Tag: Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

Vice President calls for “population consolidation”

Vice President Mohamed Waheed Deen has lambasted the country’s current presidential candidates for resorting to a “divide and rule policy” to stay in power, rather than focusing on issues such as “population consolidation” which he claimed would help sustainable development.

Speaking on May 13 during the launch of the UN’s 2013 human development report, Deen argued that it was extremely difficult for presidential candidates to discuss relocating and consolidating island populations due to fears “islanders will be angry”.

However, the vice president said he believed there were ulterior motives to avoid addressing population consolidation – the practice of relocating geographically isolated, small island communities to larger landmasses.

“The other reason – which is worse – is the divide and rule policy that has been in the Maldives for hundreds of years. I hope those who are going to be on the list of presidential candidates, and politicians, will seriously think about the development of this nation and not be thinking ‘how long can I stay in power?’,” he told Minivan News.

“The whole idea of population consolidation is for the government, or the leaders whoever they are, not to control Maldivian citizens, so if they want to be free and independent they should do it.”

Vice President Deen highlighted a number of development issues and interrelated democratisation challenges he believed were vital to development, during his speech at Sunday’s UN report launch.

These issues included included the need for improving freedom of expression and democratic education to reduce inequalities. Deen emphasised “population consolidation” as an important way of ensuring this.

“It is easier to control votes if you are on small, small little islands, but it’s difficult when the population is consolidated,” stated Deen. “I strongly believe that the Maldives must have a population consolidation method.”

“Unless populations are consolidated, economically viable solutions – healthcare, education and other services and facilities – required for development cannot be sustained,” he added.

Deen claimed there were also numerous economic and social service benefits that would come from relocating people living on small islands, whom he said faced “lots of difficulties” due to limited healthcare and educational opportunities. Restricted transportation options were another concern he identified.

“Population consolidation would also reduce income and gender inequality. They would find it easier to find jobs and things like that,” he said. “I strongly believe that’s the key to a successful Maldives.”

Voter buy-offs, other corrupt practices, political polarisation and a lack of civil education were identified by Transparency Maldives, the Elections Commission of the Maldives (ECM), and the Elections Commission of India (ECI) as threatening free and fair democratic elections from taking place in September.

Additionally, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) released a joint human rights brief this April accusing the Maldivian government of failing to create conditions conducive to free and fair elections.

Relocation gone wrong

Population consolidation is a controversial issue for many islanders, given the unique cultural characteristics and strong inter-relationships each island community in the Maldives possesses.

The displacement and subsequent relocation of the entire Kan’dholhudhoo Island community in Raa Atoll following the 2004 tsunami is one example of the development challenges posed by relocating entire island communities.

“The community is still suffering tremendously,” Island Council Vice President Amir Ahmed told Minivan News.

“Kan’dholhudhoo is our motherland, however, the whole island was fully damaged [in the tsunami]. Four years after our community was split and living on different islands in Raa Atoll – Alifushi, Ungoofaru, Meedhoo, Maduvvari – or in Male’,” Ahmed explained.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) – in partnership with other nation-state donors – provided temporary shelter and food for the internally displaced in the aftermath of the tsunami, Ahmed continued.

In 2008, the bulk of Kan’dholhudhoo’s nearly 4,000 community members were eventually relocated to Dhuvaafaru Island. However, administratively the community remains under Kan’dholhudhoo, which poses a problem for voting, explained Ahmed.

The IFRC transformed the previously uninhabited island with the construction of 600 new houses, office buildings, a health centre, playgrounds, roads, and a garbage area, Ahmed added.

Unfortunately the government’s lack of community consultations, inadequate infrastructure development, and political opposition leading to local “administrative problems” has greatly degraded quality of life for the Kan’dholhudhoo community, lamented Ahmed.

He explained that the combination of too few island-level civil servants – the government mandates one per every 500 people, but only four represent Kan’dholhudhoo – and the stanch allegiance of island office employees to former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom created huge development-related problems and a lack of basic services.

“Maumoon’s people were working in the island office and they still supported him,” said Ahmed. He claims that the island office staff requested too few homes from the IFRC after the tsunami.

“They don’t know how the people suffer,” said Ahmed. “This is no ‘safe island’, there are many problems.”

“Day by day things get worse”

Currently 75 families still need homes, according to Ahmed. He explained the homes which have been constructed were meant to house a single six person family in a 2000 square foot area with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

“Instead, three or four families are living in one house. Many people are not coming back because they have no place to live, or because the living conditions are so uncomfortable,” Ahmed said.

“The constitution should provide one area of land per family, but this has not happened for our community,” he added.

Overcrowding due to the lack of adequate housing has caused a variety of societal problems, including property disputes, rising divorce rates, and children “don’t learn the responsibilities of how to live… additionally they see what’s happening to the community. Disputes are increasing,” said Ahmed.

Many of the homes were constructed near a “pond area” on the island, explained Ahmed.

“The land is not good for people to live on because the well water is bad. It has a bad smell and causes skin problems, especially for children and old people,” he explained. “Maumoon decided where to build the houses, we were not consulted.”

Although a pipeline has since been built to supply safe drinking water to the 40 families living in the area, given the overcrowding problem the water supplied is not sufficient. Thus, “a lot” of well water continues to be used.

Ahmed further explained that there is a waste management shortfall also posing a serious threat to community’s health.

“The garbage [problem] is terrible here. A garbage area was made but we cannot use it because there is not enough budget. So islanders have been dumping waste in the beach area, which is now full, so garbage is all over the road blocking vehicles from driving,” Ahmed said.

“There are also diseases spreading, such as viral fever, as well as mosquitoes and flies. And there are people living nearby this [garbage] area,” he added.

Despite these human health threats, Dhuvaafaru still lacks medicine and adequate medical facilities.

“There is no pharmacy or medicine [available]. We tried to establish one, but it is still not open,” said Ahmed.

