policy, the country’s fiscal deficit would increase by one percent of GDP in 2010 and 4.5 percent of GDP in 2011.
Meanwhile, the IMF observed in June, parliament passed the 2010 budget “with amendments totaling a seven percent (4.25 percent of GDP) increase over the government’s proposed budget.”
As a consequence, the report stated, “the annual deficit targets for 2010 and 2011 will be missed on current policies.”
Almost a year after the first warning, the generosity of the donor community and an uncharacteristically patient IMF – it has a reputation for being ruthlessly pragmatic with regard to local politics – have so far insulated the average Maldivian from the impact of the horrendous deficit. Consumer spending is booming and mobiles and mopeds abound, although indirect effects such as rising electricity costs and the resurgent dollar shortage have bitten the public.
But the IMF’s announcement today is a ‘shot across the bow’ that leaves the government in a decidedly unpleasant position, trapped between the source of its income – other donors do rely on the IMF’s assurances – and a parliament seemingly unwilling or unable to grasp the full extent of the problem as it closes its doors for the third week running.
Expenditure-wise, the government does not want to endure the loss of votes and most likely, unemployment, that will come with the degree of cuts demanded by the IMF.
As for revenue, vested business interests in parliament are unlikely to see the IMF’s vaunted Business Profit Tax passed unless the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) were to gain a majority. The leaked audio recordings in early July added weight to the suspicions of many, as MPs were heard to negotiate the ceasing “of all work on the tax bills submitted by the government to the Majlis” until, among other things, a no-confidence motion was tabled against Finance Minister Ali Hashim. Nasheed’s cabinet resigned in protest against parliament “scorched earth politics” before this came to fruition.
The IMF did offer some good news. Despite the country’s twin problems of a crippling wage bill and inability to pass tax legislation through a suspiciously disinterested parliament, the country’s core economic base is sound, with a 5-6 percent increase this year on the back of a strong rebound in tourist arrivals.
But the IMF’s ‘delay’ in opening the purse strings for the third tranche ups the pressure and signals an impatience with the ‘business as usual’ approach taken by all parties involved.
So far the MMA’s efforts to drain excess rufiya from circulation have kept inflation under control, but worrying economic signals such as bank restrictions on the free flow of currency and repression of remittances from foreigners’ accounts have been mounting up. Minivan News has now spoken to the managers of several foreign businesses with offices in Male’, employing dozens of people, who say they are being forced to reevaluate the viability of operating in the Maldives.
These problems are are unlikely to be resolved in the long term by the US$78 million fee paid by Indian infrastructure giant GMR for Male’ International Airport, or yet more donor aid, as the government has implied. Aid is a moot point, as in January 2011 the UN graduates the Maldives to a ‘middle income’ country, severing the umbilical cord to both concessional credit and a degree of international aid funding.
Assad insists the government has included this graduation in its predictions, although he notes that the Finance Ministry had banked on the Majlis passing the tax bill by June.
“Some people say [the graduation] will increase borrowing capacity and give us more independence,” Assad said. “But like becoming an adult, it means taking on both freedom and responsibilities.”
The Maldives has been welcomed as the 131st member of the International Rowing Federation (FISA), following the association’s congress in New Zealand.
The landmark membership comes as British Olympic rower Guin Batten returned to the Maldives last week with a team of four champion female rowers, to try and break the record she set for crossing the equator between Huvadhoo Atoll and Fuahmulah in March.
Batten crossed the 60 kilometre ‘zero degree’ channel in seven hours 16 minutes, in an epic struggle against the the swells, tides and currents of the open Indian Ocean in her 35 kilogram rowing boat.
The 42 year-old silver medallist, who also holds the world record for her solo row across the English Channel, attempted the crossing again together with elite rowers Rachel Woolf, Ali Gill, Elise Cope and Louise Wymer.
The aim, says Batten, “was to trash my record for the single crossing, in a quad (four rowers, one coxswain).”
“Unfortunately the weather against us. We started quickly, and might have managed it in 5.5 hours, but we were not fast enough for currents and it began to look like it would take us 15 hours – which meant the support vessel was going to run out of fuel,” she says.
The team had trained for an endurance slog, but the brief window in the weather had closed and conditions rapidly began to deteriorate and the attempt was reluctantly called off after three hours.
“But the record is still there for the taking, and there’s a good chance somebody local could break my time of 7:16,” Batten says.
Batten may keep her title for the meantime, but the main purpose of the visit was to inspire local islanders – particularly women – to pick up the oar and re-embrace the country’s traditional mode of transport.
British Airways' quad rowboat is unloaded
Acting as the Sports Development Coordinator for Friends of Maldives (FOM), Batten arranged for two four-person ‘quad’ rowboats to be brought to the Maldives, with the support of British Airways (BA), British Rowing and Westminster School.
