Category: Politics

Parliament called to arbitrate civil servant pay dispute

The ministry of finance has asked parliament and the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) to arbitrate a dispute between the ministry and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) over the restoration of civil servants’ salaries.

Parliament has been asked to act as a mediator as the ministry “does not believe a satisfactory solution can be found through discussions with the commission”.

Until the dispute is resolved, “employees will receive the salary that was reduced due to the economic circumstances,” the finance ministry’s statement said.

The CSC meanwhile criticised the ministry for a lack of communication and unwillingness to meet for discussions.

“They could ask us to sit down and discuss this tomorrow morning and we would be there,” said CSC member Mohamed Fahmy Hassan.

“We’ve sent many letters and made many requests for them to submit information but they have not submitted it to us,” he said.

The CSC was not opposed to the involvement of third parties such as the MMA, he said, but having another government institution like the MMA acting as a go-between “sounds a bit odd.”

“We can discuss the issue with MMA or the People’s Majlis, but there’s going to be no decision made without the involvement of the finance ministry.”

Parliament broke for recess in December and will begin its first session of the year in March.

Waiting game

On 30 December, the CSC issued a circular announcing that civil servants’ salaries and allowances had been restored to their former levels.

Since it was agreed that the pay cuts will be rescinded once government revenue exceeds Rf7 billion, the CSC argued, the salaries would have been “automatically reversed” when parliament approved this year’s budget with a revenue of over Rf7 billion.

However the finance ministry’s statement criticised the commission for the announcement as it came after the ministry had declared that the economic circumstances had not changed.

“And while it did not consult with the ministry, the fact that the Civil Service Commission did not seek the advice and counsel of the Maldives Monetary Authority, the most appropriate independent institution to approach before making such a decision, is regrettable,” it said.

No deal

The pay cuts of up to 20 per cent for civil servants were made necessary due to a fall in government income and an increase in expenditure, the ministry claimed.

In August, the government introduced a raft of austerity measures – including cutting back on travel, controlling capital items purchases, halting renovation and repairs unless necessary and pay cuts of 20 per cent for political appointees ranked higher than deputy minister to alleviate the inherited budget deficit.

Recurrent expenditure on salaries and allowances for government employees was 34 per cent of total expenditure in 2008, a 62 per cent increase from the previous year.

The International Monetary Fund [IMF] has noted that this puts the Maldives in first place among small island nations for the highest expenditure on government employees as a percentage of GDP.

Pay cuts for civil servants were enforced in October following protracted negotiations with the CSC.

The commission exercised clause 43[c] of its Act, which authorise it to alter salaries based on “special economic circumstances” subject to a review in three months.

“The measure proposed by this ministry to determine the special circumstances was the state’s income and expenditure,” the ministry’s statement read. “It was therefore agreed that the economic circumstances would be considered to have passed once the state’s annual income exceeds Rf7 billion, while it was also agreed that the state’s total income does not include foreign aid once-off revenue.”

It further added that the pay cuts were not made for a three-month period, but would be subject to a review to determine if the economic circumstances had changed.

The inclusion of foreign aid in the government’s budget is a particular point of contention, as it pushes the total revenue over Rf7 billion. Actual government revenue excluding foreign aid and once-off revenue was projected to be Rf6.8 billion in the budget.

“We understood it was the total revenue of the government. The ministry’s press release on 25 September said they were not going to exclude anything. This issue needs to be resolved,” said Fahmy.

Special circumstances would be considered to have improved when the state’s “recurring income” reaches Rf7 billion, the ministry said, and “not when it is estimated that Rf7 billion will be received in income.”

Scaring off donors

The opposition-dominated committee selected to review the budget made a recommendation to inject Rf617 million to restore civil servants’ salaries as the proposed budget had Rf7.05 billion in revenue.

While the original budget submitted to parliament had a deficit of 14.8 per cent and was acceptable to the IMF, the alternations made by parliament increased it to 18.8 per cent.

The ministry now estimates the deficit by the end of the year will exceed 18.8 per cent as the government will lose Rf150 million in revenue due to parliament’s failure to pass taxation legislation.

