Civil Court restarts MDP ‘Justice Square’ case

The Civil Court has yesterday reinstated a  suit filed in the court by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) against the Maldives Police Service regarding its dismantling of MDP’s protest site at the tsunami monument.

The case was initially presented to the court by MDP Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, whom the court deemed did not have the authority to file cases on behalf of the party.

The case was filed this time by the party’s president, Dr Ibrahim Didi, who was the Fisheries and Agriculture Minister under the former government. Judge Aisha Shujoon was the presiding judge in the first hearing, while Civil Court Judge Hathif Hilmee presided over the second.

In yesterday’s hearing MDP requested the court declare that the MDP had the right to protest near the surf break and to stop police actions that would halt MDP activities in the area. The party furthermore requested that the court order police to return everything confiscated from the area.

The first case was thrown out with the declaration that the acting chairperson could not file cases in the court on behalf of the party. The case was nearly at an end when the decision was made.

Police and MNDF dismantled the MDP camp site – dubbed ‘Justice Square’ by MDP supporters – on March 19. The move followed violent protests in Male’ during which police officers used rubber bullets and other less-lethal weapons to control protesters.

The last time the case was presented MDP lawyer Hisan Hassan told the court that police could only search the area with the presence of MDP senior persons, and that MDP wanted to clarify why the area was destroyed.

Hisan also told the judge that police did not even have a list of items they confiscated from the area.

In response the state attorney Ahmed Usham told the court that the area was dismantled because the protesters threw bricks at the security forces, and that the dismantling of the protest was not an action that was taken to narrow freedom of speech.

Usham also said that alcohol and items “used to conduct sexual activities” were discovered in the area, and that those were items disallowed under Islamic Sharia.

The state attorney claimed knives and sharpened iron bars and other materials were also found and alleged that MDP protesters had been attacking police officers that went there to investigate violence that had occurred in the area.

Usham claimed that people gathered in the area had been using filthy words to speak and had been encouraging violence.

He also alleged the education of children living in the area had been affected and that their rights had been violated.

‘’Maldives Police Services and MNDF officers blockaded, occupied and dismantled Justice Square, at south east side of Male’ where the Maldivian Democratic Party has organised peaceful, pro-democracy rallies since the first democratically elected Government was ousted on February 7 in a military and police backed coup,’’ the MDP said in a statement issued at the time.

After the police and MNDF dismantled the area, Male’ City Council granted the ‘Usfasgandu’ area for MDP to hold their protests.

Male City Council Deputy Mayor Ahmed Falah told Minivan News at the time that the land was given to MDP because “terrorists” had attacked the Justice Square.

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Comment: Institution building in the Maldives

Former President Mohammed Nasheed was on a six-day-long visit to India, pressing his case for early elections and reiterating his position on the need for reforming the nation’s ‘independent institutions’.

During his three years in office, cut short from the mandated five following his sudden resignation on February 7, and later, too, he has laid a great stress on the need for reforming the Judiciary, Election Commission, Human Rights Commission and also the legislative aspect of the People’s Majlis or Parliament.

His detractors, now in power, are using the same arguments of his to try and deny him the early presidential polls that Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) have been demanding since his resignation. President Waheed Hassan and his multi-party coalition Government say that they needed to ’empower’, not ‘reform’ independent institutions, and enact laws to check against ‘Executive interference’ as happened under the Nasheed regime.

The MDP has never hidden its reservations about working with judges and members of independent commissions, once appointed by then entrenched President Maumoon Gayoom. It wanted them removed, and critics say that the party and the Nasheed government ‘invented’ reasons to paint the entire lot of government employees black. Critics also say that the MDP perception was based on the anti-Gayoom mood of the nation’s people and voters when Nasheed won the presidential polls, again as a part of an informal coalition ahead of the second, run-off round in October 2008. The party refused to acknowledge that three years down the line and less than two years to presidential polls, Nasheed, not Gayoom, would be the electoral issue and sought to keep the electoral focus still on the latter.

There is some truth in the political argument of both sides. There is however a need to revisit the MDP-offered specifics dispassionately, for the nation to arrive at a consensus on capacity-building at all levels of governance. It can start at the top-most, where in the absence of established norms and democratic precedents, whims of every kind, have passed for executive discretion. Given that the President has always been chosen in a direct election, whether multi-party or not, there was greater respect for the institution.

This translated into excessive loyalty for the person of the President, and a blind adherence to the policies initiated in his name. This did not find much change under the MDP, too. Familiarity with the forgettable past led to status quoism, though of a different kind, and breaching the comfort zone became difficult after a point.

Appealing to the youth

In their time, both President Gayoom and President Nasheed were in their early 40s when they assumed office. They appealed to the youth of the day, addressed their immediate concerns and quenched their aspirations, however limited their efforts were by Maldivian circumstances and economy. They sounded genuine and were readily accepted as the man for the time.

In his early days as President, Gayoom focussed on education and employment, the former by opening schools in atolls and islands across the country and the latter by promoting resort tourism, an imaginative economic initiative, taking Maldives beyond the limitations imposed by fishing on both counts. All of these efforts stood in the name of Gayoom’s predecessor, the late Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir, who did not stay on in power for long. Yet, to President Gayoom should go the twin-credits of not discontinuing the good work done by his predecessor, a common trait otherwise across South Asia, and also building on the same.

Ironically, educational opportunities, though only up to the Cambridge A-Level, also meant that Maldivian youth would not be satisfied with the status or lack of it attaching to resort jobs. The salaries were also low compared to what was on offer in the government. Lest they should go astray in a nation that was already concerned about increasing incidence of drug-addition in the lower age-groups, and lest he too should lose the emerging rank of youthful voters ahead of the first multi-party presidential polls of 2008, the Gayoom leadership appointed more government employees than may have been justified, adding up to 10 per cent of the nation’s 350,000 population.

