Category: Politics

Dissolving IDCs an undemocratic power grab, says DQP

The government’s abolition of the Island Development Committees (IDC) is a blow against democracy in the Maldives, the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) has said.

“This is a mockery of the public and the Constitution,” the party said, “and more a feature of autocratic rule than democracy.”

The Maldivian Cabinet dissolved the IDCs – elected bodies of five to seven members, functioning like a local council – last month after
courts ruled they had no legal authority under the new constitution.

Government-appointed advisory boards will administer the islands until local councils can be elected, assuming a decentralisation bill (currently at committee stage) is passed by parliament.

“We think this is a step backwards for democracy,” said DQP Secretary General Abdullah Ameen, who accused the government of strengthening its territorial control through autocracy.

“Even during Gayoom’s time the IDCs were the only institutions where people on the islands saw democracy practiced, and were among the only democratic institutions in the country,” he said.

The move, claimed independent MP Mohamed Nasheed on DhiTV last night, amounted to “burying democracy in the islands”.

Under the terms of the constitution, the elections of island, atoll and city councils were to be held before July 1, 2009, in order to provide for decentralised administration of the country.

Instead, argued the DQP, the government had not only missed the deadline but was using the dissolution of the IDCs to claim island assets such as powerhouses for privatisation.

“Dismissing the IDCs and appointing advisory boards doesn’t accomplish anything,” Ameen said.

The deadline for the local elections elapsed after the parliamentary election was postponed from February to May because MPs failed to pass the necessary legislation.

Deputy Home Minister Ahmed Shafeeq acknowledged that island assets were currently being valued through the courts before being handed over to utility companies, but said the government was waiting for the”new rules and procedures” in the decentralisation bill to be implemented before establishing elected and salaried island and atoll councils.

“After the new constitution was introduced the Island Development Committees were no longer lawful – and that’s a problem for such an institution,” he said.

“They have no legal basis and we can’t just [continue] as if they do,” he added, explaining that the government-appointed advisory boards were only a temporary measure.

Besides dissolving the IDCs, the cabinet decided to allow the development of tourist guest houses on inhabited islands in the hope of generating additional income from visitors.

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Kolhufushi to undergo multi-million dollar make-over

Islanders from Meemu atoll Kolhufushi will have their homes rebuilt in a multi-million dollar make-over after five years of living in temporary shelters following the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The government will use money from a US$15 million Abu Dhabi Fund for the project which will see the reconstruction and renovation of 168 houses, said Dr Mohamed Shareef, deputy minister of housing, transport and environment. Shareef added that the fund will also help pay for renovation on other tsunami-ravaged islands.

The Kolhufushi project will see the construction of a water and electricity network as well as a sewerage system, along with the harbour that was built by the former government.

Shareef said the government had conducted a survey asking every household what they thought was required for the reconstruction.

Reconstruction will get underway next March, he said, as the project has to be opened up to an international bidding process.

“The government will rebuild whatever has been damaged,” he said, explaining that no new houses would be built.

Councillor Mohamed Waheed said that many of the island’s 1,200 residents were living in temporary shelters made of plywood and cement while others still lived in their own houses “in difficult conditions”.

For now, electricity and oil is provided at no charge to the islanders, he said.

Waheed said that during the consultation process, islanders were given the option of having their new homes built in three different styles.

“The previous government also made a lot of promises to the people. The Red Cross people came to the island four or five times but there were a lot of problems. They even finalised plans,” he said.

“There was a conflict between the people and the government. There was an internal war on the island and they couldn’t do it,” he added.

Kolhufushi was one of the islands worst-hit by the tsunami with 16 deaths and extensive damage to the island’s infrastructure.

But the British Red Cross halted reconstruction in January 2007 after the government and islanders failed to come to an agreement over the location of the new houses.

Shareef said islanders were displeased with the organisation’s assessment that only 55 houses were required.

“But building houses is one of President Nasheed’s pledges which is why he will make this a priority,” he said.

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Return of an exile

After 28 years of self-imposed exile, Moomina Haleem returned to the Maldives on November 15.