“We have a health centre but it is without medicine. It lacks basic necessities and cannot even perform blood tests or give injections. We have to go to Ungoofaru [for medical treatment] which is 10 or 15 minutes away by speedboat,” he added.

Education and economic opportunities are also very limited, according to Ahmed.

“I am reluctant to say this, but the community is not very aware. Educated community [members] are very rare and if anyone is educated they will move to some other island because they want their children to have a quality education and standard of living,” Ahmed said.

“The community’s living standard is very dependent on the fishing industry. There are no administrative jobs, so fishing is the only way to make a living,” he continued.

“Day by day things get worse and worse,” he lamented.

“Government doesn’t listen”

Successive government administrations have failed to address the development problems and threats to the Dhuvaafaru community.

“Maumoon provided us no choices. We informed the government [of these issues], but nothing changed,” said Ahmed.

Although former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration provided the community with sandbags to thwart coastal erosion, “now the erosion has spread to another side” of the island and the ongoing development problems went unresolved, he continued.

The island office was controlled by the former opposition who did not cooperate with Nasheed’s administration to improve quality of life for the Dhuvaafaru community, claims Ahmed.

“We informed the coup government, but they don’t listen. [President Mohamed] Waheed makes many promises, but has taken no action,” he added.

Regarding whether island relocation and “population consolidation” are beneficial for island communities, Ahmed believes that if the government will actually provide the proper infrastructure for communities then the policy would be beneficial.

“I think most people would follow that, especially the younger generation. If there are good facilities I’ll go there for sure,” Ahmed declared.

“I’m happy now because everything is new [on Dhuvaafaru], but when I enter the house I want to leave immediately [due to the overcrowding],” he added.

In March 2012, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) sent a corruption case involving MVR 24 million (US$1.55 million) to the Prosecutor General’s Office concerning the Disaster Management Centre and a housing project carried out on Gan in Laamu Atoll, following damage suffered in the 2004 tsunami.

The Maldivian government is obligated under national and international law to guarantee the human rights and protections enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which include access to adequate housing, water, healthcare, and political participation.

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Maldives voters will shun PPM, MDP for “national stability” of coalition government: GIP

President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s Gaumee Ithihaad Party (GIP) has claimed voters will shun the country’s two largest political parties during September’s elections in favour of the “national stability” offered by a coalition representing the current government.

The comments were made as discussions continued this week between the GIP and the leaders of three other government-aligned parties in order to outline the direction of a recently formed coalition that will back President Waheed in the upcoming elections.  The president’s party has maintained that the coalition backing Waheed was not expected to deviate much from the policies of the current government.

Earlier this week, the government-aligned Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) announced it would be joining the religious conservative Adhaalath Party and the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) in a coalition backing President Waheed’s re-election. The DRP is the largest party in terms of MP numbers to so far back President Waheed, whose own GIP party currently has no political representation in parliament.

However, former Maldives President and founder of the government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Maumoon Abdul Gayoom today told local media that Dr Waheed’s coalition presented no threat to the election bid of its own candidate MP Abdulla Yameen.

The PPM – the country’s second largest party in terms of number of MPs – back in March elected MP Yameen to stand as its presidential candidate and has continued to reject calls to join a coalition against the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party ahead of the elections. Yameen is Gayoom’s half brother.

Stabilisation measures

GIP Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza told Minivan News today that he believed the country’s voters were “quite happy” with the stabilisation measures taken by President Waheed’s current coalition government. He added therefore that it was his belief the electorate would favour ensuring the stability of the nation by backing the president and his supporters rather than supporting the MDP or PPM.

Asked whether the president’s coalition would be able to win the election against the MDP and PPM, respectively the majority and minority leaders in parliament, Riza claimed national support was dwindling for the two parties.

“Even at its peak, the MDP could not get more than 25 percent of the vote,” he said. “The PPM on the other hand is backed by supporters of [former President] Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, not Yameen. The majority of [PPM supporters] favour joining the coalition.

Abbas added that the coalition had yet to choose a candidate to stand as President Waheed’s running mate, although discussions between leaders of the PPM, DQP and the Adhaalath Party were continuing today.

“I’m not aware of what these decisions are about, but all three parties have shown they agree on one thing – their support for President Waheed,” he said.

Abbas added that after agreeing to back the president, it would be “easy” for the coalition to outline a combined manifesto ahead of the elections due to their experience of working together – along with the PPM and MP Gasim Ibrahim’s Jumhoree Party (JP) – in the current government since the controversial transfer of power on February 7, 2012.

“These parties are already working in a coalition with this government and have been setting the national agenda for the last two years,” he said. “In terms of policy, I don’t think we will see a significant deviation from the economic policies and development programs we have already seen. People care more about the stability of a nation than any political party.”

Responding to Riza’s comments, the PPM today questioned the political strength of the three party’s currently backing President’s Waheed, while also dismissing the effectiveness of coalitions in the Maldives dating to the country’s first multi-party elections in 2008.

PPM MP Ahmed Nihan said that even if the president continued to extend his coalition to all other political parties in the country, the elections will remain a contest between the rival ideologies of former President Mohamed Nasheed -represnted by the MDP – and former President Gayoom – represented by the PPM.

“Just 48 hours ago we concluded a meeting in Addu Atoll, one of the largest areas in the country outside of Male’. Given the numbers of people we met there, it is clear there are only two parties,” he said.

Nihan added that while the PPM would continue to support President Waheed as part of the present coalition government up to September’s elections, it would not be looking to join any coalition ahead of voting.

“Originally in the first round of the 2008 elections, former President Gayoom failed to obtain enough votes to get re-elected. As we know, Nashed then formed a coalition to win the election in the second round,” he said. “What we saw then was after 20 days, JP Leader Gasim Ibrahim resigned without much reason from the government. This has put a big question mark over the strength of coalitions.”

Nihan added that DQP Leader Dr Hassan Saeed, the present Special Advisor to President Waheed, has previously expressed “unconditional support” for the MDP and Nasheed following the 2008 presidential elections.  Yet he noted that the DQP, under Dr Saeed, went on to become one of the most vocal opponents of the Nasheed administration.

