Tag: Abdulla Shahid

Border loopholes benefit human traffickers: Immigration Controller

“If one country has a loophole, all countries suffer,” said Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid, referring to the Maldives’ lack of a border control system amidst rising concerns over human trafficking. “The present border control system is only helping human traffickers.”

Authorities have reported a daily increase in human trafficking to the Maldives, particularly in the case of expatriate workers. The industry has a calculated value of US$123 million, making it the second largest contributor of foreign currency.

“This is a serious issue, there are about 40,000 illegal workers in the Maldives right now,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem. “A border control system would be useful, especially in the future for maintenance. But there is a lot to do within the country as well, and we are currently trying to address these matters.”

The Maldives currently uses an eight year-old, outdated border control system. Plans to upgrade to a modern system have been delayed for over a year on allegations of corruption.

In November 2010, the government approved a Rf500 million (US$39 million) Border Control System by Malaysia’s Nexbis Limited, proposed by the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

Shortly thereafter, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) requested that the agreement be halted due to “a serious public complaint” alleging corrupt dealings. The President upheld the ACC’s request in January 2011, by in May the Cabinet approved the program.

The ACC subsequently renewed its concerns and filed a case at the Civil Court and submitted a report to the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office earlier this month. The report accuses Former Controller Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim and Director General of Finance Ministry, Saamee Aqeel, then head of the Tender Board, for allegedly abusing their authority for undue financial gain.

Nexbis threatened legal action over the delay, citing millions of dollars in losses over equipment already imported to the Maldives. Shahid noted that the equipment is still sitting in Customs.

Immigration matters

Shahid said the public misconception that Immigration is a mundane department doing no-brainer tasks has led to a general misunderstanding of need for a border control system.

“Immigration personnel have to be trained to detect forgery, to profile passengers–we recently had courses for officers on how to detect physical alterations like makeup.

“In general, the public is not aware of the system’s value. It is to everyone’s benefit, even distant countries, to have a strong border control system in the Maldives. Terrorism and human trafficking involve other countries and their borders. If we have good communication, starting at Immigration, and a system, then we have good results.”

Currently a passport check requires an individual to manually scan hundreds of photographs, Shahid said. Without the key components of a modern system – facial recognition, finger-print identification technology, and eye scans – “people who were deported on criminal violations can re-enter the country. If they have a new or fake passport, we rarely detect them with our current system,” Shahid explained.

“A passport is just a piece of paper nowadays. The modern system, with the recognition technology, is almost a 100 percent guarantee of proper identification,” he added.

Nearby Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia have been using modern systems for years.

“I think the proof is strong enough”

Shahid believes that cases against Ibrahim and Aqeel will be difficult to ignore in a court of law.

When the Nexbis system was first considered, a proposal was sent by Immigration to the National Planning Council. According to Shahid’s review of the documents, the final contract drafted deviated significantly from the initial proposal.

“The proposed system could be implemented in six months for US$4-5 million, with the company charging a further US$150-200 thousand per year for maintenance,” he asserted.

“According to this, the Maldives would pay US$8 million in the first year to Nexbis. Over 20 years that would be US$4 million paid annually. That’s fair. But right now the Nexbis plan is one-third of the budget.”

Taxes are also a consideration, particularly given the high numbers of foreigners and expatriates traveling through the Maldives.

“In 2011 we are reaching 1 million foreign arrivals. If we charge US$2 for arrival and US$2 for departure, that’s US$4 per person. Annually, the government would collect US$4 million for Nexbis. It would break even.”

Nexbis proposed these charges as part of its 20-year contract with the government in 2010.

“This means that neither the government nor the Maldivian public have to pay in exchange for a state-of-the-art border security protection,” Nexbis earlier claimed.

Shahid also noted that GMR is expanding Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) to accommodate 3 million arrivals annually, indicating that revenue will increase.

Nexbis also planned to levy a US$15 fee for expatriate identification cards. With the current 100,000 registered expatriates, Shahid said, the company receives US$1.5 million annually from expatriate cards alone.

“Nexbis will get US$27.5 million in 2025, according to the current statistics,” he said. Calculating for a gradual increase of arrivals over the next 20 years, “the generated revenue could build an airport of GMR’s standards and implement an up-to-date border control system.”

According to Shahid’s calculations, the approximate cost in the first year of installment and operation (US$8 million) of a Nexbis-quality border control system is far lower than the cost proposed in the final contract (US$39 million).

Shahid earlier estimated that maintaining a free system given by a donor country would cost at most several hundred thousand dollars a year, and said he was unsure as to why such an agreement had ever been signed.

“I don’t know much about the details of the ACC’s report,” he concluded. “Since I saw the contract for the Nexbis system, my argument has always been that the amount charged is ridiculous. It should not be done and must be halted. It is wrong.”

Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim declined to comment on the grounds that the issue was “politically risky.”

The Nexbis case is currently the largest corruption case before the courts and PG, the ACC confirmed. While corruption charges are regularly issued in the Maldives, resolution at the PG level is not so common. Speaking to Minivan News on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, ACC President Hassan Luthfee said that of the 16 cases filed with the PG this year, zero have been addressed.

Vice President Muaviz Rasheed today said the ACC had received no information from the PG, but was hoping for the Civil Court’s ruling by the end of this month.

“The Civil Court has not been cooperative with the ACC on all counts, however the hearings ended in late November and we expect a ruling within the month,” Muaviz said.

Banana republic?

Although Shahid is confident in the court, he is unsure when the Maldives will take actual steps towards updating its border control system.

Without local capacity and expertise to produce a state-of-the-art border control system, the Maldives would turn again to the international market. Shahid said there are many options: “we could go anywhere, we could even get it as foreign aid.”

But after the dealing with Nexbis, withstanding international scrutiny could be difficult.

“Nexbis sees the Maldives as a banana republic that it can squeeze money out of,” Shahid observed.

With a score of 2.5 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index and ranking 134th out of 185 countries, the Maldives may not be so inviting to foreign investors.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Syrian refugees “will not be forcibly evicted”: Immigration Controller

The Immigration Department is awaiting the resolution of 11 Syrian political refugees who were detained at the airport when boarding a flight to Switzerland with forged documents.

The Syrians had come to the Maldives for an alleged vacation on November 1 with forged documents claiming Turkish nationality. They are said to have stayed at a guest house before attempting to leave two weeks later.

Claiming relations in Berlin, they next attempted to leave for Germany on forged documents.

“The tip-off was that they had no visa into Switzerland, or into Germany, upon attempted departure,” said Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid. “This process, it’s a typical trick of people seeking political asylum.”

Syria has been rocked by political unrest since March, when residents of a southern town protested the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti.

President Bashar al-Assad lifted Syria’s decades-old state of emergency in April, only to send tanks and allow security forces to open fire on unarmed demonstrators days later.

Protestors have rejected Assad’s offers of reform as much as his crackdown. As a result, the violence has persisted to the point that the Arab League imposed economic sanctions on the country on November 27, an act decried by Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem as “economic war.”

Sanctions had also been issued by the United States and the European Union.

A recent UN report identified actions by security forces as “crimes against humanity.”

“A panel of independent experts says at least 256 children were killed by government forces as of early November, with some boys sexually tortured and a 2-year-old girl shot to death just to prevent her from growing up to be a demonstrator,” the Washington Post reported yesterday.

In light of Syria’s ongoing political unrest, Shahid said the Syrian nationals will not be forcibly evicted from the Maldives. “They have talked of violence being done to some relatives at home, so they will not be departing to Syria,” he explained.

He added that the group has said they will not take a route that involves transit in any Middle Eastern country. “They are very paranoid right now, and I’m not sure if they’re aware of international norms,” Shahid observed. “The situation has already gotten very bad, and it’s going to take a long time to resolve.”

Syrians have been reported seeking political asylum in various parts of Europe and the Middle East. A 2008 report by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada found that many Syrians who are deported back to Syria after being denied asylum risk imprisonment and even torture.

The group of refugees includes two children, two youth, two couples and several cousins. The family is currently staying in a local residence until they can make arrangements with their legitimate documents, which have been obtained.

According to Shahid, the Syrian refugees will now face sharp scrutiny when taking international flights.

“All airlines have a mechanism to share information about passengers who forge documents,” he said. “Most won’t take them now unless they have a proper visa for their destination.”

The situation in the Maldives is being handled exclusively by the Immigration Department.

Officials at the Presidents Office and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had not responded to phone calls at time of press.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Cabinet passes, ACC challenges Nexbis border control system

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a court case against the Rf500 million Border Control System proposed by the Department of Immigration and Emigration and signed by the government in November 2010.

Malaysia’s Nexbis Limited has been contracted to develop the system.

ACC’s case follows yesterday’s Cabinet decision to resume the border control programme with Nexbis. ACC has not revealed details of the case, and had not responded to inquiries at time of press.

Officials close to the matter said corruption was a concern. Earlier this year, the ACC had asked the government to halt program proceedings on suspicion of corruption during the bidding process.

Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid told Minivan News that the government maintains its aim to launch the system after Eid festivities and SAARC events have been concluded this month.

“It is common in most developed and developing countries to have an electronic border control system, such as this one,” said Shahid, noting that Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand had already subscribed to similar programs.