“I had not seen this Male’. It was absolutely amazing; when I left it was green and the only thing I could see was treetops. Now it looks like little Manhattan,” says Moomina, now 70 years old.

Harassed to the point of being forced to leave the country, one imagines the experience would have left Moomina bitter. But Moomina is the epitome of happiness, sitting in her home, surrounded by two visiting friends. She offers me nougat and Maldivian sweets, laughingly telling me this is what they do all day now.

She has the sweetest smile and looks like everyone’s favourite aunt. Black and white photos are framed on the walls behind her.

Her return to the Maldives started with a phone call. She describes it as her happiest moment in 28 years “when Mohamed Nasheed called me just after he won the election and told me, ‘you can come home now.’”

Her excitement was such that it took her three tries just to get home. The first time she lay awake the entire night and was sick, “so instead of airport I went to the hospital. The doctors found nothing wrong with me, I think it was extreme happiness playing havoc.”

Two days later she woke on departure day to realize she had lost her voice. Finally she arrived on November 15, 2008.

She says despite the invitation to to attend President Mohamed Nasheed’s inauguration, she insisted she would come back after he was sworn in.

“This time I was very happy to be able to participate in the festivities for the one year mark,” she says.

Keeping in touch

Moomina kept herself updated with what was happening in the Maldives through newspapers her husband bought her regularly, “although I am not sure everything I read was correct.”

‘Disappointment’ is the foremost emotion she feels about the years she lived in exile.

“I couldn’t help my countrymen, even when I was young and capable of doing so much for the people,” she laments.

She wasn’t completely ‘useless’ for her compatriots, as she puts it, acting as translator and accompanying Maldivians who travelled to Sri Llanka for medical treatment.

“Back then it was crucial help as most didn’t speak English. Now the youngsters are fluent in it,” she says.

A trained nurse by profession, it helped that she was familiar with the health sector, but she says “even then I could only help those I saw.”

She recalls a time she accompanied a couple to the doctor. When they saw her five days later after being cured, they tried to give her money for her help.

“I told them that I had been educated by Maldivian government when the country was very poor, and it was my duty to help and there was no way I would accept money from a Maldivian for that.”

Moomina laments that despite the state bestowing on her the gift of education, circumstances did not enable her to contribute back to the country to the extent she wanted to.

Leaving and travelling

Two years after Gayoom’s government came to power in late 1978, Moomina went to Sri Lanka for the treatment of her younger sister.

“I never imagined I would not come back then,” she says. Calls followed in quick succession, including from her mother who asked her not to return.

“By then there was practically no one in my family who hadn’t been detained on one pretext or another,” Moomina says.

Her husband, who suffered from epilepsy, had to take medicine every night and she recalls how every evening police would show up the moment he went to sleep to take him to the station where they would keep him awake until morning.

Moomina had to make the painful decision to not return for her two sons, then aged six years and two months.

“I had no money, I didn’t know what the future held, or how could I take them with me,” she says. It would be four years before she would see her children again.

Before making the decision to become an exile Moomina had been dragged to court and detained for questioning on numerous occasions. Once, the judge sentenced her to banishment, “although they never enforced the sentence. I never imagined I would ever be taken to court,” she says. She says being repeatedly dragged to court was one of her most difficult experiences.

She was frequently accused of inciting hatred among citizens towards the government, an offense under a particular article in the constitution “that was written in such a way that you could interpret it any way you wanted. It’s not in the constitution now.”

But her stay in Colombo was short lived. After three months she was summoned to the dreaded CID quarters in Colombo.

“People had fallen from that building, and been tortured, and I dared not go there,” she recalls. Instead she consulted her husband’s friend, who used a contact to ask the CID to come round and interview her at his place.

“Two CID officers arrived and said I had been placed under surveillance since my arrival on the request of Maldivian government,” she says.

While they said they had found nothing to indicate she was part of a revolution against the government, they couldn’t allow her to stay in Sri Lanka “owing to the close ties between the two countries.”

They also told her that the head of the revolution was her relative Ahmed Naseem (now state minister for foreign affairs).