Nihan claimed that as a result of the country’s previous experience of coalition government, he believed there would be little appetite among voters for a power sharing government ahead of September’s vote.

MDP candidate former President Nasheed has also declared his party has ruled out forming a coalition during the elections, criticising the effectiveness of power sharing in Maldivian politics.

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DRP enters coalition with President Waheed, commits “political suicide” claims MDP

The government-aligned Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has  said it will stand in a coalition with President Dr Mohamed Waheed during September’s elections as part of an agreement to strengthen its position in the political “middle-ground”.

Party spokesperson Ibrahim Shareef told Minivan News that with the DRP battling for space in the middle ground between the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), it had opted to form as broad a coalition as possible to try and ensure a second round electoral victory.

“No party in the country will get more than 35 percent of the vote during the first round, even the MDP which remains the biggest single party,” he said, adding that the party continued to rule out working with the PPM beyond the present government.

Speaking following the coalition announcement today, the MDP accused the DRP and its current leader – one-time presidential candidate MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali – of committing political “suicide” by continuing to side with a government the opposition party’s supporters accuse of coming to power in a “coup d’etat” last year.

Earlier this year the government-aligned Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) and religious conservative Adhaalath Party both announced their intentions to join a coalition with President Waheed’s Gaumee Ithihaad Party (GIP).

Both the DQP and GIP are small political parties currently facing potential dissolution for lacking the minimum requirement of 10,000 members as stipulated in the recently passed Political Parties Act.

“Too hardline”

DRP spokesperson Shareef said today that competing directly against the GIP or other government-aligned parties like the Jumhoree Party (JP) would only allow the PPM – as the country’s second largest party in terms of MPs – to emerge as a front runner during a potential run-off vote.

He went on to accuse the PPM, which was formed from a breakaway sections of DRP supporters loyal to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, as being “too hardline” to benefit the Maldivian people.

“This is a party to belongs to one family, or a supreme leader,” Shareef said, referring to Gayoom, who previously formed the DRP in 2005 during his 30 year rule of the country.

He added that even with the MDP presently being the country’s largest party, it was not itself capable of obtaining even 35 percent of the vote – a 51 percent share is required to form a government.

Shareef said considering the MDP’s likely support, being part of a coalition gave the DRP a better chance of securing election during a second round of voting, adding that increased polarisation between the country’s two largest parties during the last seven years was “leading the country nowhere”.

“There is no chance of a first round victory, so unless we have a strong coalition, those of us in the political middle ground would be forced to support the MDP,” he claimed.

Shareef added that no demands has so far been made by the party with regard to securing senior cabinet or government positions such as the vice presidency, should the coalition be voted into power.

“It would be nice to have [the vice presidential position], but we are not asking for cabinet posts or a certain share of ministers, we believe that unity is needed right now,” he claimed.

Since the controversial transfer of power that on February 7, 2012, which saw former President Mohamed Nasheed resign from office following a mutiny by sections of the police and military the DRP has been part of a coalition government with other former opposition parties including the PPM, JP, DQP and the Adhaalath Party.

Asked whether a similar coalition of parties similar to those already serving under the current administration would be electable, Shareef said he believed President Waheed had served the country admirably to hold so many rival political figures together.

“When you have a government that comes into power by accident it will always be a lame duck [administration],” he claimed. “President Waheed has done an admirable thing and filled a political vacuum.”

After the coalition agreement was announced today, DRP Deputy Leader MP Rozaina Adam took to social network service Twitter to accuse both the PPM and the MDP of “desperation” by trying to disparage the party’s decision to enter a coalition with the president.

Political “suicide”

However, MDP MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor argued that September’s election would be divided along the lines of those voting against a government deemed to have come to power in a “coup d’etat” last year and those in support of the present administration.

“This an an election based on recovering from a coup government,” he said.  “The election will be along these lines.”

Ghafoor claimed that by opting to stay aligned with the current government of President Waheed, DRP Leader MP Thasmeen had committed political “suicide”.

“We have been travelling all over the country as a party recently, and we have seen lots of concern that this coup administration has ruined the economy and stalled investment projects. We are will be lucky if we can avoid [sovereign] default before the election is held,” he said.

“Our candidate [former President Mohamed Nasheed] has previously summarised it well. You have the MDP making three foot strides, the PPM making half foot strides and the present government going backwards,” he said.

Ghafoor also said  he had met a large number of local councilors from government-aligned parties during his travels who had expressed concern at a perceived focus by the current administration to centralise power as much as possible.

Speaking to Minivan News last month, former Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, now standing as running mate to PPM presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen, said that the political landscape since the country’s first multi-party elections in 2008 necessitated a willingness to share power more than ever with “major” political parties.

“We have to recognise that the PPM and the MDP are the two major political forces in the country capable of winning elections. Hence, if the governing coalition desires to forge an alliance, it cannot realistically exclude the PPM from any such move. Whether a coalition, inclusive of the PPM can be realised prior to the elections is possible or not, we cannot alienate major political parties in an election,” he said at the time.

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Comment: From confrontation to conciliation and coalition?

With the Maldives warming up for presidential polls slated for September and the Election Commission fixing July 15 as the date for opening nominations, the climate of confrontation from the past year is slowly but surely giving way to the possibilities of new coalitions, pointing to the inevitability of conciliation and/or reconciliation now and later.

If still some political leaders will still not talk about conciliation and nor talk to one another, and instead hold grudges against one another, it has have more to do with personal hurt and/or ego than politics and political philosophies.

Independent of the political implications involved, Parliament Speaker Abdulla Shahid’s decision to join the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), after quitting the Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP), is a case in point. At the height of the ‘power-transfer’ in February last year, the MDP charged him and the Majlis with impropriety in hurrying through the ‘succession processes’ after President Mohammed Nasheed gave way to Vice-President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik in a surprising yet not wholly unexpected turn of events. Earlier, too, Speaker Shahid was locked in a series of procedural issues between the Executive under President Nasheed and the Majlis, where as the ‘minority party’ the MDP saw him more as an ‘opposition man’ than as an unbiased Speaker of the House.

