DRP – Page 27 – Minivan News

DRP deputy seeks audience with president over gang fears

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP and Deputy Leader, Ali Waheed, has reportedly met with President Mohamed Nasheed in Male’ over fears of growing gang violence across the country.

According to Haveeru, the meeting with Nasheed occurred yesterday at his official residence on the behest of Ali Waheed in an attempt to raise concerns over violence linked to gangs. No official confirmation of the exact outcome of the talks has been given as yet.

However, upon departing from the president’s Muleeage residence, Ali Waheed told the newspaper that the discussion had been focused on perceived increases in gang violence.

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PA now welcoming DRP supporters to its ranks

The People’s Alliance (PA) has said it would welcome registered members from fellow opposition groups like coalition partner the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) – currently embroiled in factional infighting – as it seeks to boost its support-base over the next year.

Party registrar Hiyaly Mohamed Rasheed told Minivan News that after agreeing though a council meeting back in 2009 to not take members from the DRP due to a coalition agreement between them, the group was now looking to bolster its current tally of 2,751 registered supporters from “all across the Maldives”. He claimed this membership drive would now also include members from the DRP, which is the country’s main opposition party and headed by MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali.

The DRP has in recent months become embroiled in a bitter war of words between serving leader Thasmeen and his predecessor and former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The split between the two men and their respective supporters is reportedly linked to the party’s dismissal of former deputy leader Umar Naseer by its disciplinary committee last December.

Just last week, the DRP’s Council announced it had take the decision to forward a number of party members including DRP MPs Ahmed Mahlouf, DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham Ahmed and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s lawyer Mohamed Waheed to the party’s disciplinary committee.

The decision against the three men was taken over allegations that they had misled the public over the work and reputation of Thasmeen to further the interests of the so-called Z-DRP faction said to support Gayoom.

MP Ilham claimed at the time that the DRP charter did not allow the party’s leader to dismiss anyone who criticises them.

”The charter states that a deputy leader can be dismissed only if a third of the party’s congress votes to dismiss him,” Ilham said. ”There will be internal disputes in political parties, but this is not how to solve it.”

Thasmeen was unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press.

DRP “Problems”

Howver, the PA registrar claimed that the reports of DRP infighting had the potential to negatively set back wider political opposition in the country.

“I was once in the DRP,” Rasheed said. “Yet now the DRP has itself decided that there are two factions in the party, that means that it currently has problems,” he added.

The claims have been made as the PA announced that more than 100 people were registered as party members on Friday (April 15) as part of attempts to overtake the religious Adhaalath Party as the country’s third most supported political group. The PA is led by Abdulla Yamin, half brother of former President Gayoom.

Speaking to Haveeru yesterday, Mohamed Rasheed claimed that the PA was now working to almost double its membership base to 5,000 people by next month. Rasheed said he hoped the drive would bring the PA closer to matching the Adhaalath Party in terms of the size of support, which it estimates amounts to about 6000 members at present.

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DRP MPs Ilham, Mahlouf and Gayoom’s lawyer Waheed to face disciplinary committee

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)’s Council has decided to send DRP MPs Ahmed Mahlouf, DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham Ahmed and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s lawyer Mohamed Waheed to the party’s disciplinary committee.

The Council made its decision after accusing Ilham, Mahlouf and Waheed of misleading the public over the work of party’s leader MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and disregarding the party’s interest and attempting to create internal splits in the party.

DRP Deputy leader MP Ilham said that the party’s charter did not allow party’s leader to dismiss anyone who criticises the party leader.

The disciplinary committee may decide to dismiss those Thasmeen wants to be removed from the party because Thasmeen controls the majority in the committee, said Ilham.

”But that would be a void decision,” he added.

Furthermore, Ilham said the case of former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, who was also dismissed by the Disciplinary Committee, was now in court.

Umar faced the disciplinary committee and was dismissed after he conducted a protest which unauthorised by the party’s leadership. His dismissal over the matter has led to a hostile split in the party between factions loyal to former President Gayoom – the party’s ‘honorary leader’ – and its leader Thasmeen.

”We will respect the decision of the court, I do not believe that the court will rule against the party’s charter,” Ilham said.

Ilham, Waheed and Mahlouf are supporters of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Z-DRP faction.

Thasmeen did not respond to Minivan News while Mahlouf was unavailable at time of press.

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Opposition protests over managed float of currency end peacefully

Rival factions of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) yesterday held separate protests against the government’s decision to allow the rufiya to be traded at rates of up to Rf15.42.

The faction led by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom last night marched from the tsunami monument and down Ameenee Magu, a main street of Male’, together with the party’s former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer and MPs Ahmed Nihan, Ahmed Mahlouf, Ahmed Ilham and Gayoom’s spokesperson Ahmed ‘Mundhu’ Shareef.