Increasing expenditure at the beginning of the year based on projected revenue was “not sensible at all”, the ministry insisted.

There were four ways the government could plug the deficit – printing money, financial assistance from international monetary organizations, obtaining commercial loans and devaluing the rufiyaa – all of which would have adverse effects of the economy.

Printing money would lead to inflation and a dollar shortage, taking commercial loans would make it harder for the private sector to secure loans and devaluing the currency would increase inflation and the price of imports.

Instead, the ministry reached agreements with the IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to obtain loans to plug the deficit.

However hiking salaries for government employees without increasing the revenue base was not “a sustainable fiscal or monetary policy”, and these international organisations have since informed the government that they are reconsidering the loans, the ministry’s statement said.

If the Maldives does not have an economic framework that is acceptable to the IMF, it continues, it would not be possible to obtain assistance or loans from other financial institutions.

Apart from potentially losing Rf755 million in assistance from the World Bank and ADB, the donor forum organised by the World Bank and scheduled for March could be canceled.

“Therefore, the ministry believes reducing expenditure is the wisest and most economically sensible way,” it said, adding that expenditure on wages had to be kept low until the economy rebounds.

Fahmy said the CSC was willing to negotiate and wished to meet the finance ministry “to hear their views on the economic circumstances.”

“We have always said that if there is a national crisis we will put the national interest above the interest of civil servants,” he said.

“But it is difficult to justify that to 29,000 civil servants if the government is spending on all the other items in the budget.”

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MNC gathering international lawyers to pursue Gayoom in court

The Maldives National Congress (MNC) today claimed it was gathering a group of lawyers with the intention of bringing former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom before court, over allegations of human rights abuses under his administration.

President of the MNC Mohamed Naeem claimed Gayoom had killed “many innocent people” during his 30 years as president of the Maldives.

Furthermore, Naeem alleged that when MDP candidate Mohamed Nasheed became president, “there was nothing left of the government’s money.”

“Otherwise, today Maldivians would be living very happily,” Naeem said.

The MNC’s legal team would include lawyers brought from abroad, he added.

Gayoom’s spokesman Mohamed Hussain ‘Mundhu’ Shareef replied that “even if the MNC brings in lawyers from space, they cannot charge Maumoon for something he did not commit.”

Mundhu further added that Gayoom intended to file a lawsuit against Naeem for spreading “untrue stories” about the former president.

“We don’t consider the MNC a political party,” Mundhu said. “They have no supporters. I can say this because I have never met a member of that party from any part of the Maldives.”

The MNC also demanded that Gayoom “must not receive a single penny from the Maldivian government.”

Opposition party DRP spokesperson Ibrahim Shareef responded that if President Nasheed was receiving his monthly salary, Gayoom should receive his allowance for being former president of the Maldives.

Shareef added the MNC “did not know what were speaking about” and that they “had gone crazy.”

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Fuel sellers cheating customers, says Fuel Association

“Almost every” fuel seller in the Maldives is taking advantage of lax certification to cheat their customers by using inaccurate meters, the President of the Fuel Association of the Maldives has claimed.

Mohamed Rasheed accused the trade ministry of failing to certify petrol station meters and allowing the industry to take advantage of consumers for more than 30 years.

The trade ministry retaliated by saying it was impossible for them to check every fuel meter in the Maldives, and blamed the fuel suppliers for failing to inform the trade ministry the meters were uncertified.

Rasheed criticised the trade ministry for being “irresponsible”, claiming that the problem was a big drain on money for both consumers and the Maldivian government.

Chairman of Fisherman Union Ibrahim Umar said the organisations had received many complaint from fishermen that the fuel sellers are “cheating” them by showing them inaccurate measurements from uncertified meters.

Umar claimed that sometimes the fuel sellers “take half a barrel by showing the consumers the wrong meter.”

At a press confernce today, Rasheed called on the trade ministry to approve a law that every fuel station in the Maldives must be certified by the ministry.

Director of the Trade Ministry Solih Hussein said “if the fuel sellers inform us today [they have an uncertified meter] we will put on the seal by tomorrow morning.”