Immigration Department had signed a 20-year build, operate, and transfer (BOT) concession contract with Nexbis on October 17, 2010 when the ACC requested the department adjourn the signing ceremony due to a “serious” public complaint.

Nexbis shares immediately plunged 6.3 percent on the back of the ACC’s announcement. The company subsequently issued a statement claiming that speculation over corruption was “politically motivated” and had “wrought irreparable damage to Nexbis’ reputation and brand name.”

President Mohamed Nasheed upheld the ACC’s request in January 2011, and in late May the Cabinet deliberated the matter and approved the programme, overruling the ACC’s reservations.

However, operations were stalled and in August, Nexbis threatened legal action against the Maldives’ Immigration Department if action on the border control agreement was not taken. The company had allegedly bought equipment and paid import duties to the government, and was incurring losses while waiting for a resolution from the Maldivian government.

The Rf500 million project would install an electronic border gate system in Male’s Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), bringing technological upgrades such as facial recognition, fingerprint identification and e-gates to the Maldives, which has struggled with loose immigration policies and reports of human trafficking.

The Maldives currently holds a 10-year contract for passport production and scanning services with an Austrian company, Shahid said.

Local media has reported that the Nexbis program does not include the expected technological upgrades including automated facial recognition, e-gates and passport production. Shahid confirmed today that those features are included in the program.

“The Nexbis system would make the immigration and security process simpler and more secure for everyone involved,” he said.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Parliament cancelled over fight for control of committees

Tomorrow’s sitting of parliament has been cancelled to allow political parties to resolve a protracted dispute over the composition of standing committees, following the defection of two opposition MPs to the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) several weeks ago.

After adjourning today’s sitting twice to continue discussions with parliamentary group leaders, Speaker Abdulla Shahid announced the cancelation of both today and Wednesday’s sittings shortly after 1:00pm to grant an additional day for the parties to reach a compromise.

If the talks were to end unsuccessfully, said Shahid, the matter would be brought to the floor for a final decision when parliament sittings resume on Monday.

Parliamentary committees, which reviews approved legislation and exercises oversight over the executive and independent institutions, have not been functioning since the beginning of the current session.

The dispute has centred on which party would control voting majorities of powerful committees such as the ‘241’ (National Security) Committee, Economics Committee and Public Accounts Committees (PAC), all of which are presently chaired by opposition MPs.

Under article 170 of the Majlis rules of procedure that stipulates proportional representation, MDP are assured five out of 11 seats in the committees (45 percent) and four for DRP-PA (39 percent) while the two remaining slots must be filled by either Independents or MPs of minority opposition parties Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and Jumhooree Party (JP).

Eight Independent MPs and four minority opposition MPs together account for 16 percent, posing a dilemma in dividing two seats among them.

At a press conference yesterday, MP Ibrahim ‘Ibu’ Mohamed Solih, newly-elected parliamentary group leader of the MDP, explained that the ruling party’s share of parliament (up from 39 percent to 45 percent) should be reflected in the committees.

The MDP MP for Hinnavaru revealed that the party was ready to accept a compromise of “six committees for us and the other six to the DRP-PA (Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party-People’s Alliance coalition),” adding that MDP was willing to leave the position of deputy chair of MDP-majority committees to the DRP-PA.

DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali meanwhile told newspaper Haveeru that the opposition would require half the seats of the Security Services Committee and the PAC in particular.

The embattled opposition leader argued that the opposition could not hold the government accountable should it lose control of committees designed to watch over executive functions, suggesting that the talks had stalled over this point of contention.

Thasmeen said that the crux of the problem was the fact that neither the MDP nor opposition parties controlled a clear majority of 39 seats in parliament.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Cabinet decision not a green light for Nexbis project, says Immigration Controller

Cabinet’s decision last week to review the stalled Nexbis project did not necessarily mean it was going ahead, said Immigration Controller Abdulla Shahid today.

The Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Malaysian-based mobile security solutions provider was to upgrade border security in the Maldives and facilitate the identification and tracking of expatriate workers without the use of potentially-forged paper documents.

However the day after the October 2010 signing of the concessionaire contract, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced it had received “a serious complaint” regarding “technical details” of the bid, and issued an injunction pending an investigation into the agreement citing “instances and opportunities” where corruption may have occurred.

Nexbis shares immediately plunged 6.3 percent on the back of the ACC’s announcement. The company subsequently issued a statement claiming that speculation over corruption was “politically motivated” and had “wrought irreparable damage to Nexbis’ reputation and brand name.”

“Nexbis’ shareholders own and manage multi-trillion dollar assets globally and will not jeopardise their reputation for an investment return,” the company said at the time.

Shahid said today that following the Cabinet decision the Immigration Department would be “looking into the ACC’s concerns and negotiating with Nexbis.”