“I was under that misconception for 15 years until I met Ilyas Ibrahim (brother-in-law of former president Gayoom) in London.”

Ilyas was undergoing self-imposed exile in London after he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years’ banishment for treason during Gayoom’s third term in power. The court claimed he had tried to overthrow the government using sorcery.

He was frank enough to tell Moomina that they had cooked up the story about Naseem, she alleges, adding this dumbfounded her “especially since Naseem had spent considerable time in jail for that.”

She claims he also told her that the government had been rigging elections ever since they came to power. She laughingly says she should have had a recorder then.

“I used to say this: when my husband gets banished it is to Baa Atoll Dhonfanu, when Ilyas gets banished it is to London.”

Back and forth

Moomina asked the Sri Lankan CID for 24 hours to leave the country, and chose UK as her destination as it was at the time the only country aside from Italy that would accept Maldivians without visas.

She bought a ticket with her remaining money, leaving her with five dollars. In London she lodged at a friend’s sister’s place.

As a member of Royal College of Nursing, she contacted them and was advised to apply for political asylum. The home affairs secretary told her she would be given permission to work the next day if she applied.

“I told them I couldn’t, because if the news travelled back to Maldives I was scared of what they would do to my family.”

After completing a refresher course offered by the college she applied for a job in Kuwait. She had barely started working as the director of nursing in a hospital when the first Iran-Iraq war broke out.

“I looked at the maps and I thought about this little country sandwiched between two giants, and what would happen to it [during the war].”

So she travelled back to London again, only returning to work in Kuwait five months later when she was sure it was safe. She says there were moments she was almost penniless but fear for her family’s safety kept preventing her from applying for political asylum.

She tells cute anecdotes. One night, she says, when she was left with only five pounds, she prayed before going to sleep that night and woke up to a phone call from the State Bank of India informing her there was 1,000 pounds waiting for her from her husband. When she asked him why he sent the money at that exact moment, two and a half years later “he told me he woke up and thought she must need money now.”

Several years after working in Kuwait she met the ambassador to Sri Lanka, and during their conversation she realized the Maldivian government’s objective was simply to ensure she didn’t return to Maldives. So she went back to Colombo where she was reunited with her children.

“My mom moved to Colombo with the children, as even their life was becoming more difficult.”

Contribution to the country

After her studies, Moomina started working in November 1963 as the matron of the hospital, when the country was still a sultanate.

“It was barely a hospital then, it was called the doctoruge (doctor’s house).” During her early career she even designed and commissioned a bed to help women give birth.

A few days into her job, the person in charge of the hospital complained that soap expenses had been skyrocketing ever since she arrived. Her explanation is fascinating especially at a time when we take such things for granted: “There were two untrained staff who applied dressings to patients, and one doubled as the undertaker.”

Noticing they didn’t wash their hands in between attending to different patients, Moomina trained them to do it. “Once they started hand washing, the expenses complaint came up.” She ended up taking soap from her house to the hospital.

The problem of patient privacy arose next, especially for those who needed to use bedpans.

“Without screens, I dared not do it,” she says. The solution involved buying three pieces of clothing to make up screens, “and that took care of my entire month’s salary.” As all this was new, there was no budget allocated for such things.

Expenses were such a problem that when she heard over the radio that Ibrahim Nasir had been assigned the head of the hospital, her first words were: “Better than him getting the salary would be giving the money to me to buy medicine for the poor.”

She was pleasantly surprised to be summoned and told that Nasir was donating his salary to the hospital.

Then there was a fund called Ranabadeyri kileygefanu fund, and she was assigned the task of spending its monthly stipend of Rf 1,000. “Back then for 100 rufiyya we could buy medicine for 10 people so it was a lot,” she says.

But the funds came with strings attached. “100 rufiyya was given at a time, once I spent that money on buying medicine for the poor I had to show records, with the patient’s signature, then I would be given the next 100.”

Her diligence was duly noted, and Nasir appointed her health minister in 1976 when he became president.