A fortnight after Speaker Shahid’s formal announcement, no major party in the ruling coalition has demanded his resignation. Nor has any of them talked about moving a no-trust vote against him. Individual voices have been raised, but they have remained as such.

The DRP to which he had belonged until the other day and of which he was among the leading-lights, has since gone about its national congress as if nothing had happened. The party has enough worries on hand, in terms of its continued stability and future, starting with DRP Leader Thasmeen Ali contesting the presidential polls of September. Going by media reports, the national council has amended the party’s constitution, authorising the executive committee to formulate the internal laws for dissolving the DRP, if and when it so desired.

Army told to stay away

In a fitting and much-needed direction ahead of the polls, Defence Minister Ahamed Nazim has reportedly told the armed forces not to get involved in direct politics. They should stop with exercising their democratic rights as voters, and should not identify with individual political parties, the local media quoted him as telling the personnel of the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF). A retired colonel of the armed forces, Nazim was at the centre of the controversy attending on the MDP charges of a ‘politico-military coup’ against President Nasheed in February 2012.

Minister Nazim’s direction now should have a salutary effect on the morale of the Maldivian forces in the future, if it is taken to its logical conclusion. It could help ensure free and fair elections, which the constitution has promised every five years. More importantly, it could set the tone and tenor for the political class and the armed forces reconciling themselves to the division of the security requirements of the State between the MNDF (external security) and the Maldivian Police Service (MPS for internal security duties), when the unified National Security Service (NSS) was bifurcated for the very reason in 2006, during the relatively long run-up to the democratisation process.

The political executive not having kept its part of the deal, the MNDF and the MPS have remained extremely and excessively politicised with their top-rung getting a make-over with every change of government. Given to practices from the past and also the paucity of MPS personnel at the ground-level, successive Governments too commanded the MNDF to what essentially are policing duties, leading to a cycle of ‘mutual dependency syndrome’ and consequent controversies. The fact that the MNDF was involved in the arrest of political personalities by successive Governments even after the bifurcation, in the one-day closure of the Supreme Court, all escalating to levels in which the force and also the MPS got entangled in the ‘power-transfer episode’ of February 7, 2012, speaks volumes.

Coalition realignment

Coalition and conciliation have been the basis for the emergence of multi-party democracy in the country and its sustenance since. Elections-2008 became possible, and results became pronounced, thanks to the opposition coalition of the time, particularly in the second-round, run-off polls to the presidency, despite what otherwise may be parroted in public. The process went unacknowledged as such, but that was what it was. Despite the controversial circumstances for which the 2008 constitution had not provided for, the realignment of that coalition was a major factor in the ‘transfer of power’ in February 2012.

In the run-up to the September polls, there is a talk of further realignment. Every party is talking to every other party, or is possibly sending out feelers. Whatever the reason, senior leaders of parties which were supposed to have been after one another were known to have met over the past year of conflict, controversy and confrontation. Where some such meetings were supposed to have been private, affairs became public knowledge almost immediately, whatever the reason, whoever leaked it.

Thus, Nasheed had DRP leader Thasmeen Ali and PPM’s Abdulla Yameen, since elected as the party’s presidential nominee, calling on him on separate occasions over the past year, like Speaker Shahid would do months later. Their’s was however said to be either a courtesy call on a former President or was to discuss specific issues like deadlocks in Parliament, where the MDP is the single largest party and controls many House Committees. Yet, the ice was broken, post-February ’12.

Protagonists remain. Of the three, Maumoon Gayoom and Mohammed Nasheed were past Presidents. The third one, Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik, is the incumbent. Waheed has since called on Maumoon, talking about a possible coalition still for the September poll, against Nasheed and his MDP. President Waheed has also been talking to ruling coalition partner and Jumhooree Party (JP) presidential candidate Gasim Ibrahim and Gayoom’s PPM rebel, Umar Naseer. He already has the religion-centric Adhaalath Party (AP) and Presidential Advisor Hassan Saeed’s Dhivehi Quamee Party (DQP) in alliance with his own Quamee Iththihaad Party (QIP), all backing him for the presidency.

Gasim and Thasmeen Ali, leader of the DRP, founded by Gayoom before he split away and launched the PPM had once projected themselves as partners. There are also reports from time to time that the MDP has been sending out feelers or receiving them to and from partners in the ruling coalition. For them, Gayoom not contesting the primary even while retaining the party presidency and Yameen becoming the PPM’s presidential nominee should blunt some of their misdirected angst from the past, near and far.

The MDP is the single largest party, both in Parliament and outside now, going by the numbers. The recent cross-over by Speaker Shahid and a few others has added to the party’s parliamentary strength. MDP leaders claim that it is a reflection of the public mood ahead of the presidential polls. Candidate Nasheed has declared since that the party would not opt for a coalition as it was unworkable under the Maldivian constitutional scheme, which provided for Executive Presidency.

Party leaders attribute Nasheed’s declaration to the MDP’s confidence in being able to win the presidential polls by itself. Critics remain. They say, there are no takers for a coalition with the MDP after the 2008 experience, and that the MDP was making a virtue of a necessity. Yet, through the past year there have been occasion in which the MDP, and some of the leading partners in the ruling coalition like the PPM and the DRP, voting together on crucial pieces of legislation, reflecting the need and possibilities of ‘bipartisanship’, which is an inherent, yet unpronounced element of the Executive Presidency scheme.

End to ‘negative politics’

It is but natural for any nation that has continued with and under the same political leadership for three long decades, and a history of sorts before it, to suffer the effects of ‘anti-incumbency’ afflicting the regime. The 2008 Constitution and the presidential polls were the cause and effect of the anti-incumbency finding a democratic expression, leading to the most controversial of ‘transfers of power’ that the nation had anticipated or others had gone through. There is no reason why 2013 could not be a repeat of 2008, pushing 2012 to the background and permanently so, at least as far as the process are concerned and independent of the results, which rests with the people of the country.