Meanwhile, a much smaller protest led by DRP Deputy Leader Ali Waheed and several senior officials of the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) made its way down the main street of Majeedee Magu. DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali was absent from the march.

Gayoom’s faction marched towards Muleeage’, the official residence of the President, with the intention of handing him a letter from the DRP. However they were obstructed by lines of police blocking streets in some places standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Instead, the marchers headed to police headquarters, where the police were given the letter to hand over to the President.

Both marches ended peacefully, aside from minor confrontations between police and DRP protesters on the route to Muleaage’.

Following a crackdown on the blackmarket trading of dollars at rates higher than the pegged rate of Rf12.85, which was hovering around 14.2, the government on Sunday declared a ‘managed float’ of the currency within a 20 percent band.

Many companies dealing in dollar commodities immediately raised their exchange rates to Rf 15.42, along with the Bank of Maldives. The Bank of Ceylon was selling dollars at 14.5 yesterday, while Habib bank was selling at 13.75. HSBC was selling at 15.4.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been critical of the government’s growing expenditure despite a large budget deficit, praised Sunday’s decision as a step towards a mature and sustainable economy.

“Today’s bold step by the authorities represents an important move toward restoring external sustainability,” the IMF said in a statement. “IMF staff support this decision made by the authorities. We remain in close contact and are ready to offer any technical assistance that they may request.”

The government’s move, while broadly unpopular, acknowledges the devaluation of the rufiya in the wake of increased expenditure and its inability to overcome the political obstacles inherent in reducing spending on the country’s bloated civil service.

However the Maldives relies almost entirely on imported goods and fuel, and many ordinary citizens will be harshly affected by short-term spike in prices of up to 20 percent as the rufiya settles.

“We do not really know, based on the breadth of the domestic economy, what the value of the Maldivian rufiyaa is right now,” Economic Development Minister Mahmoud Razee admitted at a press conference on Monday.

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Mahlouf submits resolution to delay parliament’s recess until critical bills are passed

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf has submitted a resolution to the parliament to delay its recess until parliament concludes the Criminal Justice Procedure Bill, Evidence Bill, Parole Bill, Amendment to Children’s Act, Amendment to Gang Violence Act and Crime Prevention Bill.

Mahlouf told Minivan News that he presented the resolution in the hope that MPs will hasten their work and put more effort to pass those bills as soon as possible.

”The crimes occurring in the Maldives are now a very big concern for the citizens and they have expectations from the parliament,” Mahlouf said. ”I think the parliament should pass these bills before going to recess, which will play an important role to curb the gang violence and crime at the same time.”

The parliament is scheduled to go on recess on the first of next month, he said.

In parliament today Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group leader MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik presented the Criminal Justice Procedure Bill to the parliament.

The bill consisting of 229 articles and was drafted well, said Mahlouf.

”Although there might be some amendments that should be brought, I think the parliament should shorten the preliminary debate and pass it,” he said. ”Such bills often get politicised, but these are bills that need to be passed soon.”

He added that he fully supported any bills presented to the parliament if it will benefit the citizens, regardless of whether they were submitted by MDP.

Mahlouf recently resubmitted a resolution cutting a controversial Rf 20,000 committee allowance for MPs, which had originally been submitted by MDP Chairperson and MP Mariya Ahmed Didi. Mariya was forced to withdraw the amendment after the MDP Parliamentary Group voted that she do so.

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Nihan renews calls for Nasheed no-confidence motion as DRP factional strife intensifies

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Nihan renewed calls for a no-confidence motion against President Mohamed Nasheed, during a rally on Friday.

Nihan said the motion, which requires 25 signatures from MPs to be put before parliament and a two-third majority vote to be passed, was in response to an increase in problems such as gang violence and the dollar shortage.

“Galaxy Enterprises can no longer sell air tickets because of the dollar shortage, and I received at least 20 desperate calls last night from people needing medical treatment who are suddenly unable to travel to Colombo. The public is very unhappy,” Nihan said.

“I strongly believe the opposition should seriously consider this motion because the President is ignoring problems. There is inflation, and people are in a mess and getting reckless,” he said, claiming that Nasheed had been “lying to the country over the extent of the problem.”

The government, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have contended that a key contributor to the dollar shortage is the high spend on civil servant salaries in rufiya relative to its dollar income.

The government hopes a reform of the tax system, including a business profit tax and a tourism goods and services tax – delayed in parliament and passed only late last year – will eventually increase its income, but contests that political obstacles prevent it from reducing the size of the civil service.

Nihan acknowledged that while the civil service was “quite large”, blaming it for the dollar shortage was “just an excuse”.