“I wrote the syllabus, included information on common illnesses, their causes and prevention methods as well as good, nutritional stuff to eat. But my biggest achievement was training health workers and sending one to each island – before that there was only one health worker per atoll,” she says, proud of her contribution even though she only held the portfolio for a short time before Nasir’s government was dissolved in 1978.

Moomina was also quite the trendsetter, and was one of the first women to ride a bicycle in the Maldives. “I was quite the sight”, she laughs, recalling she had to ride a man’s bicycle with her sari which was the uniform back then. Seeing her plight, Nasir introduced bicycles for women which made riding around easier.

Maldives now

Moomina can’t give a reason for Gayoom’s harassment of her.

“Back then a woman couldn’t even be president, so how could I have been a threat?” she wonders, admitting she would have quickly stood for election had the constitution allowed it.

The greatest change in the country, she believes, is the freedom to say what one wants.

“Sitting here I can say anything and I know I will not be detained by police. One year of this new government and no political prisoners – it’s simply amazing.”

The concept of MPs debating in parliament fascinates her, “as they can say what they want.”

“Though some do take it a bit extreme. Sometimes they seem to oppose just because it’s something that is not from their own party.”

She remains happy that at least they do vote together for things that benefit the people.

Moomina had been a parliament member during Nasir’s government, and was the only women for six years. “Before that there had been nominated women parliamentarians like my mother and two others during the first president Mohamed Ameen’s time, but I was the first one to be elected.”

She attributes her attitude to her mother, who frequented the market long before any women shopped there.

As for religious talks, she says she “quite likes” those of State Minister for Islamic Affairs, Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed.

“The things he says and the way he says it – it makes one want to listen more,” she says, but adds she would have a problem if she was forced to wear a veil “because the hair on my head never caused me any problem during all my travels.”

Moomina says she is ready to serve this government any way she can, “Though now I will no longer be able to do day-to-day affairs, as I am at the age of retirement and no longer live here.”

Living in the Maldives cost less in Nasir’s time considering the lower income of the country compared to Maumoon’s 30 years, she recalls.

“Then the average annual income was US$15,000-$20,000 thousand, but education and medicine were free, he introduced English medium studies and brought in foreign teachers – a lot was done.”

The current government’s work so far is “commendable”, she says, but adds “people expect things too fast. The government doesn’t have the money to deliver everything yet.” She hopes that once the government gets its financial situation under control, “they should not misuse it, and deliver on their pledges.”

She harbors no ill will towards Gayoom. “Bitterness ends up destroying oneself. As I got older I have decided I will not say hurtful things even to him,” she says.

Her only complaint is the amount of money Gayoom receives as an ex-president: “By this country’s standard that is too much.”

Dividing her time between Sri Lanka, London and Maldives, she says she will not stay here permanently because her husband is now used to living elsewhere.

“But it’s such a joy to be able to come back home to Maldives whenever I want, and to be able to say anything without fear.”

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Letter on gang muggings

Dear Editor,
I urge police to do their work without giving us lame excuses. Earlier it was said that the Dictator Maumoon and chief torturer Adam Zahir was doing all these things, now who is to blame?

Is it the commissioner of the police or the president? But i doubt that the problem is with some incompetent senior police officers who don’t even have a clue what their responsibility is. Now that the whole of society is paralyzed with all these stabbing even the media doesn’t cover these incidents if some is stabbed people usually ask did he die?

The police will come up with the same statement “ithurah thahugeegu kuranee” (the investigation is ongoing – the same philosophy of policing in Maumoon’s time)…there’s no follow up!

For God’s sake this is just one mile, please make us safe “where’s anneh dhivehiraaje”? If something has got be neutral it’s not the carbon that ordinary citizens are concerned about it’s gangs and violence and the drugs in Male’; unfortunately the present government is also giving excuses for inability and incompetent policing in Maldives.

Regards,
Anonymous

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Commonwealth’s lustre fading, finds survey

The Commonwealth has a very low profile among the public, especially the young, and policymakers, according to a new global public consultation.

Less than one-third of the people interviewed as part of the Commonwealth Conversation, to mark the association’s 60th anniversary, could name any of its activities, with the majority only able to cite the Commonwealth Games.

