The Ministry of Finance has filed a case with the police asking them to investigate the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on suspicion of trying to topple the government.
A press release issued by the ministry claims the court case recently filed against it by CSC over the salary issue is an attempt “to sow discord between the government and public.”
The ministry further accused the CSC of trying to “bring the government to a halt”, and claiming certain members of the CSC were using the issue as a cover to attain “a hidden political agenda.”
“The CSC is making it difficult for the government to implement the necessary economic policies [and are therefore] indirectly trying to damage the economy,” the statement said.
“[The CSC’s actions] will result in an increased budget deficit, make it difficult to maintain the value of the rufiyaa against the dollar and will damage the Maldivian economy, affecting each and every citizen of this country,” it accused.
“They will plunge the Maldives into chaos,” the statement concluded. It was signed by Finance Minister Ali Hashim who several MPs, including independent MP Mohamed Nasheed, have said will shortly become the subject of a no-confidence motion over his handling of the civil servant salary issue.
State Minister for Finance Ahmed Assad said it was “not up to us to investigate this, so we have asked police to do it.”
Assad said it was not only the court case that had made the ministry suspicious.
“It’s not one specific thing, it’s everything taken together,” he said.
Implying that all avenues for negotiation and mediation had failed, Assad said it was “the lack of a media announcement on anything like that that should make it obvious.”
Vice president of the CSC, Abdul Muhsin, said the commission had decided against commenting on the issue as “the case is in the court now.”
Asked what the commission made of the accusation it was trying to topple the government, Muhsin said “it’s just an accusation, they want to investigate it, all we can say is we are not doing that.”
President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said “If finance ministry asked for an investigation it must be because they have genuine cause for concern.”
He said that while the CSC was legally assigned the task of deciding civil servants salary, “it still states that it should be done after discussion with the Ministry of Finance.”
“The CSC chose to ignore the finance ministry’s instructions and do what they want,” Zuhair said, saying it was an “irregular thing” and a view shared by the president.
“When you say ‘after discussion’ it means that both sides should sit and talk and a middle ground should be found to do things – you can’t just ignore one side,” he said.
He said the CSC is not pursuing the matter for legal reasons.
“There is some other reason involved in this. If it’s for political reasons, it’s not even a civil matter, it’s a criminal matter,” he said.
“The fact that two people who are handling their case are affiliated with the opposition that is trying to topple the government says a lot,” Zuhair suggested.
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There is a lot of talk lately about toppling the government. In democratic systems, this is not something that is done lightly. The various political actors are supposed to be content acting within the law instead of acting outside of it. Trying to topple a legally elected government is a very dangerous thing and speaks of the great caution we must have for maintaining democracy in our country.
We have no foundation for democracy, and autocratic tendencies from the past seems to be rearing its ugly head. If and when this government ceases to run the country, it should be done the result of the 2013 Presidential Election.
As for the Civil Servants issue, if they want pay raises, the only way seems to be that some civil service contracts just be terminated. That way there will be money available to pay those who retain their jobs. Wouldn't that end this whole salary issue in a legally acceptable way? Of course, hundreds would be left without work - but at least we will fulfill our obligations to the CSC, right?! Its either that, or the CSC backs off, and learns to work with the government instead of against it. Why can't these groups just work towards whats best for the longterm future of the country - instead of constantly looking at short term profits?
Salim,
You don't seem to have a fair understanding of the true problem regarding the civil servents. You must be out of your mind suggesting either terminatiing Civil Servants contract or backing or CSC backing off. Don't ridicule yourself with this kind of stupid suggestions. The bottom line is this givernment have discriminated between civil servants and others such as political appointees and MPS. If the government as the say are bloody worried about budget deficit and economy cut the salaries of those who are paid most and bring things on a parallel gorund. You can't just keep all MDP politcal appointees happy and make suffer all the hard working civil servents. I think all this saga calls for an urgent no confidence vote on Hashim sooner.
The reason that this drama was blown out of proportion was that Ali Hashim clearly failed to follow the steps they agreed with the civil service.Finance ministry failed to renegotiate their part of the contract and clearly failed in informing the civil servants of the prolonged pay cuts. The CSC will always work to increase the pay or limit the number of months that the pay cuts were enforced but did this suffice as calling to over throw the government or bring about a revolution.Clearly the government is out of touch.Why does when in government everyone seems to forget civil liberties,freedom and fair play.why is the government curbing the rights that they fought so dearly for? How many times has the MDP activists gathered around Majlis in the last year now all of a sudden its way off limits?
You are forgetting the principles that brought you to power when something you believe is not right you stand up for it, you just don't pack your bags and leave.
Who're you kidding Mr. Salim.
The whole bloody problem is that most people on the state payroll are hypocrites. I do believe that salary reductions are necessary, given the dire economic circumstances. However, the salary reduction should be applied equally to all persons on the state payroll. And that means, MNDF, police, staff at independent institutions, parliament, judiciary, as well as all political appointees' salaries should be reduced according to a mechanism agreed via multi-sectoral negotiations/ consultations.
The by independent institutions parliament and judiciary, among others, to agree to a pay cut shows the inherent hypocrisy of the persons at these institutions.
As a civil servant, I feel that its terribly unfair to force pay cuts on just us lowly civil servants.