“Cabinet did not say the project would proceed, but have announced that it would be reviewed. The ACC’s initial position was that the project would be re-tendered with the consent of Cabinet.”

Shahid acknowledge threats of legal action from Nexbis, but observed there was “nothing we can do on this issue – it was the ACC that intervened.”

He predicted that it would be “some time” before the review was completed.

Local media has claimed that key technical components, such as facial recognition, were missing from the project.

Minivan News is currently seeking comment from Nexbis.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

China’s top legislator visits parliament, President

China’s top legislator Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo met today with his Maldivian counterpart, Speaker of the Majlis and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Abdulla Shahid.

Wu is the highest ranking Chinese diplomat to visit the Maldives, and major streets in Male’ were lined with Maldivian and Chinese flags to mark his arrival.

During a meeting held inside the parliament, Shahid thanked Wu for the aid the Chinese government has offered to the Maldives over the past years, and spoke about strengthening diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Wu used the occasion to announce a doubling of Chinese aid to the Maldives to 100 million yuan (US$15.4 million), and said China would be opening an embassy in the country.

He also announced that China would offer 11 scholarships to Maldivian students in 2011 and 2012. Furthermore, Chinese flights would begin operating directly to the Maldives from different parts of China.

During his visit to the Majlis, Wu’s delegation presented parliament with 77 laptops (one for each MP), 50 cameras, and two 55-inch plasma TVs.

Wu also met President Mohamed Nasheed and signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation between China and the Maldives.

Foreign Policy Advisor and former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed observed to Minivan News that the visit of such a senior Chinese dignitary represented a major development in the diplomatic and economic relationship between the two countries.

“The main interests China has in the Maldives are our support of the One China policy, and greater collaboration on climate change,” Dr Shaheed said, noting that next year would be the 40th year of Chinese engagement with the Maldives.

Chinese tourism arrivals in the Maldives last year exceeded those of the country’s traditional European market. Dr Shaheed explained that the Chinese government’s endorsement of the Maldives was integral to growing the market.

“It’s very important to have official approval – we had to ask and obtain permission to accept large groups [of Chinese tourists] to the Maldives,” Dr Shaheed said. “Even beyond tourism, China is a huge market and is increasingly visible in our region.”

He disputed that the Maldives had to balance its engagement with China with its diplomatic relationship with India.

“I don’t think we have to walk a tight-rope. We are firstly a SAARC member country, and China’s friendship is about broader global interest rather than regional,” he explained.

“The Maldives has been very active on the international stage in areas that are relevant to China, such as climate change and human rights, and China may see us as an important country to engage.”

While China had not lobbied the Maldives on issues relating to human rights, Dr Shaheed observed that Maldives last year declined to accept Chinese Guantanamo Bay detainees due to concerns expressed by China. Instead, the Maldives had switched its consideration to Palestinian detainees.

China has been very active in Sri Lanka, recently establishing a naval facility following the country’s defeat of Tamil separtists. Dr Shaheed said he did not believe the Maldives would follow suit.

“I do not think we are on the radar for a base,” he said. “We’ve made our position clear that we have longstanding policy not to host foreign troops in the Maldives. Sri Lanka has only recently been exposed to many other countries, whereas we have broader options.”

While Chinese involvement in the Maldives was unlikely to reach Sri Lankan levels, Dr Shaheed predicted that the doubling of Chinese aid would make its presence “much more visible.”

China’s aid specialities, he noted, were infrastructure projects such as roads and housing projects, which would likely increase with the country’s doubled commitment.

China has already donated the Foreign Ministry and the recently-opened Maldives National Museum – one of the biggest buildings in Male’.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Expatriate “troubles” exacerbated by lack of border policy, says immigration head

The Maldives’ Controller of Immigration has claimed the country must address previous failures to adopt an immigration policy if it wants to protect and control an expatriate workforce that he says is estimated to at least equal the number of domestic labourers.

Abdulla Shahid, appointed back in February as the nation’s immigration chief, said that a lack of any kind of immigration controls or policy in the Maldives had left valuable foreign workers facing “inhumane” treatment and a host of other problems once inside the country.

Speaking to Minivan News, Shahid said that despite the country’s long history of bringing skilled and unskilled foreign workers to its shores reaching as far back as the 1950’s, both the current and previous government had failed to put any measures in place to outline numbers of foreign workers or their employment conditions.

Both Shahid and the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the Maldives, Rear Admiral Abu Saeed Mohamed Abdul Awal, have claimed that authorities from both countries were now trying to devise a new legal framework that they claim is needed to protect the rights of foreign workers.