“This country has survived for the last decade as a well-governed country. There was no problem getting dollars on this scale, only now due to mismanagement,” Nihan claimed.

He also acknowledged that even with 25 signatures, the no-confidence motion was unlikely to get the two-thirds majority required to oust Nasheed. It was, he claimed, an attempt “to get the President to take notice of the problems people are facing.”

The brief resignation of Nasheed’s cabinet in July 2010 was in part prompted by letters from six ruling party MPs who claimed they had been offered bribes by the opposition to vote against the party line. As the opposition parties already have a majority in parliament, this was widely interpreted as an attempt to secure a two-thirds majority to remove the President.

Nasheed promptly arrested the respective leaders of the minority opposition Jumhoree and People’s Alliance parties, businessman Gasim Ibrahim and the former President’s half brother Abdulla Yameen, and charged them with treason and bribery.

No charges stuck in court, and Nasheed was eventually pressured by the international community to release Yameen from his “protective” extrajudicial detention on the Presidential Retreat of on Aarah.

The possibility of the Dhivehi gaining a two-thirds majority is particularly unlikely given the recent fracturing of the party into factions loyal to either former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom or the DRP’s leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali. Gayoom had endorsed Thasmeen as his successor on his retirement from politics early last year, but cemented his disapproval of Thasmeen’s performance with an open letter faulting his leadership and particularly the party’s dismissal of Deputy leader Umar Naseer, ostentiously for conducting protests without party approval.

During a rally on Thursday, Thasmeen told the press that he could not stand aside and watch when the internal dispute has reached the point where “the people are not sure what the DRP is.”

“When a rally is announced, it’s not clear who is calling for it,” he said. “A person dismissed from the party is using the party’s logo and giving press conferences as the party’s deputy leader.”

As the factional strife has reached “the limit where we can’t remain without taking measures,” Thasmeen said he would bring the matter to the party’s council seeking a decision.

Meanwhile Riyaz Rasheed, the sole DQP MP in parliament, participated in the Gayoom faction rally for the first time, despite the recent coalition agreement between the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and Thasmeen’s faction. The party’s existing coalition partner, Yameen’s PA, supports Gayoom.

At the Thasmeen faction rally at Immadhudheen School, speakers strongly criticised Umar Naseer for “disregarding the party’s charter.”

Leading the attack, Deputy Leader Ali Waheed argued that the opposing faction consisted of “presidential candidates who couldn’t get 3,000 votes (Umar) and leaders of parties with less than 3,000 people (Yameen),” and accused them of hijacking the DRP’s membership base.

“These people are holding rallies in DRP’s name because it has 40,000 members. Why won’t they hold a rally in their the name of their own party?”

The Gayoom faction was “obsessed with the DRP” because “when the time comes, it’s the DRP that has the ace of spades,” Waheed said.

“But what they don’t know is that we’re not playing cards,” said Waheed. “We’re playing joker. God willing, we will put down the joker and win the presidential election. When you’re playing joker, the ace of spades isn’t that important.”

Waheed argued that rallies held by Gayoom faction were “in truth Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s presidential campaign.”

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Proposal to lower legal age of juveniles to 16 may contradict UN convention, warns HRCM

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has met with opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf after he presented an amendment to the law on protection of the rights of children redefining all persons above the age of 16 to adults.

Currently the legal age of children is all persons above the age of 18.

”In yesterday’s meeting the commission discussed the challenges that we may face in protecting and upholding the rights of children,” the HRCM said in a statement. ”The commission highlighted the importance of providing many of the rights mentioned in the law on protection of the rights of children to all persons below the age of 18.”

HRCM also requested that all persons below the ago of 18 should have all the rights mentioned in the UNICEF’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Mahlouf presented an amendment to parliament to designate only persons under the age of 16 years as juveniles last week, lowering the age limit by two years.

”The purpose of changing the age is due to the significant increase in involvement of minors in crimes sinister in nature, and they cannot be sentenced to the full extent as they are considered minors,” said Mahlouf. ”Although they are considered as minors, they are sometimes very dangerous.”

Mahlouf said he has noted that children of the age 16-18 are more likely to be engaged in criminal activities because many finished their ordinary level education at the age of 16, and most of them did not prefer further studies which was leading them to the wrong path.

Speaking at a DRP rally Mahlouf said according to information he gathered to draft the bill, more than 600 young people have committed or have assisted committing assaults.

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MDP MPs refusing to accept committee allowance

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs are coming forward to declare they would not accept a Rf20,000 committee allowance on top of their salaries, if approved by parliament in the controversial MP Privileges Bill.

The MPs came forward in support of the party’s Chairperson MP Mariya Ahmed Didi, who yesterday withdrew her resolution to cut the allowance after the MDP Parliamentary Group voted in its favour.