Meanwhile, the mission to reintroduce rowing to the country has been ticking away ever since Batten left her rowboat behind following her attempt in March. Primary school teacher and coastal rower James Cowley has been working as a volunteer based in Thinadhoo to develop the sport of rowing in the Maldives, and has already established the Rowing Association of the Maldives: “I believe it’s the first national sporting association to be based outside Male,” Batten says.
Cowley told World Rowing in October that getting appropriate equipment to the country remained a key challenge for the project: “It is amazing how much the young people have learnt using only Guin’s rowing boat, a canoe and the goggles Speedo sent out last month,” he said.
The equipment problem was been somewhat addressed with Batten’s latest visit, but other challenges remain: “For starters, a lot of people here don’t swim, which was quite surprising, so James taught 30 young people to swim and got them rowing in the lagoon while they developed safety procedures.”
Currently Cowley is training a group of male rowers and some younger men, as well as four girls “who are facing a lot of pressure because James is a male coach,” Batten says. “Elise Cope will spend three weeks coaching, but we need to have a female coach based out here too.”
Rowing, she notes, “is one of the fastest growing sports for women worldwide”, and an art not entirely lost to the Maldives, “but most of the people who know how to do it are in their 60s, and there’s a risk the knowledge will be lost with this generation,” says Batten.
Despite the challenges locals have really taken to the project, and the arrival of the new boats will get many more out onto the water. Saad Ibrahim, representing the Rowing Association of the Maldives, observes that “the boat allows us to take multiple young rowers out at the same time so they can learn to row together and develop their team skills”.
Batten describes it as a “fantastic opportunity to bring rowing back to the Maldivian community. The vision for this long term initiative is to bring sport into the community to encourage life skills such as team work amongst the local people and to give them the chance to see more of their surroundings.”
Locally, the project’s ambition is to set up six water sports clubs throughout the Upper Southern Province. Ultimately, Batten says, the Maldives may one day look to host the World Coastal Rowing Championships, “which will introduce a lot of people to the country who would not normally visit otherwise – it’s quite a different group of people to the surfing and diving community,” she adds.
Opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has said he will support the majority view of parliament in the matter of the controversial cabinet reendorsement.
Miadhu reported Thasmeen as saying he was confident the majority would require ministers to be endorsed individually, and claimed that the government only wanted a “ceremonial” wholesale vote because it wished to defend certain ministers.
President Nasheed said over the weekend that ministers would not be dismissed if disapproved by parliament.
The disagreement over the procedure has deadlocked parliament for the last two weeks.
Shares in the mobile security firm Nexbis, which won a contract to install a border security system in the Maldives, dropped 6.3 percent on Friday on the back of rumours that the project had been suspended.
The ‘build, operate and transfer’ concession contract covered the design of an electronic border gate system, as well as entry and exit documents, reported CFOworld.
The project was aimed at tackling the rising numbers of foreign nationals working illegally in the country, almost all of whom arrive via Male’ International Airport.
In a statement, Nexbis said it had not been informed of any suspension of its contract with the Maldives Immigration Department and was currently seeking clarification.
The Immigration Department confirmed to Minivan News today that the project had not been suspended.
A source within the department told Minivan News that while Nexbis had not been informed that the project was suspended, “but it hasn’t started rolling yet either, and now we’re waiting for the Anti-Corruption Commission.”
The Nexbis project ran into difficulties immediately after the signing on October 18, when the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) alleged it had received “a serious complaint” regarding “technical details” of the bid. The government initially appeared inclined to continue rolling out the project while it was investigated.
Of the current delay, “to my knowledge the ACC can’t give the go ahead because the committee members are not in the country. We are expecting to begin before the holidays,” he said.
“So far it appears to be an internal issue within the immigration department. There is no doubt that the project would close the doors to illegal workers and the hinder profits of those inside the country processing people.”
“There is no balance between the number of expats we having the country running around looking for jobs, and jobs available. That suggests there are people we don’t need in the country who are coming in too easily,” the source said.
Exploitation of foreign workers is epidemic in the Maldives and is the second highest earner of foreign currency after the tourism industry, according to numbers provided by the former High Commissioner for Bangladesh, Dr Selina Mohsin.
Many companies in the Maldives were benefiting “and facilitating” the problem, the source told Minivan News, which was impacting those companies “who do operate legally and pay visa fees to the government.”
The Nexbis system will store biometric data and allow the tracking of workers without relying on paper documents.
Resorts that break aggressive new regulations governing ‘symbolic wedding ceremonies’ in the Maldives will be fined up to Rf 1 million (US$78,000).
Depending on the nature of the breach, the Tourism Ministry will also have the discretion “to cancel the license granted under this Regulation and to temporarily withhold the permission granted to operate to such resort.”
The government raced to introduce the new regulations after a video of a couple being insulted in Dhivehi by 15 complicit resort staff at Vilu Reef Resort and Spa surfaced on YouTube, and quickly made headlines around the world.