Earlier this week, Qatar-based newspaper the Gulf Times reported that the Maldives was seeking to bring in a number of public procurement experts from Bangladesh to assist with the country’s climate change adaption plans, as well as an additional 20,000 people for employment in the construction, textiles and tourism industries.

However, Shahid said that he was not aware of any such figure being set by himself or Maldivian authorities, adding that the country needed to first begin putting in place measures to ensure the numbers of immigrant workers were controlled, while also protecting their rights.

According to the controller of immigration, the number of foreign workers coming to the Maldives on an annual basis was estimated to have doubled in recent years, with the number of legal immigrants reaching 92,000 as of this month – up from 87,000 on March 1, 2011. Migrant labourers constitute almost a third of the Maldives’ total population.

While expat growth between 2009 and 2010 was deemed to be “not significant”, Shahid said he believed that a host of new infrastructure projects in areas such as airport construction and new home creation proposed by the government was likely to lead to growing interest in the country by foreign labourers.

“My argument is – should we send workers back? We have a population of 300,000 people here in the Maldives and its local workforce, I think, is equal to the number of foreigners employed here,” he said. “I’m not saying they are a nuisance; in my view, expats are a necessity here in the Maldives and without them many businesses and shops would struggle and be put out of business.”

Shahid claimed that after having spent two months in his current position as the national immigration controller, he believed it was now vital to look at other countries that have employed migration policies and see how the Maldives might follow.

“I’ve seen in Australia and the US that there are policies on immigrants and expats,” he said. “For instance, they will set out a system quota, say for 300 professionals in a specific field, but we do not do that. Both the previous government and ourselves have not done a comprehensive policy review.”

However, the immigration controller claimed that it was vital for authorities to first decide on an actual policy for foreign workers before they can begin reviewing the effectiveness of controls.

“What is this policy? What I am saying is that we need to produce a plan of action for immigration,” he said. “Do we decide to bring in an immigration policy or not? Without immigration a lot of businesses and shops would have to close down.”

Amidst these possible economic concerns, Shahid added that it would be vital to formulate and then have the Majlis agree on an immigration policy, such as setting an annual cap on the number of expats allowed to enter the country.

He claimed that greater control would, in theory, ensure stricter regulation in terms of forcing employers to provide better quality living standards to their expat workers, conditions that he said were known to be “inhumane” in certain cases.

The immigration controller said that an estimated 42,000 were working illegally in the country as of last year; a figure he claimed that if correct, would have probably risen again since.

According to Shahid, previous plans to try and slow down the influx of foreign workers had not worked.

However, along with trying to outline a national immigration plan, Shahid denied that ongoing uncertainty over the future of a deal with Malaysia-based mobile security firm Nexbis – involving installing an advanced border control system to collect and store biometric data on expatriate workers – had added to immigration concerns. In January this year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ordered a halt on a government contract between the Department of Immigration and Malaysian mobile security firm Nexbis, claiming that there were instances where corruption may have occurred.

Facing political pressure ahead of February’s local council elections, President Mohamed Nasheed decided to uphold the ACC’s request that the roll-out of the technology be postponed. Nexbis responded that it would be taking legal action against parties in the Maldives, claiming that speculation over allegations of potential corruption was “politically motivated” in nature.

Shahid was not convinced the delays were playing into the hands of unscrupulous employers though.

“This issue [with the Nexbis deal] is not really a problem, we have only one issue with an immigrant who got through border control illegally,” Shahid said. “All other workers have come with the proper documents and the required work sponsor. However, it is after they arrive here that things go wrong and the problems start.”

Based himself in the capital of Male’, High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Rear Admiral Abu Saeed Mohamed Abdul Awal, said Bangladeshi authorities had not approved any figures on the number of local workers to be sent to the Maldives.

By contrast, Awal claimed that Bangladeshi government was working “closely” with their Maldivian counterparts over the issue of manpower and ensuring better regulatory control for workers coming to the country. Awal also stressed that it would be vital to ensure potential loopholes in employment laws were not being exploited by employers and recruitment agencies.

“A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is under consideration with the Maldives government to provide better controls on immigration,” he said. “Employment must take place under proper conditions and a legal framework, this has not been happening as much in the past.”

According to Awal, although the prospect of the MOU was being seen as an encouraging development between the two nations, setting out new regulations on foreign worker numbers was an “evolving process” that needed to be implemented properly as well as come under long-term reviews and scrutiny.

“We are working closely with various departments on this,” he said. “Any regulations that may follow would need to be overseen properly or the same problems will continue. Potential loopholes have to be addressed and should not be exploited.”

Last year, Minivan News reported that the exploitation of foreign workers was believed to rival fishing as the second most profitable sector of the Maldivian economy after tourism. The claims were based on conservative estimates of the number of Bangladeshi workers showing up at their commission in Male’ after being abandoned at the airport by unscrupulous employment agents.