Furthermore, Solih accused the Fuel Association Of Maldives of contradicting its own rules and regulations by exposing its own members to accusations of impropriety by their consumers.

“The Fishermens’ Union can now file a lawsuit against the Fuel Association of Maldives, as they have been selling fuel without certifying their meters, while many of consumers remain unaware of this certification,’ Solih said.

He calls on every consumer in the Maldives not to buy anything measured using a uncertified meter “whether it’s fuel, rice or vegetables.”

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Comment: We are criminals

The Maldives has the 10th highest prison population rate in the world and our society is set up to perpetuate this rate.

The victory in 2008 ushering in democracy has barely lessened the number of people incarcerated. It has not changed how we treat people who have gone to jail, nor the causes for which so many of our people lose their freedom. It has not made us reflect on the effect this is having on our society. And as a nation we will suffer for this together.

Culture promoting criminality

Before we won the election, politicians on my side of the divide could have claimed that many of the prisoners in jail were the result of political repression.

But the problem goes beyond politics. The problem is societal and the responsibility now falls on each and every one of us to change the direction we’ve been heading in.

The vast majority of those arrested have been sentenced on drug related charges. We have 30% of our youth falling into drugs like heroin, and we are surprised that crime is soaring. We are surprised when gang related violence escalates, and we are surprised that Male’ and islands around the country are no longer safe.

Male’ is now split up by the gangs controlling strictly monitored lines. They hijack each other’s cars and motorcycles and go after one another with whatever weapon they can get their hands on.

For all of us who have nothing to do with these gangs, we just ignore it. We turn a blind eye because that’s what we’ve been taught to do for 30 years.

But political commentary aside, we each let this happen. We live in a small community where everyone knows everything about everyone else. We know when our neighbor is arrested. We know why the boy down the street was taken to jail and why the police kicked down his friend’s door the week before.

But instead of helping them recover and reintegrate, we shun them. We ostracize them and say they are not worth our time. Instead of offering a helping hand, we kick them to the curb as the wasted undesirable elements of our society. But with the prison population so high, it is a large part of our society.

Our prison population rate is the 10th largest in the world, and this is without all the people who have not yet been sentenced. We need to help these people join the working ranks and support our nation to grow. We need to stop abusing them with our indifference, and we have to make it clear to our government institutions and those who work for them, that we will not tolerate abuse against inmates and promote true rehabilitation instead.

Rehabilitation

We as a society have to help with rehabilitation. I don’t mean drug rehabilitation. I mean we have to teach inmates how to function in society and how to be productive members of it. But the truth is that rehabilitation was never a part of our penitentiary services. In the past, the entire prison institution was based around repression, fear, and control of the unruly elements of our society. The new government is trying to change that and I’ve seen more change in the DPRS (Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services) than in many of the other institutions, though even the DPRS has been subject to politically based manipulation by jailers, and not just by government sympathizers. However, what about all those people who have not yet been convicted?

These people are kept in police detention facilities. The same kind of facilities which have been responsible for custodial abuse reported recently. In addition to the kinds of abuse described by the inmates on DhiTV, there is a culture of brutality amongst the armed forces which needs to be addressed. Prisoners are constantly manhandled by their guards, whether they behave or not.

Further methods are used to ensure compliance and deal with unruly behavior. Amongst these methods are handcuffing inmates in difficult positions and leaving them for hours at a time under the hot sun, or if it is raining, leaving them out in the cold.

These are people who have not even been sentenced yet! Guilt has not been established. Due process has not been executed. And even if these people had been sentenced, they are still human beings and thereby extended inalienable rights; especially from torture. We suffered these kinds of abuses under the previous administration; it cannot be allowed to continue.

Reform

The attitudes within both the Police Service as well as the general populous need to be reformed. The Maldivian Police Service has made phenomenal improvement in how the deal with the citizenry, so there should be no reason why this cannot extend towards those members of society who are placed in their care.

We as society need to care about what happens to inmates. Without reform and true rehabilitation, we will never be able to progress as a nation.

We may have had a democratic election, but we still do not have a free society. The democracy monitoring international NGO, Freedom House, still ranks us as only partly free because of our apathy towards the prison population. We are such a small community.

