Opposition coalition shows strain in scuffle over committee meetings

The major opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), headed by Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and “honorary leader” former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has issued a statement accusing its coalition partner of “misleading the people over DRP.”

Together the DRP and the People’s Alliance (PA), led by Gayoom’s half-brother Abdulla Yameen, form a majority in the country’s parliament, however recent tension between the two parties suggest the coalition is under strain.

”We condemn and regret the action of PA,” said the DRP in a statement. ”Unlike the PA, the DRP has elected many candidates for the upcoming local council elections and these sort of irresponsible actions will have an effect on all the DRP candidates, all supporters of DRP, and all the opposition parties.”

The DRP observed that Yameen had spoken to local media DhiTV and SunFM about the long delay between DRP and PA committee meetings, and said that Yameen has  put the blame on Thasmeen.

”All he said was intended to smear respect for the party and was very wrong,” read the DRP statement.

Thasmeen, the party claimed, had struggled to hold meetings with the coalition despite agreeing to hold the meetings at any venue and time Yameen wished.

”Both sides agreed that meetings would be organised by PA deputy leader Moosa Zameer, but up until now, a time and venue has never been organised,” said the party.

DRP explained that Yameen had failed to attend a DRP/PA parliamentary meeting for almost one and half years, “and has also informed other members not to attend these meetings.”

The party requested Yameen stop speaking “irresponsibly”.

Yameen recently told local radio station SunFM that all the work done in parliament to make the government accountable was performed by PA, and said that there were 22 issues at the committee stage being delayed because DRP was not cooperating with the PA.

He also claimed that the government was able to make the GMR Airport deal because an amendment to the Financial Act was kept on Speaker Abdulla Shahid’s table for too long, rather than presenting it to the parliament chamber.

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MDP Parliamentary group head calls for Gayoom’s arrest

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group leader and MP Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik has called on President Mohamed Nasheed and Home Minister Hassan Afeef to arrest former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, ahead of the local council elections.

Speaking at a MDP rally held at Hinnavaru in Lhaviyani Atoll, he alleged that Gayoom had “tortured many citizens of this nation” and claimed that the former president was “causing civil unrest by spreading enmity.”

”We are here to rule the country with courage. Despite the opposition parties dismissing all the cabinet ministers, the President will rule this country by himself with the citizens,” Moosa said. ”We will not put this nation on the hands of torturers, not any more.”

Moosa said that even if only one seat of the local council elections was won by the opposition party, ”[the people] will suffer the bitterness of it.”

He also thanked the MDP parliamentary group for their efforts to “make useful laws for the country” in this difficult situation.

DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf observed that Reeko Moosa “has always been like this – shouting about Gayoom and demanding he be charged.”

“There have been a lot of allegations of corruption made against Gayoom, but in the past two years nothing has been proven,” Mahlouf said. “What I know is that if anything happens to him, the whole country will become very chaotic. There are many people willing to die for him.”

Gayoom wrote a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron in November alleging intimidation by the Nasheed government, expressing concern that the President would attempt to have him arrested “despite my innocence”, and despite praise from election observers at the “smooth handover of power” and assurances of safety and privileges in the Constitution for the former president.

Instead, the former President claimed Nasheed’s government had “escalated its attempts to harass me” in the run up to the local council elections, despite his retirement from politics earlier in 2010.

MDP Chairperson and MP Mariya Ali also spoke at the rally held over the weekend.

”We have traveled to many islands now, we can see the ‘other Maldives’, we can see the Maldives becoming yellow, we can see the local councils elections falling in to our hands,” said Mariya.

Mariya said that MDP was not the type of party that would point a finger at a person and say “here is the MDP presidential candidate.”

”In fact, MDP will determine who could bear the responsibility and give it to a person capable of carrying out that responsibility,” she said.

”We have reclaimed the land of Hinnavaru within nine days, only because we have elected a president that was appointed that way.”

MDP’s campaign delegation also visited Naifaru in Lhaviyani Atoll.

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Police arrested 1153 people on drug charges in 2010, show police statistics

Maldives police arrested1153 persons on drug charges in 2010, according to statistics released by the Drug Enforcement Department (DED), a reduction on the 1834 arrests made in 2009.

Police statistics showed that in 2009, 19 persons accused of dealing illegal narcotics on a large scale were arrested, with  10 of the 19 cases were sent to the courts to for trial.