The trend has continued in a way, though the Nasheed presidency scrapped 20 per cent of all Government jobs through a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), as a part of the IMF-guided economic reforms, but created more for political appointees, though elections after intervening ad hocism. The Gayoom leadership could not grow with its beneficiaries in terms of thinking for the new generation of youth, born to governmental largesse or social benefit that was new and welcome to an earlier one.

The inevitable stagnation attaching to entrenched leaderships, whose communication with the governed often gets stifled owing to a personality-driven administration and the inevitable sycophancy in the existing climate proved to be the electoral bane of President Gayoom. The cry for human rights and multi-party democracy were all products of a new generation approach to issues in a new era where global communication and exposure had become relatively easy and equally resolvant.

The successor-government has since alleged that the Nasheed administration created a multiplicity of government corporations and a plethora of elected provincial councillors, under a privatisation and decentralisation scheme. The former owed to IMF reforms, and the latter was flagged as an achievement of democracy and constitutional reforms. The elected councillors took the place of island-councillors, nominated in President Gayoom’s time.

Government officials now claim that the new scheme provided for salaries for elected members and board members of public corporation, denting the exchequer much more than what the job and salary-cuts saved. In President Gayoom’s time, as some recall, even parliamentarians held only a part-time job, their sources of income coming either from the government jobs they held, or the businesses they were associated with.

The 20 percent cut in salaries and jobs introduced by the Nasheed presidency also meant that the government was at logger-heads with the constitutionally-mandated Civil Services Commission (CSC). Creation of nominated provincial and island councillors ahead of election to these bodies in March 2011, replacing those nominated by President Gayoom under an atolls-based scheme instead, critics argued, was aimed at circumventing the existing processes, including the role of the CSC in Government recruitments, appointments and transfers. Under the nominated scheme, followed by elections later, the Nasheed leadership, it was argued, had brought in MDP cadres in the place of Gayoom loyalists at all levels.

In a way, it was a clash of interest between the entrenched Gayoom-appointees and the new-found power at the hands of youthful MDP cadres that was said to be at the bottom of the crises that successively rocked the Nasheed Government. When a promotion-level appointment of Deputy Ministers in individual departments under the earlier dispensation was ‘compromised’ through political nominations under the Nasheed leadership, non-partisan observers in Maldives claimed that the Government and its Ministers, inexperienced and unexposed as many of them were, might not have been able to extract the right inputs and advice from the permanent civil service as would have been the case otherwise.

Otherwise, too, the Nasheed leadership, in a hurry to fast-track reforms much of which was required, rather than learning to work with and within the system, and on it, chose to work against the system. Near-wholesale change of officials at all levels as was being hinted was not on, but that was what the proposed course ended up being seen as. Worse still, unbiased observers in Maldives saw the replacement of Gayoom loyalists, whose other qualification at the lower-levels of islands-administration in particular could not be questioned, being replaced by MDP foot-soldiers. The legitimisation of the process through the decentralisation scheme in particular did not go down well. With the result, even the well-meaning measures of the Nasheed Government on governance reforms, by addressing specific cases involving top people in various institutions, came to be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

Capacity-building in judiciary

The story was no different in the case of the judiciary. In a country where quality education means and stops with the A-Level, equivalent to Plus-Two in India, there could not have been many with legal qualification and background to prefer the Bench to the bar. At one stage during the Executive-Judiciary deadlock in 2010, it was pointed out that of the 170-plus judges across the country, only 30 or so had undergone legal education in the modern sense. The rest, the government of the day merrily argued, had not passed even the eighth grade in some cases. The Gayoom camp, which had to accept responsibility, would point out that many of them were well-versed in the Shariat. Thereby hangs a tale, still.

In a way, no one contests that the provocation for the police protests – though there are different opinions about calling it a coup or mutiny – flowed from the arrest of Criminal Court Chief Judge, Abdulla Mohamed. The armed forces, namely the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF), arrested him on January 16, after the police chief wrote to the latter that the judge was a threat to national security. Critics argue that there was a flaw in institutional responsibilities on this count, despite the Gayoom government too having initiated action against the said judge. At present Presidential Advisor, Dr Hassan Saeed, as Attorney-General under the Gayoom dispensation had initiated action, but nothing moved beyond a point, for a variety of reasons, not all of them political.

The question remains if the MNDF should have been called into service to handle the case. That was also the contention of both the protesting police men and soldiers, whose numbers however were fewer than that of the former. The former feared lack of trust in the police and the latter said the MNDF was being misused for duties it was not mandated or equipped to handle. This was the case when President Nasheed used the MNDF to arrest two leading opposition leaders on corruption charges, and more importantly to shut down the Supreme Court for a day, in mid-2010.

In the Abdulla case, however, the Nasheed camp is right in arguing that even the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) had upheld his government’s contention for the judge not to discharge judicial duties. Incidentally, both the High Court and Supreme Court had stayed the proceedings against the said judge, as empowered under the law.

There is a clash of concepts between the status quo system and the modern thoughts of the Nasheed leadership, on all fronts. In the judiciary, the reformists argued that the status quo legal and judicial systems, which at times sounded arbitrary in the absence of codified laws that applied to all and derived from one another, was refusing to give place to common law practices, as understood elsewhere.

The confusion also derived from the cross-cultural integration that the Islamic nation had achieved to a substantial level in other walks, but not fully in some others. In a nation dependent on resort tourism and imported goods and services for sustaining its economy and society, the dichotomy of free repatriation of the dollar earned by the former and the absence of internationally-accepted banking laws made things difficult for global players. It may have also owed to the absence of laws governing repatriation and a role for the Maldivian authorities to intervene in the processes over the past three decades and more.

