Category: News in Brief

Supreme Court ruling on Nexbis “doesn’t make sense”: Immigration controller

The case concerning the Nexbis border control system has grown increasingly complex this week after the Supreme Court deemed that the High Court bench which had ordered work on the project to be stopped had been unlawfully reconstituted, thereby nullifying its decision.

Reports in the local media say that the recently appointed Immigration Controller Mohamed Ali intends to seek his own legal guidance on the Supreme Court’s decision, claiming that he can make no sense of the decision.

“We don’t have a lawyer. I’m not a lawyer either. I can’t make any sense of it. Hence I’m trying to make sense of the Supreme Court’s order,” Ali told Haveeru.

The nullified decision relates to the High Court’s order to halt any further work being completed on the project whilst the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) appealed a ruling from the Civil Court that it could not order the termination of the project.

Local media have referred to the Supreme Court’s order as a ‘Mandamus’. Often termed a ‘writ of mandate’, this kind of order instructs a governmental body to perform an act required by law when it has neglected or refused to do so.

Meanwhile, Haveeru has reported that the ACC intends to investigate the relationship between Cheif Judge Ahmed Shareef and officials from the Nexbis company, after receiving a letter alleging a meeting in Bangkok.

Shareef was dismissed from the bench during aforementioned reconstitution deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.

The Immigration Controller told Haveeru that the project cannot move forward until legal experts have reviewed the latest decision by the Supreme Court.

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Democracy suffers in Maldives in the face of rising fundamentalism: Asia Sentinel

The Indian Ocean paradise Maldives, until recently a moderate Muslim state, is the latest Asian country to witness a troubling rise in ultraconservative Wahhabi Islam imported from the Middle East, writes Annapoorna Karthika for the Asia Sentinel.

On June 2, Ismail Rasheed, popularly known as ‘Hilath,’ was attacked outside his home when his throat was slit through his trachea, missing a vital artery by millimetres. Rasheed, an outspoken blogger advocating freedom of religion and a fierce critic of the growing religious extremism in the archipelago country, is expected to survive the near-fatal attempt on his life, the second.

The gruesome assault on Rasheed cannot be treated as an isolated episode. It is an upshot of the rising religious radicalization in Maldives, whose constitution does not allow any national to practice a religion other than Islam.

Maldives, like many other countries in the world, fits a description of democracy in which popular attention to real democracy remains constrained, with the government paying only lip service to its forms but not its core values. According to the scholar Amitai Etzioni, the world today conflates its understanding of democracy with liberalism. The casting of votes by the people of a territory toward electing a government is indispensable for a flourishing democracy irrespective of the commitment of the elected government toward liberal principles such as individual’s freedom of speech and expression, indispensable civil liberties and rights of individuals.

In Maldives, the parliament’s decision to create a multiparty system in 2005 was upheld as significant progress in welcoming democracy to the country. In this regard, the emergence of the conservative Adhaalath party is criticized to have contributed toward the precarious swelling of religious intolerance, which threatens the realization of substantive democracy in Maldives. Although many scholars believe in the compatibility between Islam and liberal democracy, the Wahhabi movement in Maldives has been able to radicalize the religion by encouraging the use of violence to suppress voices of dissent.

Yet Maldives continues to be called a democracy. The forthcoming days are critical to see if they affirm the fundamentalist belief that democracy is a scourge to the freedom and individual rights of Maldivians.

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“We must stop spending beyond our means”: Dr Hassan Saeed

“As I said two years ago and repeat today, we must stop spending beyond our means,” explains Dr Hassan Saeed, Special Advisor to the President and leader of the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), writing for Haveeru.

“We need to redefine the role of government. Its core purpose should be to provide efficient services to the public not job creation for a privileged few. Instead we need the government to be supporting entrepreneurship amongst our people and the creation of small and medium sized businesses which are able to innovate and foster efficiencies in our economy.”

“Population consolidation needs to start so we can deliver public services fairly to all people as well realising economies of scale in delivery. This cannot be just an aspiration; action has to start now.”

“If nothing is done, there will, very soon, be an abrupt turn-off of the spending tap, with a vast deficit to deal with, leading to many unpredictable consequences.”

Read More…

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Jumhooree Party gets two more MPs

MPs Hassan Adil and Abdulla Abdul Raheem, formerly of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP), respectively, have signed for the Jumhooree Party (JP), reports Haveeru.

Adil, who will take his parliamentary seat to a third different party after originally being elected on a Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) ticket, told Haveeru: “I felt that I could best serve the nation through JP. The present strife in MDP leadership was a reason that prompted my decision.”

The former President and Vice President of the MDP left the party last month to join the JP which, after today’s moves, controls six seats in the Majlis.

Abdullah Raheem announced he was to leave the DRP for the second time, following a brief spell with the MDP, two weeks ago. It was suggested that he would join the JP although before today he had not made his intended destination clear.