In 2010, 48 ‘large scale’ dealers were arrested and 33 cases were investigated, while 25 of the cases were sent to Prosecutor General’s office.

In additional, during 2010 police seized 3.3 kilograms of heroin, 5.5 kilograms of cannabis and 790 bottles of alcohol, a total street value police claimed was Rf11.2 Million (US$870,000).

Head of DED,Police Superintendent Mohamed Jinah, said that police had reduced the spread of drugs by 50 percent during the last two years.

Last year 7218 persons were searched while 175 police special operations were conducted in Male’. 95 operations were conducted in the islands.

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Thai airways launches flights to Maldives

Thai Airways has launched flights to the Maldives from Bangkok, increasing the country’s access to one of Asia’s largest travel hubs.

The airline began operating three flights a week from the start of the year, under a code-share agreement with Bangkok Airways.

The Airbus A319 aircraft will fly Bangkok-Maldives on Monday, Thursday and Sunday until the conclusion of the winter schedule on March 2011.

Thai Airways’ General Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Weerawat Swasdibutra, said the code-share agreement would “offer more travel opportunities for passengers who book and travel with Thai.”

“Through this code-share arrangement, more passengers will be able to travel to the Maldives and experience the renown pure beauty of the Maldives at its best,” he said.

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India and Maldives conduct joint surveillance operation

India and the Maldives have begun an operation to conduct surveillance of the Maldives’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), using Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) coastguard vessels and Indian navy aircraft.

The joint surveillance operation comes after several boatloads of Somali castaways were rescued in the Maldives last year. One of the dinghies contained a spent bullet shell.

No suspicious activities have been detected since the launch of the operation on Thursday, the MNDF said.

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Medical centre staff transferred to Upper North Health Services Corporation

Health centres in the north of the country will be transferred under the umbrella of the Upper North Health Services Corporation, the company has stated.

Haveeru reported that employees at 44 health centres will be transferred to the new entity, with full salaries and allowances.

The health centres including 14 in Haa Alif, 16 in Haa Dhaal and 14 in Shaviyani Atoll.

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Comment: Be religious, Prince – lessons from Machiavelli

Is there anything to doubt about the government of President Mohamed Nasheed’s commitment to protecting Islam in the country?

There is a full-fledged Islamic Ministry, granted almost limitless freedoms to go about its work – which is hitherto unseen in the country. There is also a minister from the religious Adhaalath Party sitting in cabinet meetings, provided at least one day a week to raise issues with the president and his cabinet.

Religious intellectuals also have a free reign in preaching and practicing whatever interpretation of Shari’a they deem is valid. This is new too.

There is a thriving religious civil society with dozens of highly active and wealthy religious NGOs; NGOs that could hold mass rallies with a days notice. We have also seen the largest religious gatherings ever in the country’s history entertained by such popular and high-profile figures as Zakir Naik.

A whole subculture, with apparently increasing outward religious symbolism and traditionally unusual practices, has been made available in the country.

Now, there is no reason why all the above should not be the case. After all, under a chapter entitled “Social Justice” the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) election manifesto, there is a whole section devoted to “Protection of Islamic Faith”. [1]

Yet from a modern liberal democratic point of view, some of those policies are chillingly discriminatory and well beyond the legitimate role of a democratic state.

If so, one wonders what has gone wrong with the government’s religious policies?

One explanation can be gleaned from nothing other than Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. Besides the book’s dizzying insights into the existence of different values systems, chapter XVIII of the book shows great wisdom about the power of religion in politics.

In the book’s characteristic style, Machiavelli says:

“And you have to understand this, that a prince, especially a new one, cannot observe all those things for which men are esteemed, being often forced, in order to maintain the state, to act contrary to faith, friendship, humanity, and religion. Therefore it is necessary for him to have a mind ready to turn itself accordingly as the winds and variations of fortune force it…

For this reason, a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities, so that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality….” [Emphasis added]

While for many people Machiavelli’s advice can be nothing but realpolitik, there is a double lesson here: insights into the fact that morality is not reducible to a single overarching value.

That is, our life is a sort of moral multiverse with several different values and considerations that could sometimes conflict with one another, forcing us to sacrifice one good value for another.

For instance, for a government, “survivability” and “stability” are extremely important values. Yet survivability or stability can conflict with the “right to privacy”, “political legitimacy”, or “liberty”. This can be the case when, for instance, a government eavesdrops on the private telephone conversations of opposition MPs, subscribes to a highly undemocratic interpretation of the Constitution on cabinet confirmation, or arrests an MP without due process.