If Elections-2008 were thus won and lost on ‘negative votes’, it may not be any different in 2013. In most democracies the world over, ‘anti-incumbency’ rather than the ‘promised moon’ has been at the bottom election-driven power-transfers. In some of those nations, palpable in the Third World than in the First, internal dynamics of individual political parties have been driven by their inherent belief in ‘anti-incumbency’ – and not their ‘positive’ politics, policies and programmes – putting them (back) in power.

So complete has been the belief that some leaders in some of the parties would rather fight to keep the party leadership with them, ready to be catapulted to power by the externality of anti-incumbency against the ruler of the day. This throws up the problem of the newly-elected not having thought of working out and working with a ‘positive programme’ to endear him and his party to the people at large, who thus end up crying ‘anti-incumbency’ before long.

Democratic over-heating

It is under these circumstances that post-poll governments in these democracies have often been driven to stick to their electoral promises which are mostly confined to ‘exposing’ those that they had replaced and bringing them to justice for whatever offence that they might have been said to have committed while in power and abusing that power. This ‘eye-for-an-eye’ merry-go-round, if it could be called so, has only made every one blind to the power that they have come to enjoy and enforce, rather by default than any other way.

This alone has had the potential to defeat the people’s faith in democracy, as they get to feel little or no positive contributions and consequences of democracy touching their everyday life. Despite hopes to the contrary at birth, Maldives has proved to be no exception. However, in this case, over the past five years of democratic over-heating Maldives has proved that popular democracy has come to stay. So has coalition politics, in power and/or out of it.

‘Coalition-compulsions’, a new phrase that Maldives and Maldivian polity will have to come to terms with even while practising it already, would imply that all stake-holders should be ready for future cross-over by individual parties and their individual leaders and should not say or do things that they might regret on a later date. In a nation where the total registered membership of all political parties does not add up to half the electorate, it is saying a lot.

It is a message to the political parties that they need conciliation processes and reconciliation procedures in their own larger and future interest than their short-lived present, which the first five years of democracy has proved to each one of them, individually and collectively. If at a critical stage in the nation’s history, Presidents Gayoom and Nasheed could ensure a smooth power-transfer through a promise of give-and-take in 2008, there is no reason why the un-kept promises as perceived by various stake-holders cannot be revisited in the run-up to the second presidential polls under the multi-party democracy scheme.

There is thus a need for finding institutional solutions for ending mutual conflict and consequent confrontation that the nation can ill-afford in times such as these — when political stability is threatened alongside by economic downslide. It can blame the economy on the external world. Political problems are a Maldivian making just as the transition to democracy was a boon earlier. Both have had the ‘Made in Maldives’ brand sealed all over them.

The writer is a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Maldives divided by “Islamic” and “anti-Islamic”: former President Gayoom

President of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has claimed the Maldives now dominated by people belonging to the “Islamic” ideology and those belonging to the “anti-Islamic” ideology.

Gayoom’s remarks come shortly after public outrage over former President Mohamed Nasheed’s allegedly “laadheenee”(secular) remarks made during the speech he gave at the University of Copenhagen on the subject of the economics of climate change.

During his address, Nasheed stated the Maldivian population had largely rejected Islamic extremism, and, in a veiled reference to the Adhaalath Party, noted that “the Islamists were never a credible electoral threat.”

Following the speech, the religious conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) and Gayoom’s own party PPM issued statements condemning the remarks Nasheed had made.

Subsequently, a protest was launched by a group of hundreds – thought largely to represent supporters of the government-aligned AP – who in certain cases called to “hang Nasheed to death”.

AP last month publicly pledged its support to President Waheed by announcing plans to form a coalition with his Gaumee Iththihaadh Party (GIP) ahead of elections scheduled for September this year.

Anti-Islamic, anti-national

During a dinner held at Nasandhura Palace Hotel on Monday (April 29) night, Gayoom claimed that those belonging to the laadheenee ideology operated as a foreign organisation to change the country, and that Maldivians needed to decide on where they stood.  The comments were made at a dinner to honour the services of his Gayoom’s daughter Yumna Maumoon, who had resigned from the secretary general position of the PPM.

The former President, who ruled the Maldives unopposed for six consecutive five-year presidential terms, claimed many people believed the country had two political ideologies.

Gayoom added that in his view, these two ideologies were that of those who stood up for Islam and the nation and those who did not.

“These are the two options left on our table. We need to choose from one of these ideologies. We are, by the will of Allah, those who uphold the nation and Islam. PPM represents the aspirations of a nationalistic Islamic state. It is also the same aspirations represented by those who support PPM,” Gayoom said. “Those who are at the other end are anti-national and anti-Islamic people. They are attempting to install their own views among us, trying to transform us into the West.”

Gayoom further alleged that those standing by the anti-Islamic ideology wanted to destroy the independence and sovereignty of the Maldivian people, and “put the country in control of an anti-Islamic organisation”.

“We really need to understand and comprehend this fact. We have to carry out a lot of hard work to prove that our nation comes first, for the sake of this country, for the sake of our beloved people,” he stressed.

Gayoom contended that should the people of the Maldives fail to defend the country from anti-Islamic forces, it would mean the slowly beginning of “imported cultures” that the country was unfamiliar with.

“They will try to bring in another culture. A culture that we are not familiar with, a culture that represents anti-national, anti-religious beliefs and ideologies,” he added.

During his speech, Gayoom also emphasised the importance of ensuring that his half brother Yameen Abdul Gayoom was elected president in September.

Criticism

Both Gayoom’s PPM and the religious conservative Adhaalath Party have attacked Nasheed for his remarks in Denmark.

The Adhaalath Party claimed that Nasheed had misled the Danish audience on extremism in the Maldives.