The 15-minute video of the ceremony was uploaded on on October 24 2010 by a member of staff. Vilu Reef Manager Mohamed Rasheed told Minivan News at the time that the staff member who uploaded the video did it as “a joke”, without “realising the seriousness of the potential consequences”.
Earlier this week, President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed rang the couple degraded in the Vilu Reef incident to apologise on behalf of the nation, and invite them back to the Maldives at their convenience as his personal guests.
Non-Muslims are unable to get married in the 100 percent Islamic Maldives, but many tourists pay for elaborate ‘renewal of vows’ ceremonies, often requesting a ‘Maldivian flavour’ to the proceedings.
The new regulations governing such ceremonies state that these ceremonies must now be conducted under the supervision of a resort’s senior management.
“If the tourist chooses to hold their ceremony in a language that is unknown to them, the resort must provide the tourist with a translation of the ceremony in a language they understand,” the President’s Office said in a statement.
Furthermore, “the attendees to the symbolic marriage ceremony shall not engage in any disrespectful activity either actively or verbally while the proceedings are ongoing.”
The regulations also state that “The attire of the participants from the resort organising the symbolic marriage ceremony, the decorations used, the embellishments used to enrich such ceremonies in the form of
entertainment that may be organised and any tunes and songs which may be used during such ceremony, shall be used in a manner compatible with Maldivian culture.”
Resort management must also keep an audio or video recording of a ceremony for one year, if the tourist agrees, and provide it to the Ministry of Tourism on request.
“Tourists frequently say the Maldives’ warm hospitality is the main reason they keep coming back to the country,” said the President’s Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair.
The Maldives should take steps to address the rights of migrant workers and improve on issues relating to women’s rights, matters among 130 recommendations for the Maldives made by other UN member states at the Universal Periodic Review (URP) held in Geneva on November 3.
The Universal Periodic Review is a state-driven process that reviews the human rights records of all 192 UN member states every four years, based on submissions by the government, the UN and stakeholders (including NGOs and a country’s Human Rights Commission).
Eleven states recommended that the Maldives seek to improve its treatment of migrant workers, while seven states, including Algeria, Mexico, Palestine, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Philippines and Ecuador recommended that the Maldives ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Worker and Members of their Families (ICPMW).
The Maldives was this year placed on the US State Department’s human trafficking watch-list, with exploitation of foreign workers rivaling fishing as the second most profitable sector of the Maldivian economy after tourism, according to conservative estimates of the number of Bangladeshi workers showing up at their commission in Male’ after being abandoned at the airport by unscrupulous employment agents.
Furthermore, according to information from the Maldivian Democracy Network, 23 member states recommended the Maldives take steps to combat violence against women, and remove its reservations to the Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), as well as combat traditionla stereotyping of women through education and legislation.
Child rights were also discussed, and 14 states recommend that the Maldives improve legislation to ensure the rights of children born out of wedlock, withdraw reservations to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), prevent underage marriages and the practice of having concubines, and expedite the passage of the Juvenile Justice Act.
At the Working Group Session 49 states offered suggestions, including strengthening the independence of the Human Rights Commission (HRCM), criminalising human trafficking, strengthening the judiciary, developing a professional code of conduct for judges and providing training in human rights, increasing efforts to end discrimination against people with disabilities, and ensure that the new Penal Code was consistent with human rights.
UN member states noted particular progress in the Maldives in areas such as freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, the right to vote and to choose one’s leaders, and torture prevention.
However areas of particular concern were identified as women’s rights, children’s rights, freedom of religion, penal reform, judicial reform, and the practice of public flogging.
Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, who presented the government’s UPR report, said he “had come to Geneva to listen and discuss, rather than to defend”, and was keen to take the recommendations of the international community back to the Maldives.
Dr Shaheed identifed the 10 greatest human rights challenges facing the Maldives as dealing with past human rights abuses while not putting the future at risk, democratic consolidation, strengthening the rule of law and fighting corruption, improving law and order and strengthening the capacity of the judiciary, promoting gender equality, responding to extremist religious views, and dealing with drug abuse and related criminality.
Overall, member states noted that the Maldives had made “remarkable progress”, and commended the enthusiasm with which the Maldives had compiled its submission, noting that the country remained one of the success stories of the international human rights system.
Dr Shaheed said the government would hold consultations on his return to the Maldives, and suggested a dedicated UPR debate be held in parliament as well as a cabinet session and public hearing.
“A few years ago it would have been inconceivable that a liberal democratic Maldives, with a Constitution guaranteeing the full enjoyment of human rights, would have been represented here on this podium. That we are here is down, without any doubt, to the bravery, vision, belief and determination of the Maldivian people. Whatever happens in the future, it is my firm view that what they have achieved over the past few years is truly remarkable,” Dr Shaheed said.
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