Month: December 2010

MNDF says Maldivian waters free from terror threats

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and the Indian Navy have claimed that they have found no evidence of terrorist activities being conducted in the waters surrounding the country’s atolls, according to news reports.

Haveeru reported yesterday that Major Abdu Raheem of the MNDF had confirmed that joint patrols conducted within Maldivian waters by coastguard and naval forces, which included monitoring and searching cargo ships, found no terror threats to the Maldives.

“Our plans for the operation were to cover the entire Maldivian area. We searched a large part of the sea and found no terrorist activities,” Raheem told the paper’s online edition.

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Cleaning community and public places part of Maldives culture: Vice President

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed has inaugurated a cleaning programme for the Male’ swimming tracks, in conjunction with the Swimming Association of the Maldives and the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sports and o clean Malé swimming area.

Opening the programme yesterday, Dr Waheed said that cleaning the community and public places was part of the Maldives’ history and culture, and that development should not mean abandoning such activities.

Several doctors raised concerns in May about potential contamination of the water in the swimming tracks.

Dr Abdul Azeez Yousuf from Malé Health Services Corporation said pollution in the water was a concern, since it is “a question of considerable contamination” and added there is “not an easy solution” to the problem.

The biggest problem, Dr Yousuf said, are all the boats in the harbour. “They don’t have proper sewerage disposal,” he told Minivan News at the time. “It goes straight into the sea.”

Medical doctor at the Central Clinic in Malé, Dr Ahmed Razee, said he has treated cases of gastro-enteritis caused by infections from the water.

“I am able to say very emphatically that yes, people can develop gastro-enteritis from swimming in Malé lagoon,” Dr Razee said.

He noted that “theoretically, the possibility [of getting gastro-enteritis] is very much real,” and “in medicine what we say is if something is possible, it will happen.”

But he added that “as far as the local population is concerned, and people who are continuing to go swimming, even if there was an infection, they would probably all have immunity to it, most of the common organisms.”

Dr Razee said the more “ominous thing is the presence of typhoid in the water and enteric organisms.” He said although enteric typhoid has been almost “wiped out” in Malé, “we do see some sporadic cases.”

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President appoints Climate Care founder as energy advisor

President Mohamed Nasheed has appointed the founder of Climate Care, one of the world’s first carbon trading companies, to the position of Energy Advisor.

Mike Mason was appointed to the unpaid position at a ceremony held at Oxford University in the UK on FriDAY evening.

A statement from the President’s Office described Mason as “a world expert on renewable energy, carbon finance and offsetting”, who would be “tasked with providing the President and his office with strategic advice on how the Maldives can switch from oil based power to renewable energy, in order to improve the country’s energy security and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. ”

Climate Care was acquired by investment banking monolith JP Morgan in April 2008.

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ADB to assist Maldives with its green goals

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced new cooperation with the Maldives to provide technical assistance in setting up investment plans to help the country meet its ambition to become carbon neutral by 2020, Haveeru has reported.

The paper claims that the investment plan will try to outline more specific measures to ensure that the millions of Rufiyaa that will be required to be raised in order to meet the nation’s green goals will be used effectively.

State Housing Minister, Akram Kamaluddin, who is currently in Tokyo for the second Asia Solar Energy Forum, claimed that the assistance of the ADB will allow the Maldives to cut the costs of trying to switch to becoming a more sustainable economy, according to the report.

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Opposition groups back national anti-piracy stance

Political opposition the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and Jumhooree Party (JP) have pledged to cooperate with the government in pursuing anti-piracy campaigns within the country’s waters, according to reports.

During a joint press conference held yesterday afternoon, Miadhu reported that both parties expressed concern about expanding activity from Somali pirates that they claim is getting closer to Maldivian shores.

Gasim Ibrahim, leader of the JP, claimed that piracy within Maldivian territorial waters represents a major threat to the nation and its lucrative tourism and fisheries sectors.

“There are many challenges to the tourism industry even now. Though it might be that the number of tourists has increased, the tourists come here with special discounts,” he said at the conference.  “Therefore, if the tourism industry is further undermined then the economy will be destabilised,”

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Umar Naseer dismissed amidst stormy day for the DRP

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has dismissed its Deputy Leader, Umar Naseer after a disciplinary committee voted to remove the senior politician during a dramatic day that saw growing uncertainty over the party’s future as its Male’ headquarters were stormed by supporters.

Haveeru reported that a special DRP disciplinary committee voted four to one in favour of dismissing Naseer this afternoon, a decision that is alleged not to have the support of former president and party chief, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The exit of Naseer, who has been at the centre of an acrimonious war of words with DRP leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, has led one party MP to claim a split may be imminent within the country’s opposition.

“There will be a split in the party for sure,” DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf told Minivan News following the disciplinary committee decision. “He is someone with a lot of support in the party, and to date he has done a lot of work for us. He is very loyal to the former President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.”

Mahlouf also claimed that the decision to remove Naseer due to disagreements with party leadership was against DRP policy and conventions that he said required a two-thirds majority at the party’s congress to remove a serving Deputy Leader.

Both Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and Umar Naseer were unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press about their respective political futures.

The day began with a group of opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) supporters said to be loyal to Naseer storming the movement’s headquarters and disrupting the disciplinary talks focusing on the former Deputy Leader.

DRP Secretary General Abdurasheed Nafiz told Minvan News that about a dozen or so people “burst into the head office” of the DRP during the morning to try and have a hearing of the party’s disciplinary committee against Naseer dismissed.