We are all brothers, sisters, cousins, neighbors, and friends. We have no excuse to allow things to continue as they are. The shackles of tyranny still bind us. It’s time we start chipping away at these bindings, so that one day we will enjoy a free and stable society.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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“Politics” behind attack on Adhaalath party president

President of the Adhaalath Party Sheikh Hussain Rasheed Ahmed was attacked on Monday night in an incident he believes “was politically motivated.”

The attack occurred near Masjidhul Sulthaan Mohamed-bin-Abdulla at around 12.30 am.

Speaking to Minivan News, Rasheed said “I had just finished up at Television Maldives (TVM) and was on my motorbike on Ameenee Magu. It was the third night of the Torture Victims Association (TVA) rally but I didn’t attend it that night.

“Just as I neared the mosque, they came from behind me and someone grabbed my shoulder. I lost control of my motorbike and was flung off, while my bike crashed under a lorry.

“I think there was two of them on one motorbike. It happened so fast, I didn’t get to see it properly”

Aside from a bruised hand, lost spectacles and a wrecked motorbike, Sheikh Rasheed escaped the incident in good health.

Maldives police confirmed the attack had occurred but would not comment on whether it was random or politically or religiously motivated.

Rasheed responded: ” It’s because of my involvement in the Torture Victims Association rally. It’s a political issue – I haven’t been able to walk on streets lately because of the verbal abuse.”

Response

“I don’t believe it was a random attack,” said the president’s press secretary Mohamed Zuhair, pointing out that Rasheed was the head of the Presidential Commission investigating the alleged embezzlement of state funds by the former government.

“It’s the same kind of thing that went on during elections,” Zuhair said. “It’s been alleged that this [attack] is linked to parties opposing the government.”

DRP member Mohamed ‘Mundhu’ Hussain Shareef told Minivan News: ” This is the first I have heard of the incident. I hope that [Rasheed] is safe and urge him to be cautious. Given the political situation even I have to walk around with body guards now. If us politicians get hurt, we can no longer provide our services to the people.”

In response to Zuhair’s speculation that the attacks were prompted by the opposition, Mundhu said “If the government is making such accusations, they should specify which party and who.”

“I believe that all these rumors are being spread to shift public focus from the real issues. The MDP is only being held together through its hatred for Maumoon. They have lost their popularity, people want their basic needs satisfied, and so now the government is using these rumors to shift the focus.”

Mundhu also mentioned that DRP members had also been attacked, such as Madd Saleem.

“I am not accusing the leadership of committing such acts of violence. Rather it is unruly elements within the party. It is important that the heads of the parties control these elements,” he said.

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Torture Victims Association to seek justice over human rights abuses

Frustrated with the performance of government institutions, a new NGO founded by MDP members, the ‘Torture Victims Association’ (TVA) has vowed to gather cases and take them to international courts in the pursuit of justice, if necessary.

On Saturday night at the first of a series of rallies calling for justice for human rights abuses committed under the former government, TVA founding member and parliamentary group leader of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik said those who suffered grievously had waited “long enough”.

“But today I’m announcing, everyone stand up for your rights,” he said.

The rallies were attended by senior officials of the government as well as senior MDP members who spoke of their experiences in jail.

The first gathering on Saturday followed remarks by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on a live radio show where he denied ordering the torture of political opponents.

“No Maldivian citizen was unjustly punished that I was aware of or on my orders,” he said.

At a press conference yesterday, Moosa said the objective of the new NGO was to seek redress for injustices.

“Our main purpose is to bring an end to the torture that has gone on in this country for most of its history,” he said.

Former governments established “a culture of torture” in order to remain in power and suppress dissent, he said.

Moosa said the society was distinct from MDP as it was “100 per cent” comprised of victims and appealed to the media not to “twist” the association to portray it as a political endeavor.

The association plans to contact and enlist the help of international human rights organizations and the UN Human Rights agencies.

A team comprising of “Maizan” Ali Manik, Ahmed Naseem, state minister for foreign affairs, Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, tourism minister and Dr Ahmed Shaheed, foreign minister, were working towards this end, he said.

At the press conference, Naseem said the impetus for forming MDP came from the unjust practices of Gayoom’s government.