“Nasheed misled them about the party he fears and envies most, the Adhaalath Party. Nasheed knows very well that the Adhaalath Party is not a party that has no power and influence, unlike what he said in Denmark,” read the party’s statement.

The party accused Nasheed of “placing idols” in Maldivian lands – a reference to the SAARC monuments gifted to the country by other South Asian nations during the 2011 SAARC Summit hosted in Addu Atoll – and of “giving our assets to foreigners” – a reference to the concession agreement to manage and upgrade the international airport granted to Indian firm GMR.

In his address, the former President acknowledged that there was “a lot of xenophobia, Islamic rhetoric and intolerance going on in the Maldives”, and noted the destruction of 12-century Buddhist statues, manuscripts, and other evidence of the Maldives’ pre-Islamic history.

“The vast majority of our society very tolerant people. If all this Islamist rhetoric is removed from official discourse, there will be a much more liberal society. I assure you the rhetoric will be removed from official discourse,” he said.

The Adhaalath Party meanwhile expressed astonishment “that there are a few Maldivians joining [Nasheed] in his work to get another chance to brainwash the Maldivian people. God willing Mohamed Nasheed will not be able to come to power ever again,” the party said.

“Nasheed shamed the nation”: PPM

The PPM similarly condemned Nasheed, claiming his remarks about Islam would disgrace the Maldives in front of other Islamic states.

The party further claimed that it was totally unacceptable for a Muslim to claim that there lay a need for an alternative Quran and the Hadith.

“A former president of a 100 percent Islamic nation speaking in such a fashion, abusing the religion of Islam and mocking Prophet Muhammed is a derogatory act that brings disgrace to the country in front of other Islamic nations,” read the statement.

The PPM alleged that Nasheed during his time as the president had spoken against certain principles of Islam in the bid to appease non-Muslims, such as allowing SAARC nations to gift monuments to the Maldives.

“Bringing a person like Nasheed back to power will be the worst decision people of this country will make, as it will be a huge blow struck against the nation and Islam,” the PPM contended.

Sold out Islam to bring about a coup, says Nasheed

In response to the remarks made by his political rivals, Nasheed addressing a rally held in the island of Bilehdhoo in Faafu Atoll on Sunday night,  claimed that politicians who disguised themselves as religious scholars had “sold out Islam” to topple his democratic government on February 2012.

“There is no greater sin in Islam than to orchestrate a coup,” Nasheed claimed.

“Wearing hats of sheikhs and religious scholars, they have committed a huge sin, an act which is absolutely haram. Today, this country has a haram government. Being a 100 percent Muslim country, we must not let them continue carrying out this haram act in front of our eyes. God willing, we will win this presidential election in one round,” he added.

During his speech, Nasheed spoke of the rhetoric used by political parties had against his administration prior to the contentious transfer of power in February 2012.

“In their ploy to topple our government, they spoke of two things. One is that it was for the sake of religion. In this context, one issue they raised was that the management of Ghiyasudheen School [in Male’] included foreigners. Meanwhile, we can clearly see that even here the principal is a foreigner, the teachers are foreigners.”

“After having preached this against Ghiyasudheen School, today it is the children of these religious scholars who are enrolled to study in that school. [Adhaalath Party MP] Muhthalib’s child goes to that school. The Supreme Court Judges’ children also go to that school. All the religious scholars have their children enrolled in this school, and this is because it is a school where the educational standards are very high,” Nasheed said.

“They toppled our government because we were establishing that school, and yet today their children are enrolled there,” he claimed.

“Maldivians have never accepted that religious scholars should get entangled in worldly political matters. They are pious, righteous people who should be advising people like us on religious matters. It will not do when today they themselves are coming out and drafting laws to govern massage parlours,” Nasheed said.

“All of this is clear to us Maldivians now: a coup d’etat was brought about in the Maldives, and this coup was orchestrated by selling out the religion of Islam.”

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Prospect of “radicalised, authoritarian” Maldives threatens all nations: former president Nasheed

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has spoken of the close relationship between climate change, human rights, and democracy during separate addresses to the Danish parliament and the University of Copenhagen this week.

Discussing concerns over political instability in the Maldives that have been raised by NGOs such as Amnesty Intentional since President Dr Mohamed Waheed came to power last year, Nasheed accused the current government of reversing “hard won freedoms” and awarding “Islamic extremists” with cabinet positions.

He also claimed that the prospect of the Maldives becoming a “radicalised, authoritarian stronghold” would have negative connotations well beyond the country’s borders.

“In many ways, [extremists] set the tone of Government communications and they are busy trying to indoctrinate the people with a misguided version of Islam,” Nasheed said.

The office of President Waheed – who entered into office through a controversial transfer of power on February 7, 2012 – today dismissed Nasheed allegations that Islamic extremists were serving in the government.

“I urge Mr Nasheed to stop spreading lies to promote his political agenda.  I call on him to engage professionally,” President’s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad said via SMS today.

Senior government figures have earlier this year criticised some of the recent findings published about the Maldives by Amnesty International, accusing the group of publishing reports without conducting research.

During his visit to the Danish capital, Nasheed also met with current and former Danish Ministers, high-level officials, supporters, as well as gave an interview to local tv news show DR2 Dagen.

Nasheed, who is a globally recognised high-profile advocate for climate justice, expounded on how he believed environmental issues, human rights, and political stability are increasingly intertwined.

“The fight against climate change is a human rights issue and the way we respond to it will shape not just our environment, but also geopolitical reality – for generations to come,” he stated while speaking at the University of Copenhagen yesterday (April 16).

“Bad energy policy is not just polluting our planet, it is polluting our politics, warping international relations.”

“New balance of power”

Nasheed gave a lecture to the University of Copenhagen highlighting the “corrupting influence of fossil fuels” on energy politics and how this has clashed with the newly-founded Maldivian democracy.

“The politics of energy is polluting international relations, just as it pollutes the air, casting a shadow over much of the world and holding back clean energy,” he stated.

“It is the invisible force holding nations in thrall to dictators, causing conflicts and repressing human rights, a suffocating inertia that holds back democracy and development.”

