Day: May 16, 2011

Umar Naseer challenges legitimacy of Thasmeen’s leadership

The Elections Commission (EC) has said that it still considers Ahmed Thasmeen Ali to be the leader of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) despite a technicality that dismissed Deputy Leader Umar Naseer claims disqualifies him from the position for failing to report the minutes of the party congress at which he was appointed.

Naseer made the claims yesterday in a text message sent to local media, alleging Thasmeen’s apparent failure to submit the minutes of the 2010 party congress to the EC within 15 days.

According to the message, this means that under party rules, Thasmeen should no longer officially be recognised by the commission as the party head.

An EC spokesperson claimed that although the party had failed to submit the minutes and recordings of last year’s DRP congress, during which it outlined its current leadership as required under its regulations, the commission did not have the mandate to disqualify Thasmeen from his appointment on such grounds.

“Thasmeen has failed to submit the minutes of 2010 DRP Congress to the Elections Commission within 15 days as stipulated by ‘Siyaasee Party ge Qavaaidh 2005,’” Umar claimed in a release sent by SMS. “It means that as far as the (EC) is concerned, Thasmeen is not the leader of the DRP.”

Umar Naseer, Thasmeen and fellow DRP MP Ahmed Maussom were either unavailable or unwilling to comment on the issue when contacted by Minivan News.

However, DRP MP Ahmed Nihan told Minivan News that claims that Thasmeen could no longer be considered as the head of the DRP first surfaced yesterday evening in a report by local media organisation SunFM.

Nihan, citing SunFM, claimed that under the EC’s own mandate, details and a recording of the national congress held by the party to approve new leadership needed to be sent to the regulatory body within 15 days of the event being held.

The DRP MP claimed this still had not happened so far, representing a “clear breach” of party regulation by its leader.

Nihan, himself a supporter of the Z-DRP faction of the party that is critical of Thasmeen’s leadership, said he believed the matter was not just an administrative error and had serious implications for the party.

“This is very serious, the smallest matter can often have the largest consequence and the EC must find a way to solve the issue,” he said. “We [as a party] must do things according to laws and procedure and Thasmeen should be accountable for his mismanagement.”

In addressing the EC’s claims that it could not remove Thasmeen for failing to supply minutes from the congress, Nihan claimed that the body should also probe the DRP leader for potentially breaking the party’s laws and regulations.

The MP added that although he had not received any official notice that the DRP’s leadership were meeting about the matter, as a council member for the party he expected an official response from the Thasmeen’s side by the evening. “I’m sure a meeting will have taken place today about this, but I have no details,” he said.

Addressing the claims, EC Vice President Ahmed Hassan Fayaz told Minivan News that although he was aware of a clause in the party’s existing regulations relating to supplying official minutes to the commission, the EC did not have authority to strip a party leader of his position.

“When you to fail to inform the EC of a party decision such as a leadership, we cannot reject that person’s authority, it doesn’t work like that,” he said. “For example, when someone is born, if health authorities are not informed of the birth it does not mean that the child does not exist.”

Fayaz claimed that Thasmeen’s appointment at the congress, which was supported by Gayoom before he became openly critical of his successor earlier this year, had been witnessed by hundreds of party delegates as well as covered by local media ensuring that it was well-documented decision.

The EC vice president said that the issue was therefore an internal party issue for members.

“Perhaps the party secretariat failed to provide the minutes [within the deadline],” he said. Fayaz claimed that the DRP regulations relating to submission of the minutes did not give the EC the power to remove the party’s leader from his post. “If a formal complaint was made over the issue than we would look into it,” he said. “However, it would more be in a manner where we would offer advice to the party on how to proceed with this matter. We cannot dictate to the DRP about leadership if it has failed to inform us of its minutes.”

The claims that Thasmeen should no longer be registered as the head of the DRP reflect an increasingly bitter divide between two different factions that are contesting to represent themselves as the country’s main opposition party to the public.

Umar Naseer’s dismissal by the party last December led to factional infighting in the party between the serving leader and other MPs loyal to Naseer and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who founded the party back in 2005.

Since then, each of these factions has engaged in criticism of each other resulting in threats of potential legal action and separate presidential bids.