The stagnation was striking, independent of the absence of attractive scope of mega-investments outside of tourism industry. Given the inherent limitations imposed by Maldives’ geographical location, human resource, and a local market for goods and services that would interest big-time investors from South Asia and elsewhere, credit facility for local investors is a pragmatic route in the local context.

The beneficiary has been the local creditor and the loser, international banks, including India’s SBI. In the absence of enforceable legislation, they were often left to be cautious than overwhelming with extending credit facilities, after an initial spurt.

During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s bilateral visit to Male in November 2011, when he participated in the SAARC Summit at southern Addu, the two sides signed an agreement for India to help Maldives in improving its banking laws and practices. There is a need for simultaneous reforms of laws relating to transfer of property and crimes of credit default, if international banks are to evince an interest in supporting Maldivian economy.

Reforms on the legal front in Maldives often boils down to marrying common law practices with the Shariat. No other country has achieved satisfactory results on this score, particularly in the immediate South Asian neighbourhood than India. The evolved Indian scheme ensures protection under theShariat as far as the Muslim personal law goes. It covers marriage and divorce, inheritance and the like. More importantly, the Indian scheme have imbibed the Shariat practices in its laws and judicial pronouncements, so much so lawyers and judges in India, educated and trained under the common law scheme, practice the same without they having to study these laws in madrasas or confining their knowledge and expertise only to the Shariat.

Even while criticising the nation’s judiciary while in power, the MDP and President Nasheed did acknowledge the amended provisions of the Judges Act to equip and educate the judiciary in the country on the reforms that need to be undertaken, over a seven-year period. The unstated understanding is that the judges who had not equipped them under the new scheme would have to go at the end of seven years. Two years have already passed by, but the Nasheed Government was not known to have taken any serious step to reform the judiciary, though updating/modernising the judiciary would have been a better and more acceptable term. Capacity-building is the name of the game in modern parlance. The Nasheed government could not be blamed for not trying in approaching the UN agencies and India, among others, for helping with capacity-building in judiciary and other areas of administration, but the follow-up was lacking.

The other problem pertaining to the judiciary, as pointed out the MDP since Nasheed assumed the presidency in 2008, relates to the life-long tenure for judges. For a nation that had borrowed the US model of executive presidency without the attendant checks-and-balances, the Maldivian scheme suffers from internal contradiction that are natural to adapting alien models without thought. The checks-and balances scheme took roots in the US for historic reasons. The US also takes pride in protecting the individual accountability and collective responsibility of institutions. Neither this, nor the ‘French model’ of shared powers between the directly-elected President and a Prime Minister as under the Westminster scheme, for instance, could have been transplanted into another system, without nation-wide acknowledgement and discourse, and a commitment flowing from it.

In the Maldivian context, the executive presidency from the Gayoom era was accompanied by live-tenure for judges, without self-accountability on the latter’s part. Under the scheme, the legislature too being a tool of the executive did not protest violations or protect the common man’s interests. The MDP in general and President Nasheed in particular wanted this situation changed. What transpired however was a government in a hurry wanting to change everything overnight. With the Opposition-controlled Parliament in no mood to amend the laws to grant a fixed or age-barred tenure for the judges, the Nasheed Government started painting all appointees of the Gayoom administration in black, leaving no room for shades of grey.

This also applied to members of other independent institutions, including the Election Commission, Judicial Services Commission, Civil Services Commission and the Human Rights Commission. In a more recent response to a legislative proposal to amend Article 53 of the Civil Services Act, which stipulates that civil servants wanting to contest elections should quit their post six months in advance, Mohamed Fahmy Hassan, CSC president, said that professionalism of the civil service can be maintained only of if the civil service is established as a non-political establishment. What needs to be achieved is a measure of legislative changes, which do not always go in favour of the Government of the day, particularly when it lacked parliamentary majority.

The MDP government was in a hurry to do too many things in too short a time, and seen as having revamped the system in time for their second presidential poll under the multi-party scheme. In the process, they bit more than they could have chewed.

Anti-incumbency & coalition from start

All sections of the nation’s polity should share the blame for writing the Constitution with an individual, and not institutions, in mind. Through the debates of the Constituent Assembly (2007-08), the unacknowledged assumption was President Gayoom would either thwart the effort or ensure his electoral victory even under a multi-party system. His Government in a way fed such apprehensions on the side of the multi-party Opposition. The Gayoom camp favoured the Westminster system of government. As the polling pattern in 2008 proved, he would have continued in office under the scheme, he having polled 40 per cent of the popular vote in the first round of presidential elections. Against this, Nasheed polled only 25 per cent with two other Opposition candidates, Hassan Saeed and Gasim Ibrahim obtaining 17 and 15 per cent of the votes, respectively. Anticipating some game-plan up President Gayoom’s sleeve, and also understanding the awaiting complexity, the Opposition parties preferred the Executive Presidency through direct elections and 50-per cent-plus share of the popular vote for the winner.

Written into the script even at the time was the inevitability of an anti-Gayoom candidate pooling the votes of other runners-up in the second round, if he had tobe elected President. Deals were struck by parties behind the back of the people, who in turn were excited about the prospects of multi-party democracy. The 40-per cent youth population was overwhelmed by vote for 18-year-olds. Nasheed’s victory thus implied a contract for the winner to accommodate the runners-up in the Government and in the parliamentary elections under the new constitutional scheme. When that part of the deal was not kept, the inherent coalition, inevitable to the Maldivian scheme of the time, broke. It also implied that anti-incumbency of the kind that beleaguered President Gayoom in electoral terms after multi-party democracy became possible, would haunt his successor, too. Or, with the electoral focus turning towards the new President, other parties would ‘gang up’, as they did against President Gayoom, if they felt being let up the garden path or that the mood of the voter had changed, since.

