Month: June 2011

Opposition’s vote to increase city councillors economic sabotage, claims government

The government has hit out at opposition parliamentarians it alleges have actively sought to sabotage its attempts to reduce the state budget by voting for amendments that will double the number of city councillors currently serving in the country.

The criticisms were made after amendments to the country’s Decentralisation Act were passed yesterday in the Majlis, doubling the number of people elected to each city council.  The amendments have served to create eleven additional seats on Male’ City Council, which will increase to 22 representatives, while Addu City Council will have 12 elected councillors as a result.

Opposition politicians claim that the amendments have been made to try and bring more equity to the representation of city council members when compared to their island and atoll counterparts also appointed during the country’s first local council elections in February.

According to Haveeru, the amendments forwarded by South Hithadhoo MP Hassan Latheef were passed by 36 votes in favour, while 33 votes went against the bill – reportedly mainly from Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) members loyal to the government.

Back in February’s local council elections, where one councillor was appointed to each city constituency, results showed that the MDP had taken the majority of city seats despite losing out on an overall seat majority to the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) who claimed significantly more island and atoll councils.

Considering this vote, Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News today that aside from capitalising on the availability of the additional city council seats in the country, he believed opposition parties favoured the bill in order to sabotage cost cutting measures.

“From the outset [of the decentralisation process], the government has been of the position that the total number of councillors should be kept down as much as possible,” he said. “We at the beginning suggested that the total number of councillors should be no more than 220, yet opposition parties like the DRP wanted more.”

According to Zuhair, as part of its pledge to limit numbers, the government established seven national offices in an attempt to coordinate national developments within a decentralised Maldives and support the efforts of those elected to oversee projects in their constituencies.

Although Zuhair did not object to the councillors themselves, he claimed continued increases in their numbers represented a significant budgetary issue, particularly after parliament had agreed upon the final number of representatives before February’s elections.

“The government is actively working to reduce civil service wages as it is being constantly asked by groups such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We have offered to pay people to leave their jobs, yet all this is being undone,” Zuhair claimed. “The DRP hopes to capitilise on the formation of eleven more seats from city councils, where it is not really represented [after losing the city seats in the local council election].”

DRP Spokesperson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef rejected Zuhair’s allegations, claiming opposition support for the amendments to the number of city councillors was to make “a fairer and more equitable system” in comparison to the number of elected members on island councils. Shareef added that the vote did not necessarily represent an attempt to set back budgetary reform.

“The addition of these councilors will not be a strain on the [state] budget. The president has himself clearly stated that he has no intention to reduce the civil service bill, rather he will try to generate income through taxes,” he said. “The possible expansion of the state budget is a concern. But we do not believe the government has sufficient plans to reduce it.”

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President takes breakfast trip to inaugurate Male’ bus service

President Mohamed Nasheed has this morning inaugurated the first of several bus services expected to operate around Male’ as passengers in the capital are invited to climb aboard free of charge during the next 24 hours.

Nasheed along with a number of local councillors and government officials were among the first people to use the service this morning, after departing from the Alimas Carnival area at 6am.

According to local newspaper Haveeru, the promotional trip stopped off at the the ‘Alibe Kada’ tea shop for a breakfast of Mashuni and Roshi before completing its round trip to the Alimas Carnival.

The buses, which will be operated by the MVK enterprise, will begin by operating a single route around Male’ before adding a second service to cover Majeedhee Magu and Ameenee Magu in the coming weeks, the report added.

From tomorrow onwards, passengers will be charged Rf5 for use of the service.

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MNDF plays down immediate piracy dangers despite UN fears for Indian Ocean

The Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) said it has not detected increased threats to the country’s territorial waters from piracy despite UN concerns over the growing attacks within the Indian Ocean.

MNDF Major Abdul Raheem told Minivan News that despite small vessels originating from Somalia washing up in the Maldives’ territorial waters – often with engineering problems – no reported attacks or activities linked to piracy were believed to have occurred in the country. Raheem conceded that potential pirate threats remained a “major problem” in ensuring the security of the archipelago, which depends on tourism for as much as 90 percent of its economy.

The comments were made as the UN Security Council yesterday reportedly raised fears that growing numbers of pirate vessels originating from Somalia were attacking ships within the Indian Ocean.  The council members claimed that tougher international sanctions would be required to punish suspected pirates.

Raheem said that despite the serious concerns raised over potential piracy attacks in the Maldives, the MNDF would continue with existing initiatives to try and protect its waters in collaboration with naval forces from other nations like India, Turkey and the US, who have all taken part in patrols across the country.

