The High Court last night upheld the Criminal Court’s guilty verdict against Independent MP Ismail Abdul Hameed for corruption and abuse of authority as former director of waste management at the Male’ municipality.
Under article 73(c)(3) of the constitution, MPs found guilty of a criminal offence “and sentenced to a term of more than twelve months” would be stripped of their seat.
Hameed was accused of abused of authority to financially benefit a Singaporean company named Island Logistics in a deal to purchase a barge.
In the verdict delivered on August 29, Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Didi noted that the agreement stipulated the barge was to be delivered within 90 days of signing the agreement, upon which 50 percent of the value was to be paid to Island Logistics.
Although the barge arrived in the Maldives on October 23, 2008, Hameed had signed a a protocol of delivery and acceptance of the vessel on April 28, 2008.
The judge ruled that Hameed’s actions were intentional and in violation of the Anti-Corruption Act.
The High Court judges ruled unanimously last night that there were no grounds to overturn the guilty verdict.
Maldives National Museum, a multi-million dollar gift from the Chinese government, had only just been opened in 2010 when a local visitor protested loudly to staff that its Buddhist era sculpture was a modern forgery. A few days before, this writer had difficulty finding a Maldivian official willing to be photographed in a museum storage room full of Buddhist/Hindu sculpture awaiting installation in the exhibition hall.
Maldivians are not alone in finding their history uncomfortable. Take for example the current efforts in some states of the USA to suppress and distort history textbooks concerning American slavery and the Civil War, or the refusal by many European Australians to accept the reality of the attempted genocide of the Aboriginal people. In the UK, the crucial story of Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War has been sidelined, and the importance of slavery for the British empire and its aristocratic investors has only recently been acknowledged.
Responsibility for local ignorance of Maldives’ history lies in part with the country’s writers. Indigenous historians such as Hassan Maniku and Naseema Mohamed have written detailed English accounts of Buddhist era Maldives based on historical records and archaeological research, but little of their work has been translated into Dhivehi. Excellent books about the origins of Maldivian culture by Clarence Maloney and Xavier Romero-Frias cannot be purchased in Maldives, and have not been translated for Dhivehi readers.
Only the British colonial administrator and archaeologist H. C. P. Bell has been given official recognition. This was due to Bell’s collaboration and friendship with Atirige Ibrahim Didi. He and his descendants and relatives basically ruled Maldives until the middle of the 20th century.
Bell’s research in 1922 verified the Buddhist nature of many Maldivian ruins, but formal recognition of his findings did not occur until the 1980s as part of a government effort to cultivate support among Ibrahim Didi’s descendants, who remain an important and respected part of the modern Male’ elite.
Recognition of Bell’s work was not accompanied by digestion of his findings and, for many Maldivians, the pre-Islamic past remains as mysterious as it was in 1922. It is still possible to read contemporary articles that claim Maldivian history is ‘lost in the mists of time’ – a hollow phrase since those mists began to clear ninety years ago.
The six hundred year period before the official Islamic conversion of 1153 seems to have been a prosperous period, and it is likely the country experienced strong population growth. Despite the collapse of the Roman empire, the economic sun was still shining in the Indian Ocean. Sea trade between the Middle East and China boomed, and Persian and Arab navigators were not afraid to sail the mid-ocean routes to Indonesia and China through Maldives.
The recent discovery of what has become known as the Tang treasure ship in Indonesia finally silenced historians who claimed there was no real evidence of these trade routes. The shipwreck also adds weight to written records that traders utilised Maldivian island ports and channels between the atolls.
Arab navigator Ahamad Ibn Majid, writing in 1490, traced the sources of his Indian Ocean sailing knowledge to the South Indian Chettiar navigators who preceded the Persians and Arabs. Arab navigators gave sailing directions to many ports in Maldives, as far south as Huvadhu atoll, Fua Mulak and Addu. Since the Pole Star was once higher off the northern horizon than it is now, early Indian Ocean navigators could find latitudes for these atolls without difficulty.
Modern research supports those few historians who have suggested that Indian Ocean trading extended back at least to the era of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilisations. Cloves have been found inside a kitchen pottery jar at the home of Puzurum, a land-agent living in Syria on the Euphrates river around 1721 BC. This spice must have come from Indonesia, or more exactly, from five tiny islands off the west coast of Halmahera.