Elsewhere, particularly in directly-elected executive governments, coalitions of the non-incumbent/anti-incumbent kind are often represented in terms of ‘interest groups’ within an umbrella organisation of a single political party. In such instances as post-independence India or Sri Lanka in the immediate neighbourhood, such umbrella organisations had splintered and fractured with passage of time, to form other political parties, representing individual interest groups, within which commonality could suffer further erosion under specific circumstances. In democratic Maldives, such ‘interest groups’ have had ready representation in different political parties even at the commencement of the process.

Barring the main player, the President of the nation and the party that he led and/or represented, the rest of them all have remained constant. There are visible signs of some of the political parties weakening and others strengthening themselves at the cost of the rest. A clearer picture will take time to emerge, with each election for the presidency, Parliament and local councils, throwing up different permutations and combinations, in the interim. All this would go on to prove that democracy is a dynamic process, eternally changing and reshaping itself.

Maldives and Maldivians, starting with their divided polity, have to accept that there is no constancy or permanency in democracy after a point, and that all would have to accept this reality and be prepared to make sacrifices.

At present, as in the pre-democracy past, the leadership of various political parties, and by extension, the government also remains Male-centric, and thus represents the urban elite. It could not have been different in the short span, though early signs of the Maldivian polity moving away from urban Male for leadership have become visible in the democracy years. As has been happening in older democracies elsewhere in the Third World, particularly in the rest of South Asia, the trickle-down effect of democracy would swarm not only the population in terms of socio-economic benefits but would also throw up a new class of rural elite, and non-elite among the political party, and consequently government leadership in due course.

The Maldives has to prepare itself to accept this reality. So should Maldivians be prepared for the same. Yet, given the urban-islands divide – an urban-rural divide, elsewhere – and the reality of urban population centres having a disproportionately high share of the votes, the transition and consequent transformation could be more painful than elsewhere, and more than what the young democracy has been subjected to, already.

Institution-building, as democratic traditions, is time-consuming. Once built, it would be left to the practitioners of the scheme, politicians and bureaucrats in this case, to protect what they have given themselves and the nation. In a contemporary history whose current life is only three years or even less, institution-building in Maldives could not be, and should not be, compared to those in older and thus more matured democracies. The nation will also have to marry the traditions learnt from elsewhere with the cultural and civilizational ethos of a proud people, whose geographical insulation in this communications era needs to be balanced, carefully and patiently.

It is not that it could not be achieved, but the tweaking and tempering takes time, at times running to several years. After all, Rome was not built in a day, nor can Maldivian democracy and democratic institutions be, particularly when they have been inherited from another scheme of governance that were in force in another era even in the global context, and cannot be, and should not be wished away, either.

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation.

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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Auditor General accuses elections commission of misappropriation of funds

The Auditor General (AG) has said the annual audit report of the Elections Commission (EC) for the year of 2010 suggests that the members of the elections commission had misappropriated funds.

During a meeting with Parliament’s Financial Committee this Wednesday, the AG said the audit reports had identified that the commission failed to produce necessary documents over how its expenditure had been spent.

This included the failure to produce spending details of a sum of money worth Rf 15 million (US$972,762) out of Rf 54 million (US$3,501,945), which had been deposited to regional accounts across the country to facilitate elections.

Local newspaper Sun Online reported the AG as stating that there were several discrepancies found in the audit report, including that the members of EC had stayed in the residences of family members during official trips and the purchase of several electronic devices such as iPads and digital cameras against advice from the office of the auditor general.

The newspaper also reported the AG stating that the Ipads that were bought for each member of the commission had been given out to the family members of the commission members and the money taken as phone allowance had also been transferred to some member’s family members.

AG also alleged that the EC had spent excessively and irresponsibly from the budget that was allocated to the commission. He alleged that a digital camera worth Rf 200,000 (US$ 12,970.17) was bought along with three coffee makers worth Rf 60,000 (US$ 3,891).

The AG was stated quoting that “the Elections Commission is not a photo studio to buy a digital camera worth up to 200,000 rufiya. This shows how irresponsible the commission has been in spending the money.”

Answering questions posed by the members of the Financial Committee, the AG stated that commission members chose to each buy iPads, and that 250 laptops were not used. He also stated that the buying of iPads on state funds was illegal and against the Public Finance act.

The AG however reiterated that even though the commission had failed in producing the details of how the sum of Rf 15 million was spent out of the Rf 54 million allocated to facilitate elections, it was not embezzlement but negligence in overseeing and monitoring expenditure.

The elections commission stated in the Finance Committee that it had the details of how Rf 39 million out of the Rf 54 million was spent, but did not have the details of the remaining Rf 15 million.

Elections Commission response

Speaking to Minivan News earlier, Elections Commissioner Fuad Thaufeeq denied the allegations in the audit report citing that the commission did not have to be responsible for expenditure prior to when the commission was formed.

“None of the members in the present commission have done anything against the financial regulations or the constitution,” he said.

“We are very much ready to prove we are innocent. The present committee doesn’t have to be responsible before November 24, 2009,” he also said at the time.

The Auditor General also concurred at the time  with Thaufeeq that the period in question did pre-date the current Election Commissioner’s tenure.

When contacted, Deputy President of Elections Commission Ahmed Fayaz told Minivan News that Thaufeeq would be the best person to give information. However he was not responding to calls at time of press

Along with his assertions that the expenses concerned pre-dated the current incarnation of the EC, Thaufeeq previously told Minivan News that he had the impression that there were efforts being undertaken to discredit members of the commission.

The ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has called for early elections after the party’s Mohamed Nasheed resigned on February 7 in an alleged “coup d’état.” The Commonwealth and EU have supported the call for early elections.

However State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon – daughter of former President Gayoom – recently told the BBC that the state’s independent institutions including the Elections Commission, Human Rights Commission (HRCM) and the judiciary were not strong enough for early elections to be held.

Unless the institutions are strengthened, elections cannot be held in the country in “the foreseeable future,” Dunya told the BBC.

The US government subsequently pledged US$500,000 (Rf7.7 million) for an elections programme to assist Maldivian institutions in ensuring a free and fair presidential election. The assistance will be made available from July 2012.

“We have already held three successful elections in the past: the country’s first multi-party election in 2008, parliamentary elections in 2009 and local council elections in 2011,” Thaufeeq has said.

“There were more than 1180 seats for the island councils, atoll councils and city councils. That was a very large and complicated election. It was very successful. So I don’t see how anyone can raise questions regarding the Election Commission’s capacity,” he added.

Recently-held by-elections for the seats of Thimarafushi and Kaashidhoo were decided in favour of MPs affiliated with the new government.

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President to confer Award for Special Achievements

Cabinet has decided to reimplement a presidential award scheme designed to honour figures of national distinction – the first accolade of its kind to be given since 2007.

The President’s Office today announced that the cabinet has decided the national Award for Special Achievements will now be given by President Mohamed Waheed Hassan rather than a specially assigned government body.

The decision was taken following a cabinet discussion over a paper submitted by the National Awards Committee to try and iron out potential “inconsistencies” from occurring in the selection process for the accolade.

Under the previous administration, the award was given by specially assigned government office. Recipients of the accolade will now be decided by a technical committee, the President’s Office has announced.

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Fiji: a case study in the realities of Commonwealth suspension

As Maldivian politicians contemplate renouncing the country’s membership in the Commonwealth amidst threats of suspension, a sign of some of the implications the country may face should this come to pass can be seen in the Pacific Ocean-based island nation of Fiji.

In September 2009 Fiji was itself suspended from the Commonwealth, a 54 member state intergovernmental organisation rooted in the former British empire,  after Fiji’s military heads refused to hold previously-agreed elections in 2010 after coming to power.

Fiji’s suspension had significant economic and diplomatic ramifications for the island nation after some foreign powers began to see the country as a “rogue state”, resulting in a significant drop in aid and other assistance, according to New Zealand-based geopolitics consultancy, 36th Parallel Assessments.

Estrangement

Fiji found itself facing “estrangement” from western aid and other technical programmes after it was suspended from the Commonwealth three years ago.

Fiji’s suspension from the Commonwealth saw the country isolated from “aid donors aligned to western democracies”, observed Selywn Manning from 36th Parallel Assessments.

“This brand of authoritarian government caused aid donor nations and bodies (most significantly donor funds from the European Union) to be cut. Donors became reticent to commit development funds to Fiji, and indeed the Commonwealth member states in the Pacific region used this withdrawal of aid funds as a lever to pressure Fiji to return to democratic rule,” Manning explained.

The suspension also led to a shift in attitudes towards investment and business spending in the country, particularly tourism.

“Fiji’s isolation was made worse for its people due to the Commonwealth suspension decision following on from the position taken by the Pacific Islands Forum – a body consisting of 16 independent south/west Pacific islands states. The Pacific Islands Forum leaders had earlier decided to suspend Fiji until it recommitted to free and fair democratic elections,” Manning said.

“Fiji’s refusal to do so caused Australia and New Zealand to express a foreign policy that enforced travel and visitor sanctions levelled against Fiji’s ruling military elite and their families. The two western aligned nations also successfully lobbied the United Nations secretariat to de-commission, or discontinue, Fiji soldiers from taking part in peacekeeping operations around the world. The consequence of these moves caused Fiji’s economy to suffer. By late 2008, Fiji’s economy was in recession and this in-turn impacted on the livelihoods of ordinary Fiji families.”

International standing

The vacuum left by Western-aligned interests was quickly filled by other countries, especially China, Manning said.

China became the “most significant” of these external powers to befriend Fiji whilst more “Western aligned” bodies such as Australia, New Zealand and the wider Commonwealth organisation effectively enforced “estrangement” on the nation, he said.

“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) committed to aid and donor programmes and Fiji’s people began to notice positive change. PRC funds permitted the military regime to put its soldiers to work building new roads and improve infrastructure and government owned facilities. The military regime also permitted an increase in Chinese enterprise to establish inside Fiji, while western foreign and private investment stagnated or declined,” he said.

According to Manning, as Fiji has begun to accede to international pressure to host democratic elections by 2014, one of the key drivers towards the development was the belief that China’s donor support did not account for losses incurred by Commonwealth suspension.

“There are two elements that are able to be identified as significant influencers in [terms of scheduling elections for 2014]. The Peoples Republic Of China’s committed donor programme does not replace in dollar terms the loss Fiji has experienced to its total aid funds received ledger,” he explained.

“This has caused Fiji’s military government to move to sustain donor funds from the PRC while inching toward recreating Fiji as a post-coup democratic state,” he added. “Should elections be held in 2014, Fiji anticipates western aid funders will re-establish contact with its government and re-commit to assistance programmes.

“The second element is the United States’ position to establish warm relations with Fiji, encourage foreign investment in a post-election period and welcome Fiji back as a nation on friendly-nation status terms.”

While it remains suspended from the Commonwealth, Manning said Fiji has still been able to represent itself before the general assembly of the United Nations. However Fiji’s relationship with its wealthy neighbors, Australia and New Zealand, remained terse.

