Author: Minivan News

News report links Maldives to Indian health insurance scheme

The Maldives is reportedly among a number of nations showing interest in an Indian health insurance scheme designed to aid workers earning below the poverty line from significant hospital costs.

The India-based Economic Times newspaper on Friday (July 1) quoted Anil Swarup, Director General for Labour Welfare in Delhi, as claiming that delegations from countries like the Maldives, Nigeria and Bangladesh had sought technical guidance on potentially implementing and running the Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme in their respective nations.

The claims were made during a state-level workshop on the insurance scheme that was held in India.

RSBY was launched back in 2007 as a partially state-funded insurance plan to protect low earning families in the country by covering medical charges of up to Rs 30,000 (US$642) after the claimant pays a initial Rs30 (US$0.67) registration fee, the news report added. About 25 states in the country are reported to have signed up to the scheme.

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Gayoom “sincerity” attacked after criticising DRP appointments

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Spokesperson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’  Shareef has questioned the “sincerity” of his party’s honorary leader, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, claiming the former president is behind “all the problems” currently facing the divided opposition group.

The comments were made after former President Gayoom yesterday addressed members of the media upon returning from a visit to Bangladesh to criticise the appointments of two new DRP deputy leaders without holding elections at a national congress.

Speaking to Minivan News, Shareef said that claims by Gayoom, who became the party’s honorary head after retiring from active politics in 2010, were intended to “deceive” DRP members and supporters.

Shareef alleged that Gayoom was personally responsible for the addition of a clause within the party’s constitution that allows for the replacement of vacant senior DRP positions outside of an official national conference vote.

Appointments have become one of the main points of contention for the DRP of late after the dismissal of its former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer. This dismissal was linked to the eventual formation of a spin-off movement within the party known as the Z-DRP.

The formation of this spin-off group has led to an increasingly acrimonious relationship between serving party head Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and Gayoom himself.

However, Shareef claimed that Gayoom had personally approved amendments to the party’s constitution during the previous national congress that allowed for the DRP’s council to approve deputy leadership roles to replace departing members.

“I don’t think Gayoom has sincerity [in his actions].  He knows [the party’s] constitution and that it allows to temporarily fill positions legitimately until the next congress meeting,” he said.  “Back in the 2010 congress, there were many positions in the party we were unable to fill due to resignations.  Gayoom approved [this appointment process] under the party’s constitution.”

In addressing how Gayoom’s latest criticisms could affect attempts by some councilors to try and reconcile divisions within the DRP, Shareef again questioned the sincerity of Gayoom in trying to find a resolution for the party.

However, upon returning from Bangladesh, Gayoom told members of the press that the solution to the internal rifts within the party was to respect its charter and retract the DRP council’s actions in appointing and dismissing deputy leaders; actions that he contends were in violation of the organisation’s charter.

“There are a number of things that were done against the charter,” he claimed. “I informed the leader of that in a letter.”

Gayoom argued that the recent appointment of MP Mohamed Ramiz and council member Ahmed ‘Anday’ Mohamed as DRP deputy leaders was not legitimate, as article 87 of the charter states that if a deputy leader resigns, a replacement should be elected at a national congress.

However, the DRP insists that article 122 of its charter authorises the council to temporarily replace vacancies in elected posts until the next congress.

Of the four deputy leaders elected during the DRP’s third national congress in 2010, Umar Naseer was contentiously dismissed by the party’s disciplinary committee, while MP Ali Waheed later defected to the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

Umar Naseer meanwhile contested his dismissal at the Civil Court, which is due to rule on the legality of the decision.

Gayoom also denied that remarks made at a Z-DRP rally last month about regretting “handing the [leadership position] on a platter” was a personal attack on serving DRP Leader Thasmeen.

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JSC selects panel to appoint new judges

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has selected a panel to interview and vet candidates “to solve problems caused by lack of judges for magistrate courts and superior courts.”

The panel consists of Supreme Court Justice and JSC Chair Adam Mohamed Abdulla, MP Gasim Ibrahim, Judge Abdulla Didi, Attorney General Abdulla Muiz, Lawyers’ Representative Ahmed Rasheed and Member of the Public Shuaib Abdul Rahman.

The panel has been tasked with deciding the number of judges on superior court benches and presenting a report to the commission before 15 August.

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DQP MP Riyaz Rasheed loses case against STO

The Civil Court on Thursday ruled in favour of the State Trading Organisation (STO) in the claim filed by minority opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) MP Riyaz Rasheed contesting changes STO made to its agreement with Riyaz’s company Meridian Services.

Meridian Services argued in court that STO in August 2010 lowered its credit limit from Rf20 million (US$1.5 million) to Rf10 million (US$778,210) and shortened the payment period from 40 to 30 days without consulting the company as stipulated in clause 15.3 of the agreement.

Judge Abdulla Jameel Moosa however ruled that as STO had given a month’s notice of the changes in writing on 29 August, 2010 and clause 15.2 of the agreement authorises the government company to lower credit limits and payment periods, there were no grounds to establish breach of contract.

Local daily Haveeru meanwhile reports that STO has sued Meridian Service to recover over Rf19 million (US$1.4 million) owed for oil released on credit as well as Rf384,198 (US$29,800) as fines for non-payment.

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Civil Court suspends Champa’s Rf100 million fine for environmental damage, as case begins

The Civil Court has issued an injunction on the Rf100 million fine levied against local business tycoon Mohamed ‘Champa’ Moosa, by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) for illegal reclamation work on Thunbafushi, reports Haveeru.