Charles and Frances Pearce, in their book Oceanic Migration published in 2010, assert that spice traders based on islands between the ancient land masses of Sunda (Asia-western Indonesia) and Sahul (New Guinea-Australia) have been crossing the open sea for at least 40,000 years. For much of that time, scientific research indicates the oceans were lower, the currents stronger and the sea surface temperature up to 5 degrees celsius higher.
Over the last ten years, according to the Pearces, ‘genetic research has established… Halmahera as the ancient Polynesian homeland.’ They argue that Spice Island traders following ‘three of the four major fast warm currents flowing out of what oceanographers call the West Pacific Warm Pool were able to traverse vast ocean distances. In two periods, separated by a global cold period between 1000 BC and 400 BC, they followed these currents west to Madagascar and East Africa, north to Japan, Hawaii and America and south to New Zealand.’
The Pearces’ thesis has similarities to Thor Heyerdahl’s claims that ancient seafarers crossed the globe, with the important difference that they were based in Indonesia rather than the Americas. This has interesting implications for the Maldives, and suggests that people from Indonesia were visiting the atolls, and perhaps living here, well before its settlement from the subcontinent.
All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]
A journalist at the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) has claimed that Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Mahlouf assaulted him after Tuesday’s night live coverage of the National Security Committee meeting.
”He came towards me while I was waiting in the corridor and asked me rudely why I was broadcasting the parliament live” said the MNBC reporter, who wished to remain anonymous. ”I said that decision was not up to me and he told me to inform all my superiors that any equipment brought inside the parliament will be destroyed.”
He said the Galolhu South MP then pushed him against the wall and elbowed him on the stomach.
”I told him to get off me, but he then again hit me in the chest,” he said. ”Then he left the area.”
Board members of the state broadcaster were considering reporting the case to police, he said.
Mahlouf however denies the allegations.
An MNBC journalist at the committee meeting suggested that the incident would have been caught on CCTV cameras inside the building.
Prior to the alleged assault, opposition MPs disrupted a National Security Committee meeting to object to live coverage by the state broadcaster.
The meeting was held to vote on a proposal to summon PPM Parliamentary Group Leader MP Abdulla Yameen for questioning.
Committee Chair MP Ali Waheed told press that the rules of procedure did not prohibit live telecasts or dictate terms for media coverage.
The disruption of the live broadcast saw MDP activists gather outside the parliament building to protest.
With opposition MPs still inside parliament over an hour and half after the meeting ended, a group of PPM supporters gathered for a counter-protest.
Riot police in the area separated the rival protesters and cordoned off the area shortly before midnight.
MP Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was grilled by parliament’s National Security Committee today over allegations of an illegal oil trade worth US$800 million with Burma while the Mulaku MP was chairman of the State Trading Organisation (STO).
In the face of repeated questioning during today’s meeting, Yameen denied any involvement in “micro-management” of STO subsidiary companies during his time as chairman until 2005.
A resolution proposed by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Musthafa to investigate the allegations was sent to the National Security Committee on August 2, which has since summoned and questioned senior STO officials.
Article 99 of the constitution grants parliamentary committees the power to “summon any person to appear before it to give evidence under oath, or to produce documents.”
The allegations first appeared in February this year in India’s The Week magazine in a cover story by Sumon K. Chakrabarti, Chief National Correspondent of CNN-IBN, who described Yameen as “the kingpin” of a scheme to buy subsidised oil through STO’s branch in Singapore and sell it through a joint venture called ‘Mocom Trading’ to the Burmese military junta, at a black market premium price.
Mocom Trading
“The Maldives receives subsidised oil from OPEC nations, thanks to its 100 percent Sunni Muslim population. The Gayooms bought oil, saying it was for the Maldives, and sold it to Myanmar on the international black market. As Myanmar is facing international sanctions, the junta secretly sold the Burmese and ‘Maldivian’ oil to certain Asian countries, including a wannabe superpower,” alleged Chakrabarti.
“Sources in the Singapore Police said their investigation has confirmed ‘shipping fraud through the diversion of chartered vessels where oil cargo intended for the Maldives was sold on the black market creating a super profit for many years’,” the report added.