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Online university courses fill education gap in Maldives: New York Times

On the island of Fuvahmulak in the Maldives, a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean, Abdulla Rasheed Ahmed’s options for acquiring a doctoral degree were somewhat limited, writes Liz Gooch for the New York Times.

“The nearest university is an hour’s flight from his home. And in any case, it doesn’t offer a doctorate in education, the program Mr Abdulla, a school principal, wanted to pursue.

“Having already taken time off to complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Malaysia, Mr Abdulla was reluctant to take more time away from his job or family, so he enrolled in Asia e University, an institution in Kuala Lumpur that offers online courses.

“Studying online is very suitable for working people,” Mr Abdulla said in a telephone interview. “You can study at anytime, anywhere, regardless of your location.”

Some universities have long specialized in such distance education, but now more homegrown Asian institutions are seeking to tap the demand for higher education in underserved areas. And as Internet connectivity spreads, more students like M. Abdulla are realizing that their education options are no longer bound by geographical constraints — or even by the older model of distance learning, in which students received bundles of course materials in the mail.

Full story

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LDC graduation will impact aid from donor nations: Swedish Ambassador

Swedish Ambassador accredited to the Maldives, Lars-Olof Lindgren, has acknowledged that the Maldives’ 2011 graduation to the UN’s definition of a middle income country will affect its ability to seek financial development assistance.

Lindgren, who is based at Sweden’s embassy in New Delhi, observed during a brief meeting with local media yesterday that his own government “has very strict of GDP per-capita criteria and has decided to focus its aid elsewhere on least developed countries, particularly in Africa.”

The Maldives this year became one of only three countries to graduate from the UN’s definition of ‘Least Development’, since the introduction of the term. As a consequence, the Maldives loses access to both concessional credit, certain trade concessions, and some of the foreign aid upon which aspects of the country – such as civil society – have historically depended on for both skills and financial support.

A World Bank Economic Update Report released in November 2010 showed a per capita Gross Net Income (GNI) for the country of US$4090 for 2010, up from US$3690 in 2009.

“In one sense this graduation not been positive in this respect,” Lindgren said. “At the same time, certainly I think we have to look at other aspects of the Maldives – the fact the country taking first steps as a democratic country, steps towards getting the party system to work – that is one reason why the international community should support this – support not only government, but the whole society.”

There was also potential for countries such as Sweden with experience in high-tech renewable technology to work together with the Maldives on tackling climate change, Lindgren added.

Swedish involvement in the Maldives so far had been “not very impressive”, he admitted, “although Swedish companies do have investments in the country in things like logistics and domestic transport.”

“But I think we could do a lot more together on the environment, particularly with regards to renewable energy and energy efficiency. We have a lot of experience high technology, and a long tradition of doing these things with results. For example, we have done a lot to keep our homes warm using insulation – in the Maldives it is a matter of keeping the cold inside. There’s a lot to be gained by doing it efficiently.”

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Finance Minister walks out of negotiations with “politically influenced” youth

Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz yesterda  walked out of a meeting with several young people claiming to represent the ‘concerned youth’ behind the recent week of violent protests in the capital Male’.

Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Fazeel Najeeb also attended the meeting.

The faction of the opposition party loyal to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom have maintained that the protests over rising commodity prices were “youth-led”.

‘’I waited in the meeting until we could address the real issues, but they kept on criticising the government policy and some of the government projects,’’ Inaz told Minivan News. ‘’I did not want to have a heated political debate – we went there to negotiate with the youth regarding the dollar issues, not for a political debate.’’

Inaz claimed that the youth delegation included leader of the opposition-allied People’s Alliance (PA) sports wing, and two others he claimed were ‘’new political figures’’ created by senior party officials.

Inaz explained that government needs to find ways to increase its revenue.

‘’Currently 75 percent of the government’s revenue is spent on salaries. The government did try to decrease the salaries but other state institutions did not support the decision,’’ he said. ‘’There are other necessary things to do such as providing electricity, fix sewerage systems and supply water to those in need.’’

Spokesperson from the youth delegation, Mohamed Ahsan, said the delegation was unable to clarify information from the Finance Ministry as the minister left the meeting.