The party, headed by MP and resort owner Ibrahim Gasim, currently has just over 6000 members. It hopes to have gained 30,000 members before the next elections. This would make it the second largest party in the country.

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BML loan under Majlis scrutiny already issued says Finance Minister

Minister of Finance and Treasury Abdulla Jihad today told local media that an Rf300million government loan from the Bank of Maldives (BML) had already been issued, despite questions having been raised over whether the deal needed the Majlis’s approval.

After meeting to discuss the issue on Monday, the Majlis’s Finance Committee elected to pass the matter on to the Counsel General.

Committee member Abdul Ghafoor Moosa told Minivan News “We cannot grant it as it was not in the state budget.”

The loan was said to be a rufiyaa denominated replacement for a US$65million loan which had been approved in the original 2012 state budget.

Jihad told Haveeru that the deal had been rushed through the Finance Committee in May and June, when parliament was in recess.

“I believe that the loan had been sanctioned when the budget was approved,” Jihad told Haveeru.

The Finance Committee’s meetings continue even when the rest of the parliament is in recess.

The reason given for the BML budget support loan was that it was part of a “mop-up” operation intended to help curb inflation, although former Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz doutbed the efficacy of such a policy.

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MDP’s CNI member rejects government allowance

New Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) member Ahmed ‘Gahaa’ Saeed has informed the government that he will not claim the allowance allocated to commission members by the government, local media has reported.

“I told (President) Waheed even on the first day that I do not want an allowance. Deen (Vice-President Mohamed Waheedeen) was also present in the meeting. President said that he would allocate an allowance”, Saeed told Haveeru.

Upon contacting Saeed, Minivan News was told that the new CNI member would not be making any further statements to the media outside of the fortnightly press conferences arranged by the commission’s secretariat.

Saeed’s addition to the CNI is part of the recent reform of the group which is tasked with investigating the events surrounding the February’s transfer of power.

After pressure from both the local and the international community, the original CNI has been supplemented with a nominee from former President Mohamed Nasheed – Saeed – and an international component – retired Singaporean Supreme Court Judge G.P. Selvam.

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Ahmed Numan appointed Chairman of the Fenaka Corporation Ltd board

Ahmed Numan has been appointed as Chairman of the board for the recently formed centralised utilities group, Fenaka Corporation Ltd.

The appointment of Numan by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan follows the formation of Fenaka earlier this month by presidential decree.

Under its remit, the corporation was set up to take over from the seven utility corporations established during the administration of former President Mohamed Nasheed as part of its decentralisation policy.

“The key objective of this company would be to ensure sustainable primary services to the populace in the regions of the country other than Male’; supply of clean water, sewerage and electricity, and to establish an environment friendly waste management system,” read a President’s Office statement following the announcement.

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Maldives sunk by late Tajikistan brace during AFC Under-22 qualifier

Maldivian efforts to qualify for the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC’s) Under-22 football championships were further setback yesterday after the squad  squandered a first-half lead against Tajikistan by conceding two late goals.

Striker Imaaz Ahmed gave the Maldives a narrow first-half lead inside stoppage time to put the Under-22 team on course to secure its first points in qualification.

However, the team was eventually undone in the second-half by a late equaliser and a stoppage time own-goal that left the squad rooted at the foot of the Group C table.

Tajikistan substitute Jahongir Ergashev’s strike in the 81st minute of the match brought the teams equal, before an own goal by Thoriq Mohammed in the dying moments of the game ensured the Maldives remained the only team without a point in their championship group.  The match was one in a series of qualifying games being held in Malaysia this month.

The squad will next be in action on Thursday, when they meet an Iranian side undefeated during qualification, according to the AFC.

Late goals have proven to be an issue for the Maldives during its current run of qualifying matches.  The team also conceded a brace of late goals against Qatar during their previous Group C encounter on Saturday (June 23).

Tajikistan will now face Kuwait, while Bahrain will take on Qatar during the next round of matches in Group C scheduled for this week.

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Former President to appear in webcast by US Institute of Peace, 10pm Male’ time

Former President Mohamed Nasheed will speak at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) today in a live webcast that will be streamed online from 10:00pm Male’ time.

The topic will be ‘Democracy in Question in the Maldives’, and online viewers will be able to engage panelists and each other through live chat and Twitter discussions at #NasheedUSIP.

In a statement, Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the talk would involve “an engaging conversation with Nasheed on nonviolent action, democracy and climate change, and an excerpt of ‘The Island President’.”

The event will be co-hosted by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, while Dr Peter Ackerman will lead a discussion with the former president.

The event can be watched at www.usip.org/newsroom/webcasts from 10:00pm Male Time / 1:00pm EDT.

Nasheed is in the US until July 1.

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