Manning added that Fiji had also retained membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), a four member inter-governmental body that includes Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands and Vanuatu among its representatives.

“The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) did not suspend Fiji but has given Fiji a degree of legitimacy around the Pacific region,” he noted.

“The MSG was usually dominated by Papua New Guinea’s wishes, but since 2010, PNG has supported Fiji’s Prime Minister and military leader Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama’s chairmanship of the Melanesian bloc,” he said. “Once stable in the role, under Bainimarama’s leadership, Melanesian nations have moved to establish unprecedented independence – most recently Melanesian leaders agreed to establish a regional security force called The Legion which would arguably replace regional assistance missions led by Australia and New Zealand should civil unrest cause a Melanesian state to require external assistance to quell an uprising.”

As well as defence agreements, the MSG is also said to have moved to represent its members among global bodies without having Melanesian countries go through the Pacific Islands Forum. Funding to do this has come from donors including the People’s Republic of China, Timor Leste, and Luxembourg.

National mood

Asked how the Fijian public viewed the Commonwealth’s actions to suspend its membership, Selwyn responded that it was hard to identify a particular national mood, owing to the country’s strongly-polarised society around two distinct ethnic groups.

Of these two groups, indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijian population, Selwyn claimed the latter had benefited from a move by the present military regime towards a less racially segregated societal system.

“The regime’s goal is to legislate and enforce a new constitution which will remove political protections for Fiji’s indigenous peoples and stamp out so-called corrupt practice by Fiji’s former power-elite. It appears many Fijians, subscribing to both ethnic groups, support Bainimarama’s plan,” he said. “Also, due to staunch censorship decrees enforced in post-coup Fiji it is difficult to analyse a statistically accurate poll of public opinion.”

However, 36 Parallel Assessments, in its research, said that what support the current government did have among its people and international partners could well be dented by a failure to adhere to the 2014 election timetable.

In terms of the immediate future for Fiji, the nation still remains suspended from the Commonwealth, a decision that will be maintained until scheduled democratic elections are held in 2014.

However, Selwyn said that in terms of the Commonwealth’s success or failure in resolving the country’s political upheavals, it was important to look at the organisation’s work within the wider international community.

“The Commonwealth’s demand that Fiji must return to democracy has not set it apart as the stand-alone entity that will cause Fiji to return to democracy. Rather it is a voice among numerous bodies that are pressing the argument,” Manning said.

“It is the cumulative voice that has caused Fiji to take notice and to express a willingness to hold elections in 2014 post establishing a new constitution,” he added. “Should Fiji’s prime minister Commodore Bainimarama be elected as leader in 2014, then he will have pulled off a political coup, South-Pacific style. And that is a tempting proposition for an isolated military man to ponder.”

Maldives and CMAG

The Maldives has already been suspended from Commonwealth’s human rights and democracy arm, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG). However, Commonwealth Secretariat Spokesperson Richard Uku cautioned against comparing the Maldives against a former member state like Fiji.

“Each country situation that CMAG has considered in the past has had its own particular characteristics. It would not be fair to compare one situation against the other,” Uku said.

As one of the more active elements of the international community in the Maldives following the controversial events of February 7, the Commonwealth has become a bellweather for the response of the wider international community.

The European Union told Minivan News last week that it continued to back CMAG and its Special Envoy Sir Donald Mckinnon in pursuing early elections, and an independent inquiry into the transfer of power that saw President Mohamed Waheed brought to office amid violent demonstrations, an assault on Male’s military base by mutinying police, and the storming of the state broadcaster.

While the Commonwealth has been criticised by Maldivian politicians associated with the new government, Secretariat Spokesperson Uku claimed the organisation’s experience had shown that no member state wished to be placed in such a situation as to be suspended from the group.

“Commonwealth membership carries political, economic and social benefits for member states and is valued by our member states. It also carries obligations about adhering to certain fundamental political values,” he said.

“Suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth has practical ramifications in terms of a member state being excluded from official Commonwealth meetings at various levels and being barred from receiving new technical assistance in many areas.”

Following its most recent meeting on April 16, Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (GMAG) warned of  “stronger measures” against the Maldives if conditions regarding the independence of Dr Waheed’s Commission of Independent Inquiry (CNI) were not met. Some MPs aligned with the government subsequently called for the Maldives to preemptively disassociate itself from the Commonwealth.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs and daughter of former President Gayoom, Dunya Maumoon,  meanwhile accused the organisation of showing “bias” against the new President in its calls for early elections, claiming it had been misinformed. President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza said last week that the Maldives was committed to remaining a Commonwealth Member, but “only under the regulations of our constitution”.

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Mega Maldives, resorts, tourism officials complete whistle-stop tour of Chinese markets

Deputy Minister of Tourism Mohamed Maleeh Jamaal had claimed the Maldives tourism industry expects “phenomenal growth” in the Chinese market, following the conclusion of a travel roadshow representing the Maldives on a whistle-stop tour of five Chinese cities in one week.

The main aims of the tour, according to Maleeh, were to build confidence in the Maldives as a destination as well as portray the country as an investment opportunity. The roadshow was also intended to update the Chinese industry on new tourism developments in the Maldives.

The tour was a joint enterprise with the Mega Maldives airline and took in all of its current Chinese flight destinations: Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. The group also included travel agents, tour operators , and resort companies from the Maldives.

China has become the market leader in terms of visitors to the country. Last year, the number of visitors from China surpassed those from Britain, reaching 198,000. The tour also aimed to publicise the industry’s aims to attract a record 1 million visitors this year.

Recently released figures from the Ministry of Tourism show that total tourist numbers for the first quarter of 2012 were over a quarter of a million.