Nafiz said the meeting, originally scheduled for 9.00am, was eventually postponed until 11.45am as a result of the interruptions, with further meetings then taking place throughout the afternoon to outline what action was to be taken against Naseer.

The committee meetings followed months of animosity between Naseer and Thasmeen that yesterday led to a similar gathering of protestors outside the DRP’s headquarters.

About 30 people gathered near the DRP’s headquarters during Wednesday afternoon to call for the resignation of Thasmeen. Those gathered also held placards carrying messages in Dhivehi with statements such as “although Umar may be removed from his position he will be serving the nation and the people.”

Just last week, Umar Naseer vowed to take legal action against “government officials and opposition figures who accepted bribes from (Indian infrastructure giant) GMR”, following allegations that surfaced last month on the Dhivehi Post website.

Back in September, Naseer also accused Thasmeen supporters of attempting to dismiss him from the party after the DRP council voted narrowly to move ahead with a disciplinary hearing.

This animosity has led to claims and speculation that a split within the DRP may be imminent; reports that some party members have dismissed as “a media campaign conducted in the interests of” the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

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Rajapaksa and Fonseka responsible for alleged war crimes: leaked US cables

Leaked cables from the US Embassy in Colombo have revealed American diplomatic concerns alleging  Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former army commander Sarath Fonseka were last year responsible for war crimes committed during the end of the civil war against Tamil separatists.

The US diplomatic cables, leaked by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, includes 3325 from Colombo, making the Embassy in Sri Lanka among those hardest-hit by the scandal.

In a leaked cable sent on January 15 2010, Ambassador Patricia Butenis remarked there was a clear “lack of attention to accountability” following the mass killings of Tamils in the final days of the war, a situation she described as “regrettable” but unsurprising.

“There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power,” Butenis said in the cable.

“In Sri Lanka this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka.”

The cable also revealed that Fonseka had quietly ordered the opposition campaign “to begin planning a ‘truth and reconciliation’ commission.”

In a comment piece published in Minivan News on November 30, Butenis condemned the release of the cables and said it was important for diplomats to be able to have “frank” discussions with their colleagues and counterparts.

“We support and are willing to have genuine debates about pressing questions of public policy. But releasing documents carelessly and without regard for the consequences is not the way to start such a debate,” she said.

The US has stated that it will not comment on the specific content of the leaked cables.

Cultural Affairs Officer and Spokesperson for the US Embassy in Colombo, Glen Davis, told Minivan News earlier this week that cable traffic was “very preliminary; pieces are incomplete and read out of context, they are easy to misconstrue.”

“A disclosure like this is bad for contacts, harmful to global engagement and makes it difficult to tackle problems such as organised crime and nuclear proliferation,” he said.

The Sri Lankan President was due to meet the UK’s Defence Secretary on December 3, as well as address the Oxford Union, however the visit was cancelled for security reasons.

The Maldivian government, which this year won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, recently established a credit line to Sri Lanka worth US$200 million. The announcement was made by President Mohamed Nasheed on November 18 prior to departing for Sri Lanka to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Sri Lankan President.

Read the full cable (English)

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Supreme court verdict pending on cabinet endorsements

The Supreme Court has concluded hearings on the opposition’s case demanding that the seven cabinet ministers rejected by the opposition-majority parliament step down from office, but has yet to have announced a date to deliver the verdict.

Minister of Fisheries Dr Ibrahim Didi, Minister of Education Dr Mustafa Luthfy, Minister of Defence Ameen Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, Minister of Finance Ali Hashim and Minister of Home Affairs Mohamed Shihab had their reappointments rejected in parliament last week after the endorsement vote was boycotted by the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The issue of cabinet endorsements  had derailed parliament for the previous three weeks on points of order, placing the 2011 Budget in jeopardy of being submitted and passed before the final session of parliament for the year.

Dr Sawad told Minivan News today that the government’s argument was based on the fact that the Maldives had a “unique” constitutional process, and that the process of appointing ministers was not comparable with countries such as the United States.

In the Maldives, Dr Sawad said, “the President has the executive power to appoint Cabinet Ministers. There is a clear separation of powers.”

“If the interpretation is that by a simple majority any appointed minister can be removed from his position, that means that with parliament’s quorum of 20, 11 MPs can vote against cabinet and have ministers removed despite the constitution’s very detailed no confidence procedure,” he said. “If [ministers can be removed] by a simple sitting majority, it will lead to serious instability.”

Dr Sawad added that “any interpretation [of the Constitution] that facilitates such instability in the political system is a very serious threat to our nation.”

The issue of ministerial appointments within parliament has raised concerns among some MPs that current rulings are insufficient for the Maldives’ highly partisan political environment, particularly in relation to the Majlis.

Kuludufushi-South Independent MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed last month claimed that constitutional changes within the Supreme Court will be required to address the nation’s ongoing political deadlock over cabinet ministers.

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Government pledges to step up community-led decision making

A “Community Cabinet” has been established by the government in a move it has claimed will help bring more direct links between its work and local people.

The government specifically hopes to make greater use of public opinion in its decision making by travelling out to local and more far-flung island communities.

Along with direct discussion, the President’s Office said it was also considering making greater use of computers and online communication technology like social network sites to speed up communication with the public.  Popular sites like Facebook and Twitter are expected to be used as part of the focus.

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