Policymakers struggled to identify areas to the Commonwealth clearly added value. Those working in Commonwealth organisations expressed frustration that the association was being neglected by member governments and lacked an ambitious vision for its future.

“This is a wake up call for the Commonwealth. After 60 years of fantastic work, the Commonwealth has to choose between quietly retiring or boldly revitalising itself for the 21st century,” said Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

The Commonwealth Conversation surveyed tens of thousands of people across almost all its 53 member states via online and offline activities.

The investigation’s findings further revealed that the Commonwealth was “more often valued by Anglophiles and those nostalgic for an imperial past than those committed to the internationalist values of the association”.

The report suggested rebuilding the Commonwealth’s profile to highlight its principles, priorities and the people involved.

Contributing to the report, Kenyan Vice President H E Kalonzo Musyoka said, “We don’t hear the voice of the Commonwealth loud enough. It is a very well established body but I do feel that it needs a sense of renewal.”

Last week, Commonwealth heads met in Trinidad and Tobago for their annual meeting where climate change was the main topic on the agenda.

Leaders welcomed a US$10 billion climate package to help developing countries ahead of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen this month, which analysts have argued will help revive the Commonwealth’s standing.

Non-Commonwealth leaders such as Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon made appearances for the first time.

In a statement at the end of the two-day conference, leaders agreed to consider strengthening the role of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to enable it to deal with the full range of serious and persistent violations of the association’s fundamental values.

The Maldives was included in the group, established by the Commonwealth heads of government in 1995 to uphold the Harare Declaration, which lays down the association’s fundamental values and membership criteria.

Leaders expressed concern over the deterioration in the political situation in Fiji with regard to its adherence to fundamental Commonwealth values and said they would consider Zimbabwe’s re-entry into the organisation over the next few years.

In addition to signing a climate change declaration, participants agreed to admit Rwanda as the 54th member; a decision which alarmed some human rights organisations.

Also at the summit, Sri Lanka was blocked from hosting the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders in protest at the country’s military repression against the Tamil population earlier this year.

While the Sri Lankan government succeeded in ending a 26-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers, they have been accused of widespread human rights abuses in achieving their goal.

Instead, countries voted for Australia to host next year’s conference.

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Budget falls short of development pledges: DRP

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has expressed regret over the proposed 2010 mid-term budget, which it argues will fail to deliver on the development pledges of the incumbent government.

The largest opposition party said the budget had a deficit of Rf4.7 billion (US$366 million), noting that while Rf7.2 billion (US$560 million) is expected in revenue, this was accounted for 60 per cent of the budget.

“It is further doubtful that the revenue goals could be reached since a large part of the income rests upon taxes to be levied under laws that would be made in the future,” a statement from the party said.

Addressing MPs last week, Finance Minister Ali Hashim said the government had proposed a number of measures to generate around US$354 million to plug the deficit. These included foreign aid, foreign loan assistance, privatisation of government companies and the sale of treasury bills through the Maldives Monetary Authority.

In their statement, the DRP further noted that Hashim said government revenue depended on three new taxes, legislation for which was currently pending in parliament.

But, the party continued, the Rf3.4 billion (US$265 million) expected in tax revenue in next year’s budget was only three per cent higher than tax revenue in 2008.

Last week, Hashim urged MPs to pass the taxation legislation before the end of the year and said a goods and services tax would be imposed on tourist resorts and hotels in the final quarter of 2010, which he anticipated would raise Rf358 million (US$27 million) in revenue.

Revenue

The party further noted that at Rf333 million (US$26 million) revenue from profits of government companies was significantly lower than 2009 because of the government’s policy of selling off state assets.

DRP pointed to the government’s decision to sell seven per cent of its stake in the highly profitable Dhiraagu, the country’s first telecommunications company, to British company Cable & Wireless for US$40 million.

“We believe that another reason for the decrease of income from government companies is handing over management of these companies to unqualified people for political purposes,” their statement said.

Since coming to power, the government has introduced a policy of public-private partnerships it hopes will enhance the efficiency of state-owned enterprises.