Former Bangladeshi High Commissioner to the Maldives, Professor Selina Mohsin, who finished her assignment in July 2010, told Minivan News that every day 40 Bangladeshi nationals were turning up at reception, “having come to the Maldives and found they have nothing to do. So naturally they come here to the High Commission.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Parliament “failing” both constitutional and public expectations, NGO claims

Local NGO Transparency Maldives has said that recent claims by parliamentary speaker Abdulla Shahid that the Majlis has failed to meet the expectations of the public were not critical enough, and that the institution was also failing to meet its constitutional obligations.

The NGO’s comments followed a Minivan News interview with Shahid last week where he praised the Majlis for significantly increasing its work rate and increasing the amount of legislation being passed, despite accepting that it had fallen short of the “high expectations” of a public new to democratic reform in the country.

The speaker said that despite overcoming the challenges created by partisan political interests, official statistics had shown that 42 bills had been passed out of a total of 52 submitted to the Majlis last year compared to 2005, where 17 bills were proposed and only five were completed.

Aiman Rasheed, Projects Coordinator for Transparency Maldives told Minivan News that although it shared some of Shahid’s sentiments that there had been improvements within the effectiveness of the Majlis regarding the amount of legislation passed, the NGO was concerned that parliament had failed to work independently and pass vital bills such as a national Penal Code.

“Shahid is right when he says that parliament has failed to meet public expectations,” he claimed. “It is not just in meeting public expectations that is has failed, but constitutional expectations as well.”

Rasheed said that although parliament was holding the president and the executive accountable for their actions, he believed that there was a failure to review legislation in terms of financial and political impacts before it was being being passed from parliamentary committees back to the Majlis.

Rasheed said that the NGO had spoken with 15 MPs from across a number of political parties including the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) as part of a project called Parliament Watch designed to try and put a spotlights on governance and political decision making. From these discussions, Rasheed claimed that the NGO had uncovered a wide consensus of concerns over parliaments ability to review and research the legislative process.

“All the parliamentarians that we have spoken to said that they believed that the current set up is not sufficient for parliament to meet its constitutional requirements,” he said. “There is no proper system of review mechanisms [within parliament].”

Rasheed said that although there was a common practice to send bills to committee for review, the members were themselves MPs and authorities rarely sought to bring in outside assistance to help in the formation of new legislation.

“New regulations were adopted [by parliament] in May 2010 that would allow for external experts to be brought in to be used to help form legislation on certain uses,” he said. “MPs could do this. But they don’t.”

Rasheed claimed that independence was definitely an area parliament “could improve on”. Among other notable concerns raised by Transparency Maldives regarding parliament, the NGO project coordinator said that despite having passed a number of important regulations, the Majlis had still failed to prioritise passing vital regulations such as a Penal Code that has remained in parliament for two years.

“There is constant criticism of the judiciary when MPs know that the legal framework is not sufficient for the laws currently going to courts,” he said.

In addition to calling for greater use of independent review mechanisms within the legislative workings of parliament, Rasheed added that Transparency Maldives was preparing to launch the Parliament Watch project that he claimed is aimed at raising scrutiny and try and external assistance for bills in parliament.

“The aim of Parliament Watch will be to try and make sure bills are up to standard by speaking with MPs and the committees that review them and also try to offer assistance from international NGOs to help overcome any difficulties,” he said.

Speaker’s view

Speaker Abdulla Shahid last week accepted that bills such as outlining a clear and clarified Penal Code, as well as an Evidence Bill to outline judicial reform and policing, had been set back by partisan behaviour between rival parties within the Majlis that had potentially created the impression that there was no interest in having such bills passed.

In order to facilitate a faster moving reform of criminal legislation, Shahid claimed that talks had been opened between the various political stakeholders required to finalise any agreements.

“I met with party leaders and also the chair of all the committees yesterday. There is the general desire amongst the leadership to find ways of increasing the productivity rate of the house. We feel even though we continue to do work ahead of what any other parliament had done, still we are far behind in meeting the public’s expectations,” he said. “The reality is that we need to meet these public expectations. The committee chairs have given me an agreement that they will try and finds ways of fast tracking many of the bills, while political parties supplied an agreement that on issues on which they may disagree, they will endeavour to deal with the technical and more mundane bills faster.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Parliament falling short of public expectations despite work rate, says Speaker Shahid

Parliamentary Speaker Abdulla Shahid believes the People’s Majlis has had success in passing legislation, at least statistically, yet he concedes parliament has still failed to meet the public’s expectations in terms of its conduct.