Overall arrivals for the first quarter of 2012 were up 3.3 percent compared with the figures for the same period in 2011. However, the same figures for the corresponding period in 2011 shown a 12.8 percent from 2010, suggesting a substantial slowdown in growth.

After the political disruptions of this year, there were fears that the now vital Chinese market may have been unsettled. A combination of a quiet period in the Hong Kong tourism market, with the addition of the Maldives being placed by Hong Kong authorities on the country’s travel alerts, saw Mega Maldives cancel its chartered flights from this location on February 18.

Ali Faiz, Marketing Director at Mega Maldives, said that the company had been working hard to educate the Chinese about the Maldives to assuage concerns.

Services from Hong Kong resumed on April 4 and are said by Faiz to be doing well. The amber travel alert, warning tourists to “monitor the situation” and “advising caution”, was introduced on February 8 and remains in place.

“The Chinese market is still a fairly new to Maldives tourism. Most of them don’t understand the geographic nature of the Maldives. This is the difference between the developed markets (Europe) and developing market (China),” said Faiz.

The tourism ministry’s figures reflected this worry with monthly Chinese tourist figures down 34.8 percent for March and 28.4 percent for February, compared with 2011’s numbers.

Despite this, Maleeh said that the Chinese market would continue to grow: “Everyone expects phenomenal arrivals in June and July.”

Describing the tour, he said, “We also wanted to hear from our Chinese counterparts about what the trends are and what Chinese tourists are expecting so we can share this with our industry.”

“This is particularly important as we develop our fourth tourism master-plan. It will help us understand if we are targeting the right market in China,” he continued.

Maleeh also mentioned that attention was given to the recent social and digital media campaign launched shortly before the team left for China. Discussions were held regarding the best way in which joint promotion schemes might be utilised for the Chinese market using social media sites such as Weibo.

The success of the road trip has prompted thoughts of similar events in Japan, South Korea, and possibly Europe, Maleeh told Minivan News.

The Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Company (MMPRC) recently advertised for a PR company to provide “strategic counsel”, “stakeholder engagement”, “proactive” media relations and “key message and storybook development” after the controversial change of power in February.

Boosting tourism confidence was one of the objectives required of the company that successfully bids for the three month contract.

Maleeh commented on this approach at the time of the story: “The main focus right now is increasing investor confidence. We have to include all fronts include economic angles,” he said. “There has been a barrage of international media coverage and we need to try to convert this interest into positive coverage.”

Chinese travel agents contacted by Minivan News during the political crisis expressed concern about cancellations. Shanghai travel agent Sun Yi said she was faced with many cancellations just two days after February 7: ”It has seriously affected our business. Many guests cancelled the Maldivian holiday package which used to be very popular,” she explained.

Social media suggested that the average Chinese traveler was not well informed of the situation in the days following the resignation.

Before most Chinese media outlets had reported news of the Maldives’ change of government, travelers-to-be noticed a post in WEIBO (Chinese version of Twitter) by Maldives resort-based Chinese diving instructor Jai He. After posting the news on WEIBO he was immediately contacted by Chinese media outlets.

Within days, however, a WEIBO search for “Maldives” yielded only a few incomplete statements of the actual events. Most posts voiced only poetic concerns of a tainted dream holiday or honeymoon, or an exaggerated description of the current situation.

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Ports staff allege suspension for political activities

Seven staff at the Maldives Ports Ltd (MPL) were suspended from their jobs at the state company for participating in protests held by ousted Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP), a source in the company has confirmed.

Six of the staff have returned to work, while 40 year-old laborer Nizam Abdulla remains suspended.

MPL officials told Nizam they had pictures of him protesting and causing damage to state property outside President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s residence of Hilaaleege, and told him he was suspended for violating the company’s code of conduct. He was then asked to write a letter of apology to the company’s new assistant CEO, Ahmed Faiz.

Nizam described himself as a prominent MDP activist, but denied being present during MDP protests at Hilaaleege. Further, he said he had attended MDP’s protests while on annual leave.

The MDP alleges President Waheed came to power through a coup d’état on February 7 and are holding daily protests calling for fresh elections.

“I was on holiday. I was not in uniform, I was not on duty. I have the right to go wherever I want and I have the right to express myself. They are doing this to me because I support the MDP,” he said.

The father of four children said he is yet to receive any official communication regarding his suspension, and does not know how long the suspension is to last.

MPL Media Coordinator Ibrahim Rilwan confirmed Nizam’s suspension, but said he did not know the specifics regarding the case. The code of conduct does not prohibit participation in political activities, but staff can be disciplined if they transgress good behavioral norms, he added.

The Maldives Ports Ltd manages Malé city’s sea port and is a state owned company. The Supreme Court in August 2011 struck down a clause in the Civil Service Act banning civil servants from participating in political activities, stating the clause infringed upon citizen’s right to participate in political activities as enshrined in the constitution.

“What right does MPL have?”

When Nizam returned to work on April 23, after a month on annual leave, two guards escorted him off the ship he was working on.

“They told me I was not allowed on the office premises any longer. There was a picture of me in the guard house. The next day, my cards were deactivated and I can’t enter the office now,” Nizam told Minivan News.

He is unable to file a complaint with the Labor Tribunal which oversees Employment Act violations because he does not have any official communication regarding his suspension yet.

Nizam said he had been told over the phone not to return to work while he was on annual leave. “There was no warning. I do not see a phone call as a warning,” he said.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “This doesn’t just affect me, it affects my wife and four children. What right does MPL have to do this to me?”

Nizam has been working at MPL for six years now.

MPL’s spokesperson Rilwan said the company has asked staff not to participate in political activities while in uniform and on duty. However, the code of conduct does not forbid participation in politics, and no staff have been disciplined for political activities yet, Rilwan claimed.