Beyond the 40 per cent deficit, another of the issues raised by the DRP was the lack of funding for large development projects such as a national university,

“The extraordinarily high government expenditure casts doubts on the government’s talk of reducing expenditure,” the statement said, further claiming that a large portion of the total expenditure on government employees, Rf3.9 billion (US$304 million), would be spent on political appointees.

Even with the reduction of civil servants’ salaries and dismissals, expenditure on salaries is higher than previous years, the DRP said.

In August, the government announced a raft of austerity measures to help alleviate the budget deficit. These included pay cuts of up to 20 per cent for civil servants and all political appointees ranked deputy minister and above, cutting back on foreign trips, and letting go of all government-rented buildings.

Both the president and the vice-president also volunteered to take a 20 per cent pay cut to their salaries.

Despite a high number of political appointees, the government continues to maintain that it has made fewer appointments than the former administration.

“Benefit for the people”

In their statement, the opposition party described the interest on loans as “alarming”, noting that compared to Rf279 million (US$22 million) in 2008, the amount raised from interest in 2010 will be Rf529 million (US$41 million).

The party said that while the government’s policy was to reduce the size of the government, the proposed expenditure in 2010 will be higher than in previous years.

The DRP further pointed to the increase in foreign debt from Rf755 million (US$59 million) in 2008 to Rf1,057 million (US$82 million) in 2010, adding that the interest rate had not been revealed.

“Our only hope is that this mid-term budget will be amended for the benefit of the people and the country and pave way for development. We give full assurance to the beloved people that we will do everything we can in parliament,” the statement concluded.

Speaking to MPs at parliament, Hashim said that by the IMF government finance statistics measure, the deficit for 2009 was 26.1 per cent.

But, he added, if the mid-term budget was implemented, although there would be a decline to 14.8 per cent in 2010 and 2.4 per cent in 2011, it will reach a surplus in 2012.

Hashim said the structure of the budget was agreed upon after consultations with the International Monetary Fund and recommendations by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

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DRP lambasts mid-term budget

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has expressed regret over the proposed 2010 mid-term budget, which it argues will fail to deliver development to the Maldives.

The largest opposition party said the budget had a deficit of Rf4.7 billion (US$366 million), noting that while Rf7.2 billion (US$560 million) is expected in revenue, this was accounted for 60 per cent of the budget.

“It is further doubtful that the revenue goals could be reached since a large part of the income rests upon taxes to be levied under laws that would be made in the future,” a statement from the party said.

Addressing MPs last week, Finance Minister Ali Hashim said the government had proposed a number of measures to generate around US$354 million to plug the deficit. These included foreign aid, foreign loan assistance, privatisation of government companies and the sale of treasury bills through the Maldives Monetary Authority.

In their statement, the DRP further noted that Hashim said government revenue depended on three new taxes, legislation for which was currently pending in parliament.

But, the party continued, the Rf3.4 billion (US$265 million) expected in tax revenue in next year’s budget was only three per cent higher than tax revenue in 2008.

Last week, Hashim urged MPs to pass the taxation legislation before the end of the year and said a goods and services tax would be imposed on tourist resorts and hotels in the final quarter of 2010, which he anticipated would raise Rf358 million (US$27 million) in revenue.

Revenue
The party further noted that at Rf333 million (US$26 million) revenue from profits of government companies was significantly lower than 2009 because of the government’s policy of selling off state assets.

DRP pointed to the government’s decision to sell seven per cent of its stake in the highly profitable Dhiraagu, the country’s first telecommunications company, to British company Cable & Wireless for US$40 million.

“We believe that another reason for the decrease of income from government companies is handing over management of these companies to unqualified people for political purposes,” their statement said.

Since coming to power, the government has introduced a policy of public-private partnerships it hopes will enhance the efficiency of state-owned enterprises.

Beyond the 40 per cent deficit, another of the issues raised by the DRP was the lack of funding for large development projects such as a national university,
“The extraordinarily high government expenditure casts doubts on the government’s talk of reducing expenditure,” the statement said, further claiming that a large portion of the total expenditure on government employees, Rf3.9 billion (US$304 million), would be spent on political appointees.

