Month: November 2013

Criminal Court open on Saturday to dispense criminal records checks

The Criminal Court is to open during this weekend to provide criminal record checks for those seeking to contest in January’s local council elections.

The Criminal Court is facing an unusual amount of traffic for criminal record and debt record checks with an estimated 4000 candidates contesting the 1091 local council seats.

In 2011, candidates had to sign a declaration stating they had no record of criminal activity or decreed debt. However, several councillors were disqualified from their seats after election and the Elections Commission amended its regulations mandating candidates to submit criminal and debt records with their applications.

Applications are due on December 8 and elections are scheduled for January 18.

The Criminal Court will be open from 9:00 am – 5 pm on Saturday.

Debt and criminal records will be made available on the day of request from the Criminal Court, local media reports.

In addition to the Criminal Court, the Department of Judicial Administration, the Supreme Court and the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) also provides records of criminal activity and debt.

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Cabinet approval scheduled for December 29

Parliamentary approval for President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s 15 ministers will be scheduled for December 29, People’s Majlis Speaker Abdulla Shahid has said.

Shahid appealed to the Majlis’ Government Oversight committee to conclude its report on the proposed cabinet by December 23 in order for the December 29 vote to proceed.

Chair of the Government Oversight Committee MP Ali Waheed said the committee has started the vetting process for ministers and will commence debate on the proposed cabinet on December 15.

Yameen’s 15 member cabinet includes seven incumbents. They are Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad, Minister of Health and Gender Dr Mariyam Shakeela, Minister of Defense and National Security Colonel (Rtd) Mohamed Nazim, Minister of Transport and Communication Ameen Ibrahim, Minister of Tourism Ahmed Adheeb, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muizzu, and Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party had tabled a no confidence motion against Defense Minister Nazim in the last days of Dr Mohamed Waheed’s presidency.

The new appointments are Umar Naseer as Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aishath Shiham as Minister of Education, Dunya Maumoon as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Mohamed Shainee as Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Mohamed Saeed as Minister of Economic Development, Mohamed Maleeh Jamal as Minister of Youth and Sports and Thoriq Ibrahim as Minister of Environment and Energy.

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President appoints Shamshul Falah to JSC

President Abdulla Yameen has appointed Shamshul Falah as the president’s representative at the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) today.

Shamshul Falah served as the Secretary of Legal Affairs at the President’s Office under former President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Falah’s appointment is the third new appointment to the JSC this month. President Yameen appointed Attorney General Mohamed Anil to the judicial oversight body earlier this week.

On November 10, former president Dr Mohamed Waheed administered the oath of office to opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza who will act as the parliament’s representative.

The seat occupied by the President of the Civil Service Commission on the 10 member JSC remains vacant amidst a dispute between the Supreme Court and People’s Majlis regarding the dismissal of former CSC head Mohamed Fahmy Hassan.

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Maldives elections veered into the realm of farce: New York Times

At a certain point this fall, the presidential elections in the Maldives stopped looking like the hiccups of a young democracy and veered into the realm of farce, writes Ellen Barry for the New York Times.

Mohamed Nasheed was the leader after a first-round election back in September, but the country’s Supreme Court begged to differ. The court, which was allied with one of his rivals, voided the September election before it could reach a second round, citing irregularities in voter rolls.

The court scuttled another vote planned for October, ordering the police to surround the election commission. In November, after Mr. Nasheed had trounced his rivals again, the court derailed a second-round vote with another last-minute delay.

Something about it felt familiar. I had just arrived in South Asia after five years in the former Soviet Union, where I saw one leader after another dispensing with truly competitive politics.

Elections kept happening, but there was only a glaze of competition; for the most part, the opposition candidates were docile, handpicked characters, because no one else was allowed to run. On the rare occasions when actual rivals were able to take part, as in recent elections in Ukraine and Georgia, the candidates who lost found themselves in court or in prison. The experiment in democracy, born in the euphoria of the 1990s, seemed to be ending.

In South Asia, that experiment is much closer to its beginning.

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Disgraced CSC chief appointed Deputy High Commissioner to Malaysia

President Abdulla Yameen has appointed disgraced Civil Service Commission head Mohamed Fahmy Hassan as the Maldives’ deputy high commissioner to Malaysia.

Fahmy was dismissed from his post by parliament last year, after he was found to have sexually harassed a female staff member at the Commission.

However Fahmy’s dismissal was blocked as “unconstitutional” in a sudden injunction issued by the Supreme Court, preventing President Mohamed Waheed from appointing Fahmy’s replacement, Fathimath Reeni Abdu Sattar.

The stand-off led to both CSC heads arriving for work, and the CSC eventually blocking Fahmy from accessing its offices in September 2013. Minivan News was told by a CSC source at the time that Fahmy’s fingerprint access was rescinded after the former commissioner continued to come to the office for a few minutes every day.

The head of the CSC sits on the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), the judicial watchdog body mired in controversy and accused of wanton politicisation and gross misconduct, and thus has influence over the judiciary.

Fahmy was alleged to have called a female staff member over to him, taken her hand and asked her to stand in front of him so that others in the office could not see, and caressed her stomach saying ”it won’t do for a beautiful single woman like you to get fat.”