Speaking to Minivan News, Shahid – a member of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) – claimed that since constitutional amendments were introduced in 2008 to try and transform parliament from a “ceremonial” institution to a functioning national body, vital regulation was beginning to be passed.  He conceded though that changes were not necessarily occurring in line with public sentiment.

“The three branches of government are trying to deal with a situation where, as in any transition, the expectations of the public are at a very high level. When you have a new democracy come in, citizens will be wanting things to change overnight. [These expectations] have been seen in many countries,” the Speaker said.   “The challenges that we have here – with the judiciary and parliament – are not because we are unable to perform, but that we are unable to perform to the expectations of the people.”

Shahid said that after living for decades under a non-democratic system, he believed peoples’ demands for political reform have been “suppressed” for such a long period of time that their sudden release created a “huge burst” of energy to ensure change that the Majlis was not always succeeding in providing.

“These expectations have been let out, so the public wants changes not today or tomorrow, but amendments that should have perhaps occurred yesterday and the day before,” he claimed, adding that parliament has in recent years undertaken a much more prolific workload regards to passing legislation.

However, Shahid, who is also a member of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), stressed that he was optimistic that, despite recent criticisms of judicial reform and even government economic policy, parliament would be able to catch up in meeting these expectations.

“To give a feel of how much work has been done in the parliament, when you look at the statistics, in 2000 for example, there were four bills submitted to the parliament and these were all completed. In 2001, seven bills were submitted and two of them were completed. In 2004, eight were submitted, four were completed,” he said.

By 2005, Shahid added that official statistics showed 17 bills were proposed and five were completed, followed a year later by another five bills being completed from a total number of 30 that were put forward.  The Speaker claimed that there was limited media experience among the various outlets to detail the work being conducted in parliament.

“No one was talking to the public that 30 bills had been submitted to parliament and only five were completed. No one was talking about this,” he said.

By 2008 – the year that the current Maldivian constitution was put in place -the same parliament-supplied figures showed that out of a total of 25 bills submitted, 15 were put into practice.

By the formation of the currently serving 17th national parliament in May 2009, Shahid said that over the second half of the year, a total of 55 bills, including a number of outstanding pieces of legislation, were all passed.

“The government sent everything back, they just changed the covering note and submitted it, so 55 bills were passed. That year, when the 17th parliament came in with the new constitution, we were faced with the challenge of devising the standing orders and the broader mandate of how to cope with the constitution,” he said. “When the constitution was drafted and adapted, there was no work done to get [parliament] to catch up with constitutional demands. The [Majlis] was just as it was in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It was just a ceremonial set up here. But the new constitution demanded more constructive development needed to be done.”

As a result of trying to implement these changes, by last year Shahid said that the statistics showed 42 bills had been passed out of a total of 52 submitted.

Amidst this seeming rise in the output of parliament during recent years, the parliamentary speaker said that private and public media, as well as new rights protecting freedom of expression in the country, were responsible for furthering debate between people over whether parliament was functioning properly.

However, the Speaker accepted that subjects such as outlining a clear and clarified penal code, as well as an Evidence Bill to support judicial reform and policing, partisan behaviour between rival parties within the Majlis was creating the impression that there was no interest in having such bills passed.

In order to facilitate a faster moving reform of criminal legislation, Shahid claimed that talks had been opened between the various political stakeholders required to finalise any agreements.

“I met with party leaders and also the chair of all the committees yesterday. There is the general desire amongst the leadership to find ways of increasing the productivity rate of the house. We feel even though we continue to do work ahead of what any other parliament had done, still we are far behind in meeting the public’s expectations,” he said. “The reality is that we need to meet these public expectations. The committee chairs have given me an agreement that they will try and finds ways of fast tracking many of the bills, while political parties supplied an agreement that on issues on which they may disagree, they will endeavour to deal with the technical and more mundane bills faster.”

Aside from MPs working along partisan lines, Shahid said that the issue of language was another significant challenge for MPs to overcome, especially in translating very technical proposals relating to legal definitions into Dhivehi from other languages. While other Commonwealth countries were able to take existing legislation and adapt the document accordingly, the Speaker took the example of the Penal Code. In its original English draft, put together by Professor Paul Robinson at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the code was said to have perfect sense, yet the Speaker said it did not translate directly into the Dhivehi language.

In the previous parliament, Shahid said that the question had therefore arisen as to whether the text should be adopted as it was or be amended.

“If we adopt something that we ourselves [parliament] can’t make sense of, can the Appeal Court, which is going to punish the average person on the street, use it?”

Under the current parliament, a committee was now said to be reviewing every individual article in the document to ensure it was to the satisfaction of parliamentarians.

Shahid added that similar issues had also been raised in relation to an evidence bill that had been adapted, originally from a Malaysian document.