“Piracy is seen as a major problem in the Maldives and we are very concerned about possible attacks occurring in our waters,” he said. “However, we have not recognised piracy threats flaring up [around the Maldives]. With help from other nations, particularly India, we are continuing patrols.”

Concluding the first ever official visit of its forces to the Maldives last month, the Turkish navy told Minivan News that it was visiting the country as part of wider regional anti-piracy initiatives supported by the  NATO military alliance.

A naval spokesperson at the time said that the visit of the TCG Giresun to the Maldives was not linked to any specific threat or incident of piracy, but more a reaction to Somali pirates extending their operations from the Horn of Africa further into territories around the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

“We are trying to promote understanding to fight piracy, so one way to do this is to visit ports like Male’,” said the spokesperson at a media briefing during the ship’s visit. “The attacks of the pirates have widened into the Indian Ocean with one of the last incidents occurring approximately 250 nautical miles away from the shores of Male’, so NATO has widened the number of ports we are to visit to include Indian Ocean destinations like Mumbai and Male’.”

The MNDF confirmed that it received reports of small boats – believed to be Somali in origin – arriving into the Maldives’ territorial waters.

However,  Major Raheem said that the people discovered on board the boats were not confirmed to be pirates and were as likely to be refugees that had become lost at sea and drifted into the country. “We have observed some small boats drifting into our territorial waters often due to engineering problems,” he added.

While local security forces suggest the Maldives is not directly coming under attack from pirates, according to a report by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, 171 pirate attacks have been recorded this year by the UN as occurring off the coast of Somalia.

During the UN Security Council debate held yesterday, new international legislation relating to establishing international piracy courts to try suspected pirates were being discussed to try and combat concerns about attacks.

Speaking during the debate, the AFP cited India’s UN envoy, Hardeep Singh Puri, as raising concerns about the dangers posed to South Asian nations from pirate attacks. The debate included establishing special jails in the Somali autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland to hold convicted pirates.

Experts suggest that a growing number of Somali pirates are moving deeper into the Indian Ocean towards the Maldives as they come under increased pressure from international task-forces sent to limit piracy around the horn of Africa.

As a result of this movement, maritime security has become a notable security concern for the Maldives, even around the country’s secluded resort properties.

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Parliament sends Indian legal assistance treaty to National Security Committee

The parliament has today sent a request made by the President Mohamed Nasheed to sign a ‘’Treaty between the Republic of India and the Republic of Maldives on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters,’’ to the National Security Committee to revise the matter further.

The objective of the treaty was to strengthen the strong diplomatic relations between the Maldives and India by allowing legal assistance from one country to another, said the parliament on its official website.

In a letter sent by the Home Ministry to the President’s Office, the ministry said that the Attorney General (AG)’s legal advice was sought regarding the matter and that the AG had no objections.

The ministry’s letter said that the advice of the Finance Ministry was also sought, which also had no objections.

Assistance in the treaty included locating and identifying persons and objects, serving documents, including documents seeking the attendance of persons.

Assistance included search and seizure, taking evidence and obtaining statements, authorising the presence of persons from the requesting state at the execution of requests, making detained persons available to give evidence or assisting investigations, facilitating the appearance of witnesses or the assistance of persons in investigations.

It also includes taking measures to locate, restrain or forfeit the proceeds of crime and taking measures to locate, freeze and confiscate any funds or finances meant for the financing of acts of terrorism in the territory of either party and any other form of assistance not prohibited by the law of the requested tate was as well mentioned in the assistances that one country will provide to the other according to the treaty.

Article 6[2] of the treaty states that assistance may be refused if the execution of the request would be contrary to the domestic law of the requested state.

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MDP MP proposes amendment lowering amounts paid to former presidents

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) acting Chairperson, MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik has called on the parliament to vote to pass amendments presented by MDP MP Mohamed Musthafa to the Former Presidents Act.

The amendments presented to the Act lowers the allowances granted to former presidents and also gives the authority to concerned department to cut the allowances if the department finds that the former president was misusing the allowances.

The amendment also requires the state to lower the monthly Rf75,000 (US$4863) financial allowance paid to Rf30,000 (US$1945).

Currently the Former Presidents Act obliges the state to grant Rf75,000 as financial allowance to any former president who has ruled the country for more than two terms, Rf50,000 (US$3242) as a living allowance for rent and other expenses of living and another Rf175,000 ($11,348) to setup his own office and deliver social services to the community.

The amendment presented by Musthafa states that if the former president already has a house or a part of a house registered on his name he shall not receive the living allowance, reduces Rf175,000 to setup his own office to Rf35,000 (US$2269).