Nasheed addressed how “the fight for fossil fuel resources has shaped the world” for over a century, but now “the time has come for a reformation in energy politics; one that values human rights above mineral rights.”

While fossil fuels have “driven companies to corruption, governments to repression, and nations to war, the new resources – solar, wind, waves – are much more widely distributed…there are no ‘resource fields’ to fight over.”

Clean energy is about a significant shift in the established geopolitical order, a shuffling of the deck in the great game, not just about rewiring the world economy, Nasheed explained.

“Carbon emissions”

“If we turn our backs on corrupting influence of fossil fuels, if we reject the polluting in pursuit of the beautiful, we can protect the world around us. We can deliver sustainable economic growth. And we can do so whilst putting development and democracy first,” he stated.

“For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, it is now technologically, economically and politically feasible for people to get their energy sustainably.

Nasheed said it was important that climate change not be underplayed as “some abstract risk,” claiming that the lives and freedoms of people all over the world were threatened if no action was taken to address environmental concerns meaningfully.

“I know it is possible, because we had a plan to do it in the Maldives. A fully costed plan, approved by the World Bank, to go carbon neutral. The only reason we didn’t was because we were rudely interrupted by a coup!” Nasheed exclaimed.

“Radicalised, authoritarian stronghold”

Nasheed also gave a speech to the Danish Parliament that reiterated similar environmental themes, but with an emphasis on the Maldives’ 2008 democratic transition.

A year prior to the Copenhagen Accords – the first time that big emitters from the developed and the developing world all agreed to cut carbon emissions – the Maldives had transitioned from former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30-year authoritarian rule to democracy, Nasheed explained.

“Positive changes such as ‘Basic freedoms’ – freedoms which been repressed for generations – began to take hold,” said Nasheed.

“The Maldives was being hailed by NGOs as a model of liberal, Islamic democracy,” he added.

Nasheed provided the Danish parliament with a brief narrative account of the police and military mutiny on February 7, 2012, which he alleged was controlled by “Gayoom, and his allies, alongside Islamic extremists keen to re-establish the old order.”

“[Gayoom’s] former dictatorship organised the coup because they could see the edifice of their economic and political power crumbling,” he explained. “It was crumbling because Maldivians had rejected authoritarianism, rejected feudalism and largely rejected Islamic extremism.”

Nasheed also added that the prospect of the Maldives becoming a “radicalised, authoritarian stronghold” was a threat for many people.

“It is a threat to the hundreds of thousands of Europeans who holiday there every year. It is a threat to neighbouring democracies, such as India.  And it is a threat to the stability of the wider Indian Ocean, through which 40% of world trade passes,” he said.

“A democratic Maldives is not only your friend; it is also the best guarantor of your interests,” he emphasised.

Free and fair elections

Domestically, Nasheed is presently being tried in the Hulhumale’ Magistrate Court over the controversial detention of Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed in January 2012.

However, Nasheed has maintained that the trial, presently on hold pending a High Court decision on the legitimacy of judges appointed to hear the former president’s case, is politically motivated to try and prevent free and fair elections from occurring this September.

He highlighted recent conclusions of both local and international experts into the present status of the country’s judiciary to support his claims.

“The United Nations Special Rapporteur says the court is bias and politicised. This view is shared by Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Committee,” he said.

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“Vast majority” of PPM members will remain loyal to former President Gayoom: MP Nihan

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Nihan has claimed the “vast majority” of supporters will remain loyal to the party despite uncertainty over the future allegiance of senior figures like Umar Naseer and Deputy Leader Ilham Ahmed.

MP Nihan told Minivan News today that should either Naseer or MP Ilham leave the PPM, most members would still remain loyal due to their support for former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and the principles under which he founded the government-aligned party.

The comments were made as the PPM’s internal disciplinary council yesterday concluded a hearing against Umar Naseer, who recently lost out on standing as the party’s presidential candidate during its primary.

He later alleged that his sole opponent in the contest, MP Abdulla Yameen; was backed by the Gayoom family and PPM parliamentary group, controlled all of the party’s organs, including the council and election committee, and had “rigged” the primary in his favour by ballot stuffing, falsifying the count and “pouring black money” to buy votes.

He further alleged that criminal gangs, convicts and drug smuggling “networks” were part of Yameen’s campaign team.

Yameen, who is also half brother of former President Gayoom, denied the accusations, while the PPM later asked Umar to apologise for his remarks or face disciplinary action.

Umar’s case was yesterday (April 14) sent to the PPM Council’s for a decision on whether he should face expulsion from the party after refusing to apologise to Yameen or defend himself at the subsequent disciplinary hearing.

Nihan added that the next council meeting concerning Umar’s position in the PPM was “expected shortly”, although no decision had yet been taken over whether he would be allowed to remain with the party.

Despite the party’s rhetoric, Umar was quoted in local media today as claiming he would reveal his future political plans at a rally scheduled for Friday (April 19).

“I will let my supporters know the path I have chosen,” he was quoted as telling Haveeru.

Meanwhile, Ilham Ahmed today announced his decision to resign his vice presidency role within the PPM, refusing to provide further details to local media at the time.

Loyalty

MP Nihan claimed that the resignation was not thought to be related to Umar Naseer’s disciplinary hearing yesterday.

He went on to state that Ilham had in the past been a strong supporter of Gayoom dating back to before the PPM was founded after a number of its MPs broke away from the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP).

“He was elected with the blessing of Maumoon. Ilham has always played the political game well,” said Nihan.

Taking the example of other previous Gayoom supporters such as MP Ali Waheed – who eventually joined the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – Nihan alleged that some in the party believed Ilham had strong business links with presidential candidate and MP for the fellow government-aligned Jumhoree Party (JP), Gasim Ibrahim.

“We heard Ilham’s been connected with Gasim for sometime now,” he added.

Nihan said that both Ilham and Umar currently remained with the party and could play a significant role ahead of presidential elections scheduled for September.