With the bills now in the process of engagement with the Attorney General and Prosecutor General’s office, both of which the speaker acknowledged parliament had not had “the best of relationships with” during the previous year, there was optimism they could be passed.

“The Attorney General has taken the bill back for redrafting and I understand that it will be submitted back to the committee very soon,” he said. “The process of ‘throwing it out’ or rejecting the bill has not taken place because if we reject the bill, then the message again to the public is mixed: ‘We don’t want the evidence bill’. This is the message if we reject it, but if we accept the bill and approve it, along with the assistance and cooperation of the government and then submit it, then the process is starting to move.”

Shahid claimed he had already seen more engagement between the executive and parliament and was confident the bills would be passed.

Not all of the proposals put before parliament, have been welcomed by the public though. This has been seen, perhaps most noticeably, in the Privileges Bill that led to protests outside the Majlis at the end of last year to try and highlight public dissatisfaction with proposed pay rises and other benefits for MPs.

Although the speaker said that he believed there were “issues” with the Privileges Bill, he claimed these did not detract from its importance for both MPs and judges.

“The members of parliament have certain functions entrusted by the people who elected them. For example the privileges bill in many countries would give the right for the MP to have the right access to parliament. So he cannot be arrested on his way to the parliament for certain offences,” he said. “If there is an important vote in the parliament and the MP is on his way, say there is a narrow margin and the guy gets stopped for traffic offences. The constitution allows him to be held in custody for 24 hours and the vote is then done. I’m not saying that the current government would act like this, but what if we have a government that would?”

The Speaker took the example of the drafting of the new constitution and electing a Speaker for the constitutional assembly back in 2004 as an indication of what could happen.

“One just needs to find out how many members were included when they elected a Speaker. So thinking that the current government would [not act this way] just because of journalists is not right. We have to have the rights of MPs to defend the constitution described in the bill,” he said. “I do not agree with the tax free cars for the members for parliament and I do not agree with many other things, but the international standards have to be respected.”

The bill has recently been returned by the president to be redrafted, with Shahid claiming that he has recommended that they be sent to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in order to be adapted in line with international standards.

When dealing with public perceptions of parliamentarians, particularly with how they are dealt within the media, the parliamentary speaker said that he believed in light of recent, yet rare controversies surrounding journalists being summoned before the Majlis, politicians needed to adapt their attitudes rather than restricting media coverage.

Local media bodies like the Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) hit out at the Majlis earlier this month after parliament cut a live feed to private radio station DhiFM and ordered two of its reporters before a committee over allegations it was in contempt.

No clarification has been given over the exact offense caused during an edition of the broadcaster’s “Breakfast Club” show, though Shahid said he agreed that occasional suggestions of media censorship in the Majlis should be opposed to prevent creating a fear of using free speech.

“I think because we are at the infant stage of democracy, we need the public and especially politicians to develop a thick skin. Because we are public figures, of course we will be attacked and scrutinised – that is the beauty of democracy,” he said. “If you do something right or do something wrong they will talk about you. That is what has happened.”

In addressing media conduct, the speaker said that after years of being restricted or “guided”, journalists had now been “let loose”, yet there was no indication of how many trained reporters were currently operating in the country.

“What I know is that the institutions that are supposed to be regulating or promoting independent media have still not started functioning,” he said.

Shahid claimed that any restrictions emplaced on the media would be a step in the wrong direction for democracy and ensuring people had the right to express thoughts and discuss them – even when this may difficult for the population at large.

The speaker claimed that if a culture developed where MPs resorted en masse to take up litigation against journalists and commentators, then freedoms that had been won in the Maldives would in essence, be retracted.

“My vision is that five years, 10 years, 15 years from now, we will be developed. Our minds, the minds of our children, will be more developed and more tolerant. I have experienced this when we began parliament,” he claimed. “In 2009, when the 17th parliament was formed, the first day the amount of abuse I got as a Speaker on the floor itself was tremendous. A lot of people asked why I took it. But I firmly believed we had a young and new group of people becoming parliamentarians and they hadn’t had experience.”

However, the Speaker said he believed that a lot of members had now grown and learnt to be more responsible parliamentarians, even despite occasions where tempers flared.

Shahid said that the scale of changes within society, as well as the nation’s parliamentary system should not be underestimated though; claiming that the two years that have passed since the current constitution has come into place was still too short a period of time to expect a total democratic transition.

“Things have changed, on paper, overnight. But up here, mentally, are we prepared? Are we able to cope with the change?” he asked. “I firmly believe that if we are able to sustain and consolidate the situation, ultimately, the desired democratic system will be in place. But we have to be very careful not to let the public trust deteriorate to a level whereby the entire system fails and we again slide back into dictatorship.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)