Referencing an unnamed Maldivian cabinet Minister, The Week stated that: “what is becoming clear is that oil tankers regularly left Singapore for the Maldives, but never arrived here.'”
The article drew heavily on an investigation report by international accountancy firm Grant Thornton, commissioned by the government in March 2010, which obtained three hard drives containing financial information of transactions from 2002 to 2008. No digital data was available before 2002, and the paper trail “was hazy”.
In 2004, investigators from accountancy firm KPMG found in an STO audit that Mocom Trading was set up in February that year as a joint venture between STO Singapore and a Malaysian company called ‘Mocom Corporation Sdn Bhd’, with the purpose of selling oil to Myanmar and an authorised capital of US$1 million.
According to The Week, the company had four shareholders: Kamal Bin Rashid, a Burmese national, two Maldivians: Fathimath Ashan and Sana Mansoor (employees of STO), and a Malaysian named Raja Abdul Rashid Bin Raja Badiozaman, who was the Chief of Intelligence for the Malaysian armed forces for seven years.
As well as the four shareholders, former Managing Director of STO Singapore, Ahmed Muneez, served as the director.
Malaysia’s Mocom Corporation was one of four companies with a tender to sell oil to the Burmese junta, alongside Daewoo, Petrocom Energy and Hyundai.
Muneez, Ashan and Sana have been questioned by the National Security Committee over the past two weeks.
“Ex officio”
At today’s committee meeting, Yameen maintained that chairmanship of the STO board was an “ex officio” (by right of office) post, and as the affairs of Mocom Trading was managed by the STO subsidiary company in Singapore, “it doesn’t reach the STO board in Male’.”
The STO chairman under the previous government was not an executive chairman who handled day-to-day management of the state-owned enterprise, Yameen explained, adding that appointing board members to subsidiaries was handled by the Managing Director.
“Yameen is the chairman of STO, Singapore STO’s chairman is Mohamed Hussein Manik, Mocom Singapore – its called Mocom Singapore because it was formed in Singapore – has a board, a chairman and MD,” he said. “So information about STO subsidiary companies and STO JVs (joint ventures), even if its run in the Maldives, does not come to the STO board.”
The STO board would not know of the dealings of companies such as Fuel Supply Maldives, which supplies oil to resorts and inhabited islands, “because each company is a legal entity and its board has full discretion to conduct any legal business as broadly as it wants.”
He added that “micro-management issues” of subsidiary companies were not dealt with by the STO board and the chairman “did not know and did not have to know”.
Asked by MDP MP Mohamed Thoriq if he believed Mocom Trading was formed illegally, Yameen said he did not know “even the date the company was formed” or Mocom’s board members.
Former STO Managing Director Manik had previously told the committee that he discovered Mocom’s existence when the issue came up at an annual general meeting.
Asked by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Mohamed Nashiz if he visited Singapore on official trips on behalf of STO, Yameen said he never went to Singapore with the express purpose of evaluating STO Singapore.
Nashiz had said at last night’s meeting that the total value of STO’s oil trade amounted to over US$4 billion – or Rf61 billion – over the course of 14 years and six months “if the information [STO Singapore MD] Muneez gave us was accurate.”
Nashiz suggested that Muneez’s claim that he “made all the decisions on his own” was dubious.
DRP MP Rozaina Adam meanwhile noted today that testimony by STO MD Manik and STO Singapore MD Muneez “conflicted” as Manik insisted he was unaware of Mocom’s formation but Muneez said it was formed after the head office provided all the required legal documentation.
Manik had also revealed at the committee that Muneez’s annual bonus was withheld as a result of his role in forming the joint venture without a board resolution.
Asked by Rozaina if the MD had shared any concerns with the chairman, Yameen said he had not.
Yameen however said he found it “very hard to believe” that the MD or accounting section would have been unaware of the transactions with Mocom.
Moreover, Singapore had the strictest commercial laws in the region and the trade in question was conducted with “back-to-back LCs (lines of credit)” with “first-class banks,” said Yameen, making it difficult to siphon off money to a third party as it would require a letter with instructions to do so, which would have been noted as “highly unusual.”
Today’s meeting was disrupted at frequent intervals by shouting matches that broke out between MDP and the former president’s newly-formed Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). MP Yameen, half-brother of Gayoom and long-serving Trade Minister in his cabinet, was elected by the PPM interim council as its parliamentary group leader.