“I was not at that meeting but I bowed to the party’s rules and took it out,” Mariya told Minivan News yesterday, adding that she had informed parliament that she did not wish to receive the allowance herself.

MDP’s internal branches were today criticising their parliamentary group following the decision.

Official website of MDP today carried a statement that MDP MPs Eva Abdulla, Hamid Abdul Gafoor, Ilyas Labeeb, Mohamed Gasam, Mohamed Nazim and Ibrahim Rasheed had also announced that they did not support the committee allowance and would not accept it.

Following Mariya’s withdrawal of the resolution opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf resubmitted it.

“I was the first one to raise it before Mariya, but the Speaker [DRP MP] Abdulla Shahid went with Mariya’s changes, perhaps because of the factional fight [the opposition] is having. When Mariya withdrew it I resubmitted it.” Mahlouf said yesterday.

Increasing MP salaries by Rf 20,000 would be a huge blow to parliament’s credibility, Mahlouf said, “as the public do not believe we are working to their expectations.” he said.

MDP MP Ahmed Easa also said he did not support the committee allowance, but he said the MPs who did support the committee allowance “have reasonable points.”

”It’s true what they say, MPs have so much to do with their salary each month. People can’t even imagine how many calls a MP receives each day asking for help,” Easa explained. ”Anyone in trouble from a area will run to their MP first, MPs have to lend money for people in need of medication, even for reasons such as people coming to get money to pay the school fees of their children.”

Easa also explained that most of the MPs were not from Male’, which forces them to live in rented apartments.

”As everyone knows, a standard apartment’s rent in Male’ will be Rf10000-20000 (US$750-US$1500), and what about all the phone calls that MPs have to make, that costs an additional Rf5000 (US$375) each month, and what about their family, wife and kids?” he asked, claiming that MPs “have to spend most of their salary on society.”

”As for me, there has never been a month that I have saved any amount of money in my bank account. I am ready to provide any document necessary to prove it,” he said.

However, Easa said due to the economic condition of the Maldives it was not wise to increase the salaries of MPs or any other institution of the government.

”The government’s recurrent expenditure may rise over 80 percent next year which means there will be only 20 percent of the budget to spend on development,” Easa said.

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Mahlouf resubmits resolution cutting Rf20K committee allowance, after MDP forces Mariya to withdraw it

MDP MP and Party Chairperson Maryia Ahmed Didi today withdrew a resolution to cut the controversial Rf20,000 (US$1550) committee allowance from the MP Privileges Bill.

Mariya told Minivan News today that she withdrew the resolution following a vote by the MDP Parliamentary Group.

“I was not at that meeting,” she said, “but I bowed to the party’s rules and took it out. However I told parliament that I did not want the Rf20,000 committee allowance myself and urged group members not to take the committee allowance. That got a good reaction from quite a few MPs.”

Mariya acknowledged that there was strong public sentiment against MPs receiving the committee allowance, including among the party’s own member base, which on top of their Rf 62,500 (US$4860) salaries would place Maldivian MP income on par with that of Sweden.

“The Rf 20,000 committee allowance was in the small print of a report from the monetary committee on the salary of all institutions,” Mariya noted.

Leader of MDP Parliamentary Group ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik was not responding to calls at time of press.

Following Mariya’s withdrawal of the resolution opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf resubmitted it.

Mahlouf’s submission means the resolution will go to committee stage which will debate the matter before submitting it to the floor for a vote.

Increasing MP salaries by Rf 20,000 would be a huge blow to parliament’s credibility, Mahlouf said, “as the public do not believe we are working to their expectations.”

He said he believed Mariya had been pressured by the MDP Parliamentary Group to withdraw the resolution.

“I decided this by myself. Nobody pressures me any more because I don’t follow DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen in parliament,” said Mahlouf, who has sided with the party’s dismissed Deputy Leader Umar Naseer and its Honorary Leader, former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, against Thasmeen’s faction.

The core issue regarding the salary increase, he explained, was the number of people petitioning MPs for money and assistance. This, he said, was the reason he had initially voted in favour in favour of the increase.

It was, he said, “very normal” for him to give away US$2000 (Rf 25,700) of his salary every month, “not only to constituents, but people from other parts of the country. People who are very poor come forward and ask me to please help them, and get very mad at me if I don’t.”

“At first I voted in favour [of the increase] because so many people were coming to me for help. This was something that was done for a long time back, and people now expect aid from parliamentarians. I was not a rich person before I was elected and I can’t give all my salary away, so that was the main reason I voted [in favour]. But maybe the next time somebody asks I can [justify] myself. When the general public are asking us not to do this, we should stop doing it.”

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