The amendment document Musthafa presented states that the only person currently receiving the allowances mentioned in the Former Presidents Act – former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – had been granted the Rf175,000 allowance to to serve the community but had failed to do so.

Musthafa’s amendment also states that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has rented his own house and has been earning hundreds of thousands of rufiya each month, ‘’so granting another Rf50,000 for living would be unfair for the state.’’

Speaking on the amendment during the parliament sitting, Jumhoory Party (JP) Leader ‘Burma’ Gasim Ibrahim said he did not support the bill.

‘’Although Rf300,000 is allocated for him in the current [Former Presidents] Act, we know that he has been taking only Rf175,000 of it,’’ said Gasim. ‘’This is a big political game played to mislead the public.’’

Gasim also noted that Gayoom had publicly announced that he would not contest in any political elections.

Yesterday’s parliament session was cancelled after MPs started taking point of orders simultaneously. The Speaker decided the session could not be continued.

In March this year, an audio clip of a conversation made between Musthafa and Peoples Alliance Party (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim was leaked to the media.

In the voice clip, Musthafa explains that while he did not believe that former President Gayoom deserved financial benefits after returning to active politics, he had considered withdrawing the bill but was dissuaded by DRP Leader and MP Thasmeen.

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Ali Waheed wins ‘man of the match’ in football friendly with German MPs

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ali Waheed has won the ‘man of the match’ in a friendly football match played yesterday between Maldives parliamentarians and German MPs.

‘’Maldives MPs won the match by 5 – 3. Ali Waheed scored a hatrick,’’ Maldives Soccer reported. ‘’MP Ahmed Amir and [MDP Deputy Leader and MP] Alhan Fahumy each scored a goal.’’

Speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid inaugurated the football match.

Acting Chairperson of MDP, MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik has congratulated Waheed for winning the man of the match and the rest of the team.

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Judge Ghany resigns from JSC as Gasim sworn in

The High Court’s member on the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) Judge Abdul Ghany Mohamed has resigned from the judicial watchdog.

Haveeru reported Judge Ghany as saying that the high court appointments were incomplete at the time of his appointment, and that his departure would allow the lawful appointment of another member.

Business tycoon and MP Gasim Ibrahim has meanwhile been sworn in to JSC, after narrowly beating former MDP Chairperson Mariya Ahmed Didi as parliament’s representative on the JSC. Gasim took the oath of office before Supreme Court Judge Abdulla Areef.

The JSC’s membership currently includes Judge Abdulla Didi, Supreme Court Judge Adam Mohamed Abdulla, Attorney General Abdulla Muiz, MP Gasim Ibrahim, Speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid, public representative Shuaib Abdu Rahman, lawyer Ahmed Rasheed and the President of the Civil Service Commission Mohamed Fahmy Hassan.

The President’s member on the commission is currently vacant.

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Transport minister talks Maldives’ SAARC ferry plans

Minister of Transport and Communication, Mohamed Adhil Saleem, has said that he expects the Maldives to be among the first beneficiaries of expanded ferry services between South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states.

Miadhu reported that Saleem said he expected the Maldives to be included within initial plans to strengthen the regional transport network between different SAARC member states with a ferry service travelling to the country from India and Sri Lanka. According to the news service, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also expected to be included in these regional ferry services at a later date.

Adil Saleem claimed that the services are expected to provide Maldivians with more cost efficient opportunities to transport goods and travel around South Asia in a safe and secure manner.

Ferry services between Sri Lanka and India have been restarted in recent months after a 30 year cessation of the services.  Meanwhile, the expansion of similar regional transport links is expected to play an important part in discussions at this year’s 17th SAARC summit being held in Addu Atoll in November.

Earlier this week, summit organisers said that connectivity – both in physical and diplomatic terms – would be a central theme of the SAARC meeting.

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Maldivian woman arrested in Trivandrum in drugs case

A Maldivian woman has been arrested in Trivandrum for a drug related matter, reports Haveeru.

The woman was arrested on June 4 in a case relating to drugs that were found on an Indian police officer on the run from the authorities and living on the second floor of the same house, Haveeru reported, citing Maldivian Consul in Trivandrum Mohamed Rasheed.

Haveeru identified the woman as 29 year-old Niuma Zeenath from the island of Manadhoo in Noonu Atoll.

“The drugs were confiscated from the police officer’s apartment. The woman was arrested as she rented the apartment to the police officer,” Rasheed told Haveeru.

Consulate authorities had been in contact with the woman, he added.

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