The government is soliciting bids from solar power companies to power 29 islands, which are facing power generation difficulties.
Many small islands have small power stations, however power production for small communities is expensive with disproportionate returns.
According to the government gazette, the solar power project will be established in Haa Alif atoll Molhadhoo, Baarah, Thuraakunu, Muraidhoo and Thakandhoo; Haa Dhaal atoll Hirimaradhoo; Shaviyani atoll Maaungoodhoo, Lhaimagu and Noomaraa; Noonu atoll Henbadhoo, Foddhoo and Magoodhoo; and Raa atoll Fainu and Inguraidhoo.
The project will also be carried out in Meemu atoll Dhiggaru and Raiymandhoo; Faafu atoll Dharanboodhoo; Dhaalu atoll Bandidhoo and Maaen’boodhoo; Thaa atoll Madifushi, Gaadhihfushi, Buruni, Dhiyamigili and Thimarafushi; Laamu atoll Gaadhoo, Isdhoo and Kunahandhoo; and the Mathimaradhoo ward and Mukurimagu road in Gan.
The Maldives currently aims to cut carbon emissions by 60 percent using solar power. A proposal submitted by the Renewable Energy Investment Office is currently open for debate on an online crowd-sourcing forum.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a court case against the Rf500 million Border Control System proposed by the Department of Immigration and Emigration and signed by the government in November 2010.
Malaysia’s Nexbis Limited has been contracted to develop the system.
ACC’s case follows yesterday’s Cabinet decision to resume the border control programme with Nexbis. ACC has not revealed details of the case, and had not responded to inquiries at time of press.
Officials close to the matter said corruption was a concern. Earlier this year, the ACC had asked the government to halt program proceedings on suspicion of corruption during the bidding process.
Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid told Minivan News that the government maintains its aim to launch the system after Eid festivities and SAARC events have been concluded this month.
“It is common in most developed and developing countries to have an electronic border control system, such as this one,” said Shahid, noting that Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand had already subscribed to similar programs.
Immigration Department had signed a 20-year build, operate, and transfer (BOT) concession contract with Nexbis on October 17, 2010 when the ACC requested the department adjourn the signing ceremony due to a “serious” public complaint.
Nexbis shares immediately plunged 6.3 percent on the back of the ACC’s announcement. The company subsequently issued a statement claiming that speculation over corruption was “politically motivated” and had “wrought irreparable damage to Nexbis’ reputation and brand name.”
President Mohamed Nasheed upheld the ACC’s request in January 2011, and in late May the Cabinet deliberated the matter and approved the programme, overruling the ACC’s reservations.
However, operations were stalled and in August, Nexbis threatened legal action against the Maldives’ Immigration Department if action on the border control agreement was not taken. The company had allegedly bought equipment and paid import duties to the government, and was incurring losses while waiting for a resolution from the Maldivian government.
The Rf500 million project would install an electronic border gate system in Male’s Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), bringing technological upgrades such as facial recognition, fingerprint identification and e-gates to the Maldives, which has struggled with loose immigration policies and reports of human trafficking.
The Maldives currently holds a 10-year contract for passport production and scanning services with an Austrian company, Shahid said.
Local media has reported that the Nexbis program does not include the expected technological upgrades including automated facial recognition, e-gates and passport production. Shahid confirmed today that those features are included in the program.
“The Nexbis system would make the immigration and security process simpler and more secure for everyone involved,” he said.
In the recently conducted Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in
Perth from October 28-30, it was established that in the 21st century, the head of
the Commonwealth is shifting from London to New Delhi with the rise of India as
a Great Power.
Looking at the events leading up to the CHOGM and the outcome proves that
India has elbowed other countries in the CHOGM, which includes its former colonial
master Britain and aspiring Great Power in the Asia Pacific, Australia.
The western countries in the CHOGM, namely Britain, Australia and New
Zealand, wanted to pin the countries which were ruled by colonial masters before
by bringing about an institution which monitor the human rights in those
countries. This move was scuttled by India saying quite bluntly that CHOGM
should focus more on developmental challenges rather than bringing up the
issue of human rights for which there’s a better multi-lateral institution called the
United Nations.