“The code of conduct says disciplinary measures can be taken against staff if a member of the staff violate norms of good behavior within and outside the office, but I do not know if this is the case with Nizam,” Rilwan said.

“We are not MPL slaves”

An MPL staff member who wished to remain anonymous said a further six staff at MPL were also suspended for two days in March following MDP’s March 19 protests which sought to obstruct President Waheed from addressing parliament’s opening session.

“MPL senior officials want to make sure their staff do not attend protests. Nizam’s suspension is intended as a warning to everyone else,” he told Minivan News.

“We are not MPL’s slaves. The constitution guarantees us freedom of expression. We have the right to go wherever we want and express ourselves when we are not in uniform on duty,” he added.

Another staff, who also wished to remain anonymous, said he too had been warned by his directors not to attend MDP protests. Furthermore, he said he has not yet seen the company’s code of conduct.

“They do not share the code of conduct when they recruit you. I have not seen this, I don’t think anyone has. I don’t even know what it says,” he said.

“A lot of MPL staff are MDP supporters. So the senior staff send people to MDP protests to monitor and take pictures of who attends. The whole point of this is intimidation,” he said.

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MDP to boycott Majlis sitting to approve VP, cabinet nominees

Ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has said it will boycott Wednesday’s Majlis sitting scheduled to approve President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s vice-president nominee and 14 member cabinet.

The MDP alleges President Waheed came to power through a coup d’état, and has called for fresh elections and an independent investigation into the transfer of power on February 7.

“We continue to believe the transfer of power occurred through a coup d’état. We do not believe any cabinet Dr Waheed appoints to be lawful. Therefore we believe the sitting scheduled to approve such a cabinet is also an unlawful sitting,” MDP parliamentary group (PG) leader Ibrahim ‘Ibu’ Mohamed Solih told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

The MDP had sent a letter requesting cabinet approval be postponed to a later date, but did not receive a reply, Ibu said.

MDP deputy PG leader Ali Waheed said the decision to boycott Wednesday’s sitting was “not defeat,” but a “courageous decision.”

He also said the Speaker could not schedule approval for the cabinet until an independent investigation into the transfer of power is complete.

President Waheed has set up a three member Committee of National Inquiry (CNI), but the commission has come under fire from international bodies such as the Commonwealth, the MDP and local civil society group for lack of independence.

MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik said the establishment of the CNI was proof that President Waheed himself questioned the legitimacy of his administration. Further, even if the cabinet nominees were approved, Waheed’s administration could not submit bills as Waheed’s Gaumee Ithihad (GI) does not have representation in the Majlis.

Article 71 of the parliamentary rules of procedure states the government can only submit bills, including tax bills, to the parliament through the party it represents.

The MDP also sought to obstruct Waheed from addressing parliament on March 1 and March 19. Waheed only managed to deliver a shortened version of the presidential address amidst loud heckling by MDP MPs in the Majlis chamber while MDP supporters and police clashed violently outside. During the speech an MP held up a placard declaring Waheed a ‘coup boss’.

Meanwhile, the MDP has also tabled a no-confidence motion against speaker Abdulla Shahid claiming the speaker follows the house rules at his discretion and does not seek advice from political parties when making major decisions.

In response, Shahid has said: “I was elected as Speaker through a parliamentary majority. Since then, I have upheld and in the future will continue to uphold the Constitution and laws of the Maldives and the Parliament’s regulations.”

The MDP commands 32 of the 77 seats in parliament.

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Former President Nasheed meets Indian PM Manmohan Singh

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to appeal for Indian backing of early elections, following what Nasheed describes was a resignation “under duress” on February 7.

Nasheed resigned amid dramatic scenes on the streets of Male’, after police joined opposition-aligned demonstrators, attacking military headquarters and storming the state broadcaster.

Singh had requested the meeting, Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) noted in a statement.

“The Prime Minister said he believed political resolution lay in acting on the agreement made between political parties and mediated by Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai on February 16. All political parties agreed to hold early elections in this road-map,” the party said.

“Nasheed also asked the Indian government to help protect US$873 million worth of investment made by Indians in the Maldives in the past three years.”

Singh addressed the Maldives’ parliament last year in November, the first foreign head-of-state to do so.

“India will be at your side in your transition to a fully functioning democracy,” Singh declared at the special sitting of the People’s Majlis. “We will assist the Majlis by way of training, formulation of rules and regulations and any other assistance that you may desire.”

In his address, Singh praised the “impressive strides in nation-building” the Maldives has made since independence in 1965, with the highest socio-economic indicators and progress on Millennium Development Goals in the South Asia region.

“You have chosen the path of democracy, freedom and respect for human rights. You have shown how even a small nation can stand up and be counted in the affairs of the world,” he said.

“I am confident that the people of Maldives will continue to consolidate their achievements. As an abiding friend, India will always stand by you in these efforts. Our relations are time-tested and I wish to reaffirm that they shall remain so in the future.”

In a statement today, India’s External Affairs Ministry re-endorsed the Indian-sponsored roadmap document drawn up on February 16.

“India hopes that engagement with all the stakeholders in Maldives will facilitate a constructive dialogue among all the political parties and help in bringing stability to the country in line with the Roadmap drawn up by the President of the Maldives,” the statement read.

Earlier this week Nasheed met with journalists, think tanks and political and industry leaders during a visit to India to build support for early presidential polls in the Maldives. Media reports focused on the former President’s concerns that his ousting had left the country vulnerable to growing Islamic radicalism.

New Foreign Minister Dr Abdul Samad Abdullah meanwhile met with India’s external affairs minister S.M. Krishna earlier this month. India is also presently engaging in joint defence exercises with the Maldives coastguard. Newly-appointed Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim has also visited India.

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