Even with the reduction of civil servants’ salaries and dismissals, expenditure on salaries is higher than previous years, the DRP said.

In August, the government announced a raft of austerity measures to help alleviate the budget deficit. These included pay cuts of up to 20 per cent for civil servants and all political appointees ranked deputy minister and above, cutting back on foreign trips, and letting go of all government-rented buildings.

Both the president and the vice-president also volunteered to take a 20 per cent pay cut to their salaries.

Despite a high number of political appointees, the government continues to maintain that it has made fewer appointments than the former administration.

“Benefit of the people”
In their statement, the opposition party described the interest on loans as “alarming”, noting that compared to Rf279 million (US$22 million) in 2008, the amount raised from interest in 2010 will be Rf529 million (US$41 million).

The party said that while the government’s policy was to reduce the size of the government, the proposed expenditure in 2010 will be higher than in previous years.
The DRP further pointed to the increase in foreign debt from Rf755 million (US$59 million) in 2008 to Rf1,057 million (US$82 million) in 2010, adding that the interest rate had not been revealed.

“Our only hope is that this mid-term budget will be amended for the benefit of the people and the country and pave way for development. We give full assurance to the beloved people that we will do everything we can in parliament,” the statement concluded.

Speaking to MPs at parliament, Hashim said that by the IMF government finance statistics measure, the deficit for 2009 was 26.1 per cent.

But, he added, if the mid-term budget was implemented, although there would be a decline to 14.8 per cent in 2010 and 2.4 per cent in 2011, it will reach a surplus in 2012.

Hashim said the structure of the budget was agreed upon after consultations with the International Monetary Fund and recommendations by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.

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Letter on Moomina’s exile

Dear Editor,
Minivan News should cover both sides of the coin I guess. What did Moomina lose when compared to our family and people of Thinadhoo when Nasir crushed innocent civilians in the name of revolution, how many innocents were killed? I am happy that you’re still living and you still have most of the biggest houses in Male’. What have we got? My gradndfathers from both sides were killed in Nasir’s brutal Villingili jail.
I am not telling that you should be suffering, I am happy that you’re there to tell your sad story even though it’s not as sad as ours. But Maumoon, dictator 2, couldn’t do anything to you; you’re lucky when compared to Nasir’s, dictator 1, actions in Thinadhoo.
I am just waiting and hoping that this government will do something for us too…because all the damages was done by the state in the name of minivan kan…killing inoccent children cannot be justified (we don’t even have our home, yours kaimoo, kai lodge, kam hotel all these lands belong to you while we are refugees.
Moomina please be mindful and help those people who suffered back then when your government was in power before you die if you want to serve people. Human rights violations and genocide will not be different whether it’s Maumoon or Nasir both equals to despotic tyrants, and my grandfathers never returned of exile.
Regards,
Anonymous

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Letter on Maldives Police Service

Dear Editor,
Well the purpose of this letter is to let people know that the Maldives Police Services have a lot of people under suspension due to different problems. The suspension is not the problem. It’s the way they keep them. They aren’t given any salary or never even care if they live or not the so-called verin who should be able to take responsibility for almost everything since they have trees and bushes growing on each of there shoulders should know better than this.
I know since they are getting the fat sum of money they don’t care but this shouldn’t be this way since this is a democracy people on suspension have to stay 7 to 8 months or years to come back on service but I belive this is a huge injustice made to them. If the Maldives Police Services can do such damage to people’s lives they shouldn’t be even there. Because there purpose isn’t so.
It seems all the heads of the Maldives Police Services care about is saving their faces and just using the low ranking officers to do so. In a lot of things this is wrong the way they are doing it. They don’t have any place to go for help. Even the people investigating the people don’t even care to answer their calls unless they call them 50 to 70 times and they aren’t even doing their job well.
Just saving face nothing else. I’m a friend of one or two of these people and I’ve seen them being done this injustice. Nobody is above the law but the law shouldn’t be to systematically destroy someone’s life and the people implementing it shouldn’t do so.
Regards,
Anonymous

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