We ask: unless you are a sort of fundamentalist monist, why should one value always override the others?

Government stability (for example, having a functioning cabinet) can conflict with due process, such as running parliament. Yet, seven out of the president’s 12 cabinet nominations were rejected!

We ask: what can be always more important: process or outcome? To what extent can a president let processes run their course and let outrageous outcomes result from them?

That is the first lesson from Machiavelli.

The other lesson is that although it is not the only value, religion is extremely important in politics.

History teaches us that a state cannot and should not try to downplay religion when religion is a key marker of social identity. Shah-era Iran was an example.

For the majority of Maldivians, identifying with Islam is part and parcel of being a national citizen. Religion is a key marker of our social identity. Like it or not, conservatism still runs deep. Islamism is on the rise.

The perceived downplaying of religious salutations and symbolism in public speeches, the perceived closeness with Jews and Christians and distance to Islamic countries, the public display of play, fun, “relaxation” and dance, the attempts to change regulations and traditions without popular legitimacy, all mean there is a perceived anti-religiosity about the work of government. This includes president Nasheed himself.

So what lessons can we take from Machiavelli? Well, for one:

There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality [i.e. religiosity]

Sheikhs Fareed and Shaheem do it masterfully – although, for instance, rumours about their secret affairs and secret riba-incurring bank accounts abound.

Gayoom was almost flawless at that too – although, for instance, he led a brutal autocracy.

[1] http://presidencymaldives.gov.mv/downloads/menifesto-en.pdf

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].

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ICJ condemns violent assault on Velezinee

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has condemned the violent assault earlier this week on Judicial Service Commission (JSC) member Aishath Velezinee, calling on the government to “immediately launch an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into this shocking crime.”

Velezinee, President Mohamed Nasheed’s outspoken member on the JSC, was stabbed three times in the back by unidentified assailants on Monday morning while walking in Chandanee Magu in Male’.

“The ICJ is gravely concerned that the attack may be politically motivated. The stabbing took place in daylight in a public space, with no evidence of robbery or theft,” reads a press release issued by the ICJ yesterday.

“Ms. Velezinee’s fearless and controversial advocacy on behalf of justice for ordinary citizens of the Maldives has earned her a constant barrage of verbal attacks from prominent political figures,” said Roger Normand, the ICJ’s Asia Pacific Director. “The government must take swift action, not only to investigate this cowardly stabbing, but equally important, to reaffirm the centrality of rule of law in the new constitutional order.”

After visiting Velezinee at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) shortly after the attack, President Nasheed vowed that “no stone will be left unturned” to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said today that police were not ready to disclose details at this stage of the investigation or confirm if any arrests have been made.

The ICJ notes that Velezinee has publicly criticized the JSC for “abandoning its constitutional mandate under articles 159 and 285 by failing to follow transparent and lawful procedures during the vetting process of the judiciary.”

Article 285 of the constitution mandated the JSC to determine, before 7 August 2010, whether or not the judges on the bench possessed “the educational qualifications, experience and recognized competence necessary to discharge the duties and responsibilities of a judge, [and] high moral character”.

In May 2010, the JSC decided to reappoint all sitting judges unless they have been convicted in court of either a crime with a punishment prescribed in the Quran, criminal breach of trust or treason – a decision that, Velezinee warned at the time, could “rob the nation of an honest judiciary” by giving tenure to 19 judges with either prior convictions by other state institutions or allegations of gross misconduct.

In August, a majority of the 10-member JSC – including MPs of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Speaker Abdulla Shahid and Afrashim Ali, together with the three judges on the commission – decided to reappoint 191 of 197 sitting judges despite Velezinee’s vocal opposition and concerns about the competency and integrity of a number of judges appointed under the former administration.

President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair observed at the time that while two members opposed the move to rush the reappointments – Velezinee and General Public Member Shuaib Abdul Rahman – “a common thread ties all the other eight members. They either belong to the opposition DRP, or they are strong supporters.”

“The outgoing government has made sure it would retain control of institutions like the judiciary,” he noted.

Zuhair explained that while the government was communicating with international institutions on the issue, such as the ICJ, “so far we have been advised to do everything possible to keep to ‘norms and standards’. But that’s difficult when of the 197 judges, only 35 have any recognised qualifications. All the others have a local diploma.”

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