According to local media, the woman told her family about the incident, who then called Fahmy. Fahmy then sent her a text message apologising for the incident, reportedly stating, ”I work very closely with everyone. But I have learned my lesson this time.”

In response to the allegations, Fahmy told Minivan News previously that the female staff member had made up the allegation after she learned she had not won a scholarship to Singapore offered by the CSC.

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Will the new President’s ‘conciliatory mode’ last, asks the Eurasia Review

Soon after he took over, the first thing President Yameen did was to take a swipe at the losing candidate Mohamed Nasheed, by declaring that “People have proved that they do not want a puppet of foreign powers,” writes Dr S Chandrasekharan for the Eurasia Review.

Better sense prevailed and soon he quickly made some conciliatory gestures to make up for that indiscreet statement.

Though Nasheed lost, nearly fifty person of the electorate had voted for him and this cannot be ignored. The international community also stressed that the new government in view of the close contest, should engage the opposition in a conciliatory manner.

Some appointments have been disappointing. The selection of Umar Naseer, a loose canon as the Home Minister is one. This perhaps has been done more to quieten him and as part of the deal with the Jumhooree with whose cooperation Yameen has come to power. It may be recalled that Umar Naseer in losing his bid for becoming the party candidate for presidentship in the PPM had abused Yameen of having used the convicted and the drug smuggling network to get elected. He was out of the party for a while and now he says that he either wants to join the PPM or the Jumhooree again!

The appointment of the Foreign Minister is another disappointment. Yameen’s niece and Gayoom’s daughter Dhunya Maumoon has been elevated and reappointed as the foreign minister. In one of the first interviews he gave, Yameen said that his priority would be on the Maldives- India relations that had taken a downturn in the last two years. As a minister of state in Waheed’s government, Dhunya looked after the foreign relations and the relations with India deteriorated mainly because of her.

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No labourer permits for those who retain passports, warns immigration department

The immigration department has warned that permits allowing employers to bring expatriate workers into the country could be withheld if they are found to be forcefully retained.

Local media has reported the department as noting that the practice remains common, as does the practice of some employees demanding money before passports are released.

Such methods appeared on a list of grievances compiled by the Indian High Commission in Male’ early this year. Indian authorities said at the time that tightened restrictions over providing medical visas to Maldivians were a “signal” for the country’s government to address a number of concerns about the nation’s treatment of migrant workers.

The immigration department’s warning comes as the incoming government attempts to improve relations with the Indian government, with the Indian Prime Minister today extending an invitation to new President Abdulla Yameen.

Bangladesh recently lifted a ban on worker migration to the Maldives after a government delegation was sent to investigate allegations of fraudulent recruitment, forced labour and migrant unemployment.

The country had temporarily blocked its nationals from migrating to the Maldives in September – an action described by one key local employer as a response to decades of failure by Maldivian authorities to deal with “human trafficking” and labour management.

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Man dressed in niqab arrested for burglaries

A man in Hulhumale’ has been arrested for allegedly attempting a string of robberies whilst wearing a Niqab – the full face veil worn by some Muslim women.

Local media reported that the 40 year-old man was arrested for robbery and possession of pornography.

No further details of this case have as yet emerged.

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Indian Prime Minister extends invitation to President Yameen

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom for an official visit.

The invitation comes in reply to a letter by Yameen to the prime minister in which he assured Singh of his administration’s desire for enhanced bilateral ties and urged Singh to pay an official visit to the Maldives as soon as it was mutually convenient to do so.

President’s Office Spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali said Yameen has accepted the invitation, but a date has not yet been decided for the visit.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner Rajiv Shahare paid a visit on the new Vice President Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, describing Indo-Maldivian ties as “privileged”.

The President’s Office noted that Jameel and Shahare took the opportunity to discuss the easing consular and visa restrictions for travelers between the two countries, as well as healthcare, defense cooperation, and human resource development.

Writing to  Singh, the President’s Office website reported Yameen as emphasising that “diverse Indo-Maldives people-to-people contact offers avenues for further cooperation”.

The Maldives’ traditionally close ties with India came under increasing strain under the previous government – of which the PPM was a prominent partner. The cancellation of a deal to develop Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in December 2012 was a particularly contentious issue.

The government’s sudden eviction of the Indian investor was quickly followed by visa restrictions and a list of 11 grievances handed to all senior Maldivian reporters by the Indian High Commission in January this year.

India has extended budget support aid to the Maldives on several occasions, most recently extending a Standby Credit Facility of US$ 100 million in 2008 and 2011 during President Mohamed Nasheed’s tenure.

Minivan News understands the Government of Maldives is currently in discussion with India to secure further budget support to plug the 2014 budget deficit.

Yameen has said the Maldives economy is in a “deep pit” and has pledged to reduce state expenditure.

During a visit to India in June, former President and PPM leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom told the Indian PM of his disappointment that the Maldives’ relationship with India had been impacted upon by the then-government’s decision to evict GMR from the country with seven days notice.

“This was a mistake. Had he consulted all political parties, the public would not have formed the impression that corruption had taken place,” Gayoom was reported as saying in the Hindu.

The cancellation of the project is currently being investigated in a Singapore court of arbitration, with the Indian infrastructure company seeking US$1.4 billion in compensation – more than the Maldives’ annual budget.

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