India also went on to highlight the hypocrisy of the western nations and the
double-standards that they follow in pursuing lofty utopian concepts called human
rights. While the western world is keen to have the status-quo monarchies in
power in the Middle-East to serve their oil-benefits, they’re ready to wield a big
stick against countries like Fiji, Maldives and Sri Lanka which are in the fringes of
their geo-strategic objectives.
If the CHOGM is anything to go by, it’s clear that India has graduated itself from a regional power in South Asia to a Great Power in Asia Pacific that
can speak for the smaller nations in Africa, Latin America and Africa. India’s
pursuance of tactful diplomacy is done with an objective; it understands that
it needs the support of these countries for its candidature in the United Nations
Security Council.
Second, India would also not be conducting its diplomacy based on utopian
concepts like Human Rights while its near competitor is having a free-run for the resources in the Global South’s developing countries. It’s just a matter of time
before India will join the race with China to carve out “Spheres of Influence” in these regions, defining its neo-colonial pursuits. The last image that India will try to project is a torch-bearer of old power players from the West.
On the other hand, it’s good that India has finally understood its diplomatic strength. As the country which houses the most English speakers in the world, it has lived up to the expectation of filling the void left by Great Britain in the realm of Great Powers through the Commonwealth Nations. This point has been stated in the book “Reconnecting Britain and India,” published in 2010.
It’s here that a bit of appreciation for India’s founding fathers is needed.
Despite coming out of the colonial rule from the British and having staunch
opposition from the Indian population against joining the Commonwealth nations,
it was felt that a day will come when India as a Great Power could use its past for
the future. CHOGM has been the starting point of that ambition.
On that note, it will interesting to see on how India conducts its affairs in the
much-expected South Asian Affairs of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit scheduled in Maldives from 10th to 11th of this month.
All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]
The Civil Court has today ordered Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik to settle an outstanding debt of Rf2.9 million to Caterpillar Financial Service’s Asia Branch within three months.
Caterpillar claimed that in 2007 Heavy Load Maldives – a family business of the Hulhu-Henveiru MP – took a loan of US$700,000 (Rf10.5 million at the current exchange rate) from Caterpillar, which was co-signed by Moosa.
Caterpillar said at the Civil Court that Heavy Load had not settled the debt and requested Moosa be ordered to pay the loan as the co-signatory.
Delivering the verdict, Judge Mariyam Nihayath said that in the agreement made between Moosa and Caterpillar, Moosa had also agreed to pay a compensation fee plus the amount paid to hire a lawyer without any obligations.
Judge Nihayath ordered Moosa to pay the total amount which is Rf2.9 million in three months.
However, following the court ruling Moosa expressed concern and criticized the judiciary saying that the judiciary was like a “mad lion.’’
MDP official website quoted him saying that the court should not order him to pay the money without ordering Heavy Load Company to pay the loan.
The former MDP parliamentary group leader told the ruling party’s website that today’s ruling gave him more courage to continue the work to free the judiciary and make it independent.
He also said that Civil Court was issuing such rulings because Moosa and his lawyer Hassan Afeef was publicly advocating judicial reform. .
According to the constitution, if a MP has a decreed debt and is not paying the debt according to the court ruling, he will be disqualified and lose his seat in parliament.
A Maldivian drug kingpin, who was among the top six dealers the President announced had been identified by the government, has been arrested in India on a joint special operation conducted by Maldives police and the Indian Drug Bureau.
Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed that the man was arrested yesterday while he was in India.
“He was arrested in a joint special operation conducted by the police Drug Enforcement Department and India’s Drug Bureau,” Shiyam said. “He is currently being held in detention in India.”
Shiyam said that his name and other details of the operation will be provided later.
On February 28 last year, Criminal Court ruled that Adam Naseer of H. Reendhooge was innocent of dealing drugs. He was later named by the President as one of the top drug dealers in the Maldives.
Police searched Naseer’s home in Addu Atoll on 30 June 2009, where they found over Rf6 million (US$461,500) in cash and a tin containing drugs outside his house.
On June 26, police arrested an individual suspected of being one of the Maldives’ most high-profile drug dealers after spending several months collecting information about his procedures for importing narcotics.
The Head of the police’s Drug Enforcement Department (DED), Superintendent Mohamed Jinah, told members of the press that the alleged drug lord was arrested on June 24, along with several companions also suspected of being involved in supplying drugs.
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