Naseem characterised the work of the society as a “national task”because victims of torture have been incapable of speaking about their
experiences.

Torture was “institutionalised” by the former government, he said,and families were destroyed when dissidents were targeted.

“If you walk down the road and meet 100 people, 40 of them would have been tortured at some point,” he said.

Naseem said if Maldivian courts fail to provide redress for injustices, the association would take the cases to international courts.

“Maizan” Ali Manik said the association would gather information and records and find a way to make the history of torture in the Maldives available to the public.

Not political

Naseem also emphasised that the new NGO was not political.

“The idea is to make sure these things do not happen again in the Maldives,” he said. “It’s nothing to do with what the government is doing. Today, young people have no idea what stocks are. At the turn of the century it was commonplace to use these things in the Maldives – they don’t know about medieval torture devices that were banned in 14th century Europe being used very recently in the Maldives.”

Government institutions such as the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) had proven unsatisfactory and had made a lot of excuses, he said.

“I don’t know if it is a lack of passion, a lack of efficiency or a lack of will,” Naseem said. “Few such government institutions work very well in any country. A government offical will often just work for a salary; they may not have the same passion for their job as a private non government organisation.”

The NGO was “just one way” of addressing the situation, he said, noting that there were “various ways” including court settlements and the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

“But there are criminals here who need to be brought to justice,” he said. “People can’t move ahead without justice.”

It was “amazing”, he said, “how people who were tortured by the regime still support it. It’s like Stockholm Syndrome – it’s very difficult for many people to talk about how they were abused. Some are very ashamed. I myself find it hard to speak about what happened to me. Women were raped and will not talk about it public. But many people have said they will speak in recordings, or without their face revealed. Many want [the process] to remain confidential.”

Naseem insisted the investigations “will not turn into a witch hunt. We are just trying to gather information.”

The NGO would seek international assistance and funding, he said, as “we don’t know how to go about these things in the Maldives.”

Opposition reaction

Gayoom’s spokesman Mohamed Hussein ‘Mundhu’ Shareef denounced the TVA as “another voodoo NGO in the Maldives.”

“We’ve seen this before: Moosa gets on a platform to do what he does best – level accusations at Gayoom. His sell by date is up.”

Mundhu accused the MDP of orchestrating the new NGO.

“The MDP needs to boost motivation among hardcore supporters to bring them out of the yellow haruge, and the thing that unites the MDP is Gayoom,” he said. “If you go to the root you’ll find it’s at the second floor of the president’s office.”

If the government wanted to investigate corruption, Mundhu said, “there is a constitutionally empowered body. If the police are overstepping their boundaries, what is the point of funding a body like the police integrity commission if it’s not going to be used? And how can they appoint a state minister like Mohamed Aswan to investigate police reform and expect him to be impartial?”

The DRP “has never had a problem with the police”, Mundhu added. “We’re not the ones complaining and sending letters. When one of our activists was recently arrested for defacing municipality property, when he came out he told me that while the food was not very good, the police treated him very well.”

Mundhu appeared less opposed to the prospect of a TRC, “but I do not believe any mistreatment happened with the direct knowledge of the previous executive.”

Disruption

Organisers of the TVA rally accused the DRP of attempting to disrupt the association’s event on Saturday night, an action Naseem condemned as “disgusting”.

Mundhu rejected the claim.

“We’re not MDP, we don’t attack and disrupt [rallies],” he said. “At the same time, why is the MDP holding its gathering right outside the DRP office every night – is it designed to stop us holding our own rallies?”

The DRP was also concerned about state broadcaster TVM’s coverage of the event, he added.

“When we saw the live TVM coverage we rang to ask why the giving away airtime, and they said it was a new formula and they would be happy to sell us an hour of airtime for Rf22,000. We don’t have the money for that, but it was nice to know.”

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Looking to the future: predictions for 2010

Welcome to a new decade. The first year of democracy has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. It saw a huge role reversal as government turned to opposition, and opposition turned to government.

This column is thus dedicated to the heterodoxy in the new political environment – for so long it was just about one man. Now, there are many different voices.