Champa’s lawyer, former Attorney General Azima Shukoor, is contesting that the EPA violated the constitution and the Environment Protection Act by imposing a fine on him.

The EPA labelled Champa an “environmental criminal” for irreversibly damaging the island of Thun’bafushi and the marine ecosystem of Thun’bafalhu.

After three surveys of the area, the EPA assessed the damage as amounting to Rf2,230,293,566 (US$144.6 million), not including the impact of sedimentation from the dredging which can smother coral kilometres from the site.

A foreign consultant who was involved in surveying the island told Minivan News in an earlier interview that the area “seems to have been used as a dumping ground.”

“There were what looked like hundreds of used car batteries, waste metals and oil drums leeching into the marine environment,” the consultant said.

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Safe recovered after hotel robbery

A safe stolen from the Marble Hotel hotel by a group of masked men has been recovered by police, reports Haveeru.

The safe was found in a house in Henveriu, although police did not confirm whether it still contained the Rf100,000 the hotel said had been in it at the time of the robbery.

Police are investigating the robbery but have yet to make any arrests.

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Return to politics casts Gayoom as the one who undermined democracy in the Maldives, not introduced it: Eurasia Review

Gayoom’s return to active politics is creating instability in a country that is trying to manage a smooth change over from three decades of authoritative rule to one of multi party democracy, writes Dr S Chandrasekharan for the Eurasia Review.

“In my view his entry may cause some ripples, but this will not change the steady consolidation of democracy that is already taking place. The MDP under the present President Nasheed is seen to be gaining strength though confrontational politics may continue for long until the party gains sufficient strength in the Majlis.

A case in point is the observation made by Gayoom in a meeting to mark the seventh anniversary of the introduction of the Reform Agenda during his regime. He said that Maldivians never had a true democracy (his regime included) and made a famous statement: “ A system under which a country’s citizens live in fear of political oppression and persecution is not a democratic system at all.”

If he was referring to the period during his regime of thirty years, one cannot but agree but it is not so now. Did he not jail the present president under terror laws when the latter was protesting peacefully during his regime? Did he not hound out his predecessor Ibrahim Nasir and his whole family and relatives and banished them from the country? After making a deal with the ruling party, and accepting generous retirement benefits, is he not trying to come back to politics by trying to demolish a leader chosen by him as his successor in the party created by him?

To cap it all, he said that true democracy could only be delivered to the Maldivian people by winning the 2013 presidential election. Perhaps he is referring to himself!

This can be seen from the fact that Gayoom formally took over the leadership of the rival DRP faction known as Z-DRP (Zaeen DRP) on 1st of June this month. A formal meeting between representatives of Thasmeen Ali’s DRP (original DRP!) and that of Gayoom took place some days ago but the differences appear to be irreconcilable. Thasmeen Ali is no “push over” either and he has many supporters still.

Gayoom is thus not helping democracy when he weakens the present opposition which is formidable and does keep the government in check. Worse still, unverified allegations inspired by Gayoom and his supporters questioning Thasmeen’s integrity are being made just to discredit the latter.

Gayoom as I had said many times before could have remained in the history of Maldives as the one who had brought in true democracy to country and instead he is likely to be remembered as the one who tried to undermine a fledgling democracy!”

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MDP takes to the pitch for sixth anniversary celebrations

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has celebrated its sixth anniversary of forming as a political movement with a football match between two opposing teams captained by President Mohamed Nasheed and Parliamentary Group Leader Ibrahim Mohamed Salih.

The two teams were set up to pit government executives within the party against a parliamentary group of representatives. The game, held at Male’s National Stadium, was eventually won 4-2 by Salih and his fellow players.

According to the Haveeru newspaper, it was former Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ali Waheed, who only joined the party last month that proved to be the most valuable player of the day, scoring two goals to secure a Man of the Match accolade.

A spokesperson for the MDP was unable to comment on event or the party’s key parliamentary aims for the next few years.  However, a spectator and MDP supporter present at yesterday’s match exclusively told Minivan News that they were not hugely enamored with the standard of the football on display.

“It was not exactly the World Cup,” the spectator said.

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Economy requires structural changes to address foreign currency crisis, Finance Minister tells parliament

Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz has told parliament that addressing the foreign currency crisis will require structural changes to the economy.

Increasing revenue and reducing expenditure to address the deficit – a legacy of years of printing money and high state expenditure relative to income – was the main solution, he said, as was strengthening regulations and enforcing the use of rufiya as a legal tender, “with no exception.”

The country’s lucrative tourism industry currently charges visitors in US dollars rather than the local rufiya currency, while the central bank’s regulation enforcing the use of legal tender has historically been routinely ignored and rarely enforced.

The rufiya was identified this week by financial news agency Bloomberg as the world’s second worst performing currency after the Suriname dollar,

“The Maldives was caught by the news,” Inaz noted to Minivan News. “It’s unlikely they would have any data on the rufiya before [the devaluation] on April 10.”

The state received US$16 in January, US$19 million in February, US$29 million in March, US$15 million in April and US$23 million in May – a total of US$115 million for the year so far, Inaz told parliament.

The government has indicated to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it intends to pass a raft of new taxation and economic reforms through parliament to modernise the economy, and a package of bills has been submitted by the government.

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