‘’However, the MMA officials were very cooperative,” he said. “We found out that the government have not been implementing the MMA’s suggestions to its full extent,’’ said Ahsan. ‘’The MMA clarified almost all the information we required.’’

He also said the finance minister “took it politically” because a PA member was present at the meeting.

‘’We have decided to recommence the protests, but due to exams we have temporarily delayed it,’’ he said. ‘’Once the examinations are over we will restart the protests.’’

A first round of negotiations held last week were described as “very upsetting” by the opposition’s Gayoom faction after the delegation accused President’s Office represenative Shauna Aminath of stating that the “political solution” to the country’s economic woes was the arrest for the former President.

Shauna did not comment on whether she had suggested Gayoom be arrested, and said the government was unable to officially respond to the delegation because it was unclear who they officially represented.

“We met with four people who claimed to represent youth,” she said. “They presented a piece of paper they said was a youth proposal, but there was almost no discussion of what was on it.

“They talked a little about youth unemployment, and the rising price of milk, cooking oil and petrol. They said that young people did not have enough money to pay for coffees or petrol for their motorbikes.”

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Chennai surgeons reconstruct jaw of Maldivian baby using ribs, genetically-engineered protein

Indian surgeons in Chennai have reconstructed the jaw of an 18-month old Maldivian baby after removing a large bone tumour from his face, in the first operation of its kind to be conducted in India.

India’s Deccan Chronicle newspaper reported that the “grotesque” tumour was removed during six hours of “gruelling” surgery at Chennai’s Balaji Dental and Craniofacial Hospital, during which time Mohemmed Salik’s lower jaw was reconstructed using three of his ribs, a titanium plane and “three sheets of an expensive genetically-engineered protein that promotes bone growth.”

Craniofacial surgeon S M Balaji told the Chronicle that the rare condition usually led to an operation when the child reached 15 years of age, “however this baby needed immediate surgery as the tumour threatened to permanently disfigure his face and block his nostrils and ear canals.”

The baby’s father, a businessman based in Dubai, told the newspaper that the rare and life-threatening bone disease had appeared when Mohemmed was eight months old, and quickly grown into a “hard balloon” that had disfigured his face and made it impossible for the infant to eat or talk.

Surgeons were reportedly apprehensive about the proceedure, especially given the patient’s age and small size of his blood vessels.

Dr Balaji explained that surgeons first removed a large part of Mohemmed’s upper jaw and then his entire diseased lower jaw, without making an external incision.

“We then harvested three ribs from the child and prepared it with Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP), that attracts stem cells to the area and promotes natural bone growth. The rib grafts were then implanted in the child’s mouth along with a titanium plate for support,” Dr Balaji told the Chronicle.

The newspaper added that six months after the operation, which took place in November last year, Mohemmed had a strong healthy jaw and would soon be fitted with an array of artificial milk teeth, most of which he lost in the operation, later to be replaced by a new set of permanent teeth.

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Adhaalath Party to hold elections to appoint leader and deputy leader

The Adhaalath Party has announced plans to hold its leadership elections on May 27, to elect its new Leader and Deputy leader. Currently only one candidate is running for each post.

Vying for the party’s Presidency is Sheikh Imran Abdulla, from Kolhufushi on Meemu Atoll, after incumbent Sheikh Hussein Rasheed did not put his name forward. The only candidate running for the position of Deputy leader is Dr Mauroof Hussein, a well-know religious scholar in the country.

Sheikh Rasheed confirmed he was not running for the party’s leadership, but said he did not have any particular reason.

The party said that any island with more than 15 members in the party is allowed to hold elections on that island.

”Time for voting is morning 8:30am-11am and afternoon 2:00-6:00pm,” said the party on its official website.

The Party also said that the two candidates appointed in the elections will hold the position for the next five years.

Current Leader of Adhaalath Party Shiekh Hussein Rasheed, who is also the State Islamic Minister, did not respond to Minivan News.

The Adhaalath Party – the third largest in the Maldives – is the sole remaining party in coalition with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and members of the party fill senior posts at the Islamic Ministry. Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, the current Minister for Islamic Affairs, is also a member of the Adhaalath Party.

The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) also held party elections and appointed a new leader and deputy leader of the Party.

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