As this is a new year, Aboohéra will gaze into his crystal ball and see what the future holds in store. Here are some predictions for the year- in ascending order of likelihood.

Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed becomes leader of DRP

The MP for Kulhudhuffushi South wants to shake things up. But he does not appear to be sure how. For the past year he has been vacillating, unable to take a firm decision on how he will spend this parliamentary term.

Indeed, he has been unsure of his affiliation with the DRP. He first contested the seat as an independent candidate but did not leave the party. After waiting for several months, he left the party.

Winning the presidency in 2013 is said to be his ambition. He will realize that contesting the election on the DRP ticket is his best chance of success. He will rejoin the party before its Congress due in April, and will pull a surprise victory over the infinitely better funded and better organised Thasmeen.

The DRP congress delegates will shock the country by their decision, as they demonstrate that DRP members do care more about rhetoric than cash.

Adhaalath party declares a ceasefire in their war on discotheques

Last year the party that controls the Islamic Affairs Ministry took a tough stance on discos. They issued an edict against them and directed the police to clamp down on them during the last two New Years Eves.

They have also banned a barbeque that was to be held at Holiday Inn during the upcoming solar eclipse. This has led to some degree of unhappiness amongst young people who like to dance and eat grilled sausages (though not necessarily at the same time).

This year, the party will come to the realisation that there are far greater threats to the religious unity of the country than discos. They will also accept that young people need sources of entertainment.

The freedom to dance and be entertained is better than getting holed up in dingy little apartments and doing brown sugar. The minister will retain the title DJ Majeed, but no longer in an ironic sense.

Former president Gayoom wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Former president Gayoom did not have a good year. Apart from having to suffer the ignominy of being taken to the police for questioning, all his achievements on the environmental front have been forgotten. The international community has forgotten all about how Gayoom stood up to global warming and how well he handled the influx of aid after the 2004 tsunami.

The year 2010 will rectify all that. The international community will accept that the new government’s entire climate change policy was based on Gayoom’s vision.

It will be revealed that carbon neutrality was actually first laid out in the Vision 2020 document. They will recognise that the current MDP government was standing on the shoulders of a giant and they will belatedly award Gayoom the prize that had until now eluded him.

This accolade will quench the former president’s thirst for the limelight. He will gracefully retire from public life and assume the role of respected elder statesmen. He will turn down an offer to become the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Dr. Hassan Saeed makes a spectacular political comeback

The only politician that has had a worse year than Gayoom is Hassan Saeed. He resigned his position in government after a hundred days. His party only won two seats in the parliamentary elections. They ignored his whip on Dr. Shaheed’s vote of no confidence that resulted in an open split in the ranks.

In effect he no longer controls any seats in parliament. And to cap it all, President Nasheed has announced that he will not hold a mid-term election that Saeed had pinned so much hope on.

This year, the Gaumee Party’s relentlessly negative campaign will finally pay dividends as people come to the decision that it’s expose of government expenses on overseas trips are the real reason for the nation’s economic woes. As this realisation dawns, their support will extend from the current narrow base of middle-aged women in Feydhoo.

In 2010, Hassan Saeed will once again become a relevant force in Maldivian politics.

And so there you have it; some predictions for the New Year. Hopefully at least two or three will come true.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Former president denies human rights abuses in 30-year rule

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has denied that human rights abuses and torture in prisons occurred during his 30-year reign.

Taking questions from listeners yesterday on DhiFM’s “One-to-One” live call-in show, Gayoom categorically denied that he ordered anyone to be tortured.

“No Maldivian citizen was unjustly punished that I was aware of or on my orders,” he said.

He added he was not aware of torture in jails or custodial deaths and it would not have taken place on his orders.

“When I received complaints, I looked into it. I did get complaints of torture in jails or unjust punishment in other ways. Every case would have been investigated,” he said.

In some cases, commissions were formed to investigate the allegations, he continued, while other cases were sent to court.

Responding to a question on whether he could prove his 30-year rule was not autocratic, Gayoom said he always governed in full compliance with the constitution and was re-elected in free and fair elections.

“I did not come to power or remain in power by using military force,” he said.

Appearing on the same show last week, President Mohamed Nasheed, a former Amnesty International “Prisoner of Conscience”, said he recently found a letter to the former president, also minister of defence at the time, from the officer-in-charge of police.

“It says in a lot of cases many citizens were taken before court without any evidence in the way the government wanted,” he said.

At the time, said Nasheed, such things were commonplace.

Asked about the letter, Gayoom said he could not recall a particular letter as he would have received thousands during the past 30 years.

“I might remember if it happened or not if that letter is shown to me and how I acted upon it or if I didn’t,” he said, adding he could not recall it off the top of his head.

If Nasheed showed him the letter, he continued, he would explain how it happened.

Although the pair has not met since the hand-over of power last year, Gayoom said he has had telephone conversations with the president and exchanged text messages.

Fielding questions

After thanking him for “getting rid of drugs in four months”, a caller asked Gayoom about a man from Fuahmulah who was “brought to Male’ on an allegation, punished and killed in Dhoonidhoo” in 1982.

Another caller asked, “Do you know that an island called Mandhoo exists?”

Gayoom addressed a number of issues ranging from tsunami reconstruction, his future in politics and the state of the nation.

The former president said he has not made a decision on remaining as leader of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party or contesting for the presidency in 2013.

“I am still thinking about it. God willing, the people will know my decision very soon,” he said.

Defending his record on island development, Gayoom said there was only one government school in the atolls when he took office in 1978, but there were schools now in all inhabited islands.

Moreover, he built island offices, atoll offices and atoll houses as well as mosques, health centres and harbours.

Infant mortality was reduced from 120 from every 1,000 births to 10, he said, while life expectancy rose from 48 to over 70 years.

International institutions and agencies have noted that of all the Asian countries affected by the tsunami, he said, Maldives made the best use of foreign aid.

Gayoom said about US$80 million pledged by the institutions and foreign nations was not delivered.

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CSC defends restoration of civil servants’ salaries

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has defended its decision to restore civil servants’ salaries and allowances in January to their former levels.

At a press conference today, Abdul Muhsin, vice-president of the commission, said the condition for restoring salaries to pre-October levels was the government’s revenue exceeding Rf7 billion (US$545 million) as it was the main indicator to determine whether the “special economic circumstances” that made the pay cuts necessary had passed.

Muhsin said a statement on the budget published on the finance ministry website stated that income for government offices alone would exceed Rf7 billion.

In the discussions with the finance ministry before the pay cuts were enforced in October, he added, it was agreed that salaries would be restored “automatically” when revenue reached Rf7 billion.

Moreover, the CSC regulations state that changes to salaries must be reviewed every three months.

The finance ministry “has been told” of the decision to restore salaries, he said.

In August, the government introduced a raft of austerity measures, including pay cuts for political employees, reduction of overtime and cutting back on travel, to alleviate the inherited budget deficit.

Last month, the parliamentary committee selected to review the budget made a recommendation to inject Rf617 million to restore civil servants’ salaries.

Muhsin said the commission received a letter from parliament informing them that salaries had to be restored if CSC believed the economic circumstances had passed.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Ahmed Assad, state minister for finance, said the commission did not consult either with the ministry or the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) before making its decision.

“Our indicators don’t show that the economic circumstances have passed,” he said.

Assad said the ministry would “respect the decision of parliament” on the issue of restoring salaries.

Muhsin said all expenditure from the budget was made under the assumption that the projected revenue would materialise. “So the commission’s thinking is why should civil servants’ salaries not be restored from the first day assuming that the income will be received.”

Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, spokesperson for the commission, said the changes were valid for a three-month period and would automatically be restored in January.

“The finance ministry has not discussed with us to maintain the reduction,” he said, adding the restoration was not a decision made by the commission so much as an automatic reversal.

Asked whether the commission believed the “special economic circumstances” had passed, Muhsin said it was beyond the CSCs “area of competence”.

But, he added, statements on the finance ministry’s website and fiscal indicators were publicly available.

The commission only looked to see whether government revenue reached Rf7 billion, he said.

Fahmy said he believed the finance ministry would respect the law and issue funds to restore salaries to their former levels.

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