However, Nihan said that should they both defect to other political parties, he did not expect more than several hundred PPM members to leave with them.

He added that even in the case of a possible defection from the two senior party members, both would also be limited in terms of viable political parties they could side with. Nihan also questioned the stability of forming political coalitions in the Maldives.

“The Maldives will not be stable under a coalition,” he said. “We also have to consider the international community in all this, such as the UK, and our neighbours in India and Sri Lanka, there is a big struggle at present.”

MP Ahmed was not responding to calls at time of press, while a spokesperson for Umar Naseer claimed he “did not give interviews to Minivan News.”

When contacted earlier today, the PPM office in Male’ said it did not “know anything” regarding Umar Naseer’s hearing.

“Unprecedented move”

Addressing developments within the PPM today, MDP MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor claimed that the government-aligned party had used the People’s Majlis to attack President Dr Mohamed Waheed in what he claimed was an “unprecedented” move.

Hamid argued that amidst speculation over the respective futures of Umar Naseer and Ilham Ahmed, the PPM was finding itself “alone” politically, while the president was by contrast expanding a coalition of parties ahead of September’s elections.

“Political entities – aside from MDP – are all remnants of the past. They are products of the past dictatorship, and they are now splintering. It’s a classic example of a dictatorship breaking up, fragmenting,” he claimed.

“It’s a [Gayoom] family thing being played out politically. His family is split in two between backing Waheed or the PPM and Gayoom is keeping both sides afloat, so he can play the game to the end and win.”

Parliamentary criticism

Meanwhile, Two PPM MPs publicly criticised President Waheed at today’s sitting of parliament, with MP Ali Arif slamming the country’s leader for “harassing” the legislature. He also accused President Waheed of discontinuing public services and development projects, while using state funds to finance his election campaign, according to local media.

PPM MP Shifag ‘Histo’ Mufeed, formerly of the MDP, alleged that the president was planning to use an expected MVR185 million (US$12 million) from raising the airport departure tax to US$30 for his presidential campaign.

“I think this is the biggest atrocity after the Nexbis atrocity,” Shifag said, referring to ongoing legal wrangling over an agreement to use a border control system provided by a Malaysia-based IT firm that was approved by the government.

The implementation of a similar Airport Development Charge (ADC) by Indian infrastructure group GMR was previously a major point of contention for senior figures in the Waheed administration, eventually paving the way for the US$511 million foreign investment project to be declared void by the government last year.

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Rising extremism could threaten Maldives’ tourism industry: report

Religious conservatism and extremist violence have been increasing in the Maldives over the past decade, while incidents of Maldivians joining overseas jihadist groups are becoming more common, according to a report published in the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) Sentinel, a publication based out of the West Point military academy in the US.

The article entitled The Threat from Rising Extremism in the Maldives, observes that growing religious extremism and political uncertainty could result in more violence and negatively affect the nation’s tourism industry, which would be “devastating” to the Maldives.

“This has coincided with a number of violent attacks on liberal activists and other citizens who have expressed outspoken support for moderate religious practices,” the report notes.

If current trends continue “extremist incidents may rise, with violence targeted against the country’s more liberal citizens,” it states.

According to the report, five key factors have contributed to the growing extremism and violence:

  • the encouragement of  “more hard line Islamist elements in the country” during the 30 year autocratic rule of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom;
  • political uncertainty;
  • an increasing number of people seeking education in foreign madrasas;
  • grassroots radicalisation through civil society and political parties;
  • escalating extremist incidents of violence and involvement with jihadist groups.

“The country has already suffered one terrorist attack targeting foreign tourists, and a number of Maldivians have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to receive jihadist training. Moreover, evidence exists that jihadists tried to form a terrorist group in the country in 2007-2008,” the report states.

The study recommends that Maldivian political and religious developments be followed closely.

Encouraging of hard line Islamic elements

Islam was introduced to the Maldives in the 12th century and subsequent religious practices have been the “moderate, more liberal form of the religion”.

“Yet, during Gayoom’s three decade autocratic rule, the Egyptian-trained religious scholar enacted a number of measures that, at least inadvertently, encouraged more hard line Islamist elements in the country,” the report concluded.

“From imposing a ban on Christian missionary radio to apprehending migrant service providers for allegedly preaching and practicing their own religion, Gayoom’s regime initiated an era of state-backed religious intolerance and radicalisation in the Maldives.”

The Protection of Religious Unity Act, passed in 1994, mandated that no other religion but Islam could be practiced.

In 1996, Gayoom constituted the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, renamed the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in 2008, to preside over religious affairs in the Maldives.

“This body of clerics pressured the government to carry out moral and cultural policing of alleged “anti-Islamic activities”,” the report states.

For example, in 2008 the Ministry requested police “ban nightclubs and discotheques for New Year’s Eve celebrations because they were contrary to Islam”.

“By the end of Gayoom’s time in office in 2008, the dress code for women had grown increasingly conservative, and more and more men grew out their beards,” the report states.

Women now dress more conservatively with fewer brightly colored clothes. Instead they “increasingly wear black robes and headscarves and on more conservative islands such as Himandhoo, women wear black abayas and face veils,” it added.

Political uncertainty

The democratic transition “gave a greater voice to religious conservatives and those calling for the rigid implementation of Shari`a (Islamic law) in the Maldives,” states the report. “This became especially evident following the implementation of political reforms and the transition to multi-party democracy in 2008.”

The first democratic presidential elections in the Maldives were held in 2008, with Mohamed Nasheed defeating Gayoom in the second round with 54 percent of the votes.

However, the Nasheed administration was accused of defiling Islam by “promoting Western ideals and culture and restricted the spread of more austere Islamic practices,” the article notes.

This resulted in the December 2011 “Defend Islam” protests led by opposition political parties, religious groups, civil society organisations and thousands of supporters in the country’s capital, Male’.

These protests “unleashed a chain of events that culminated in a bloodless coup on February 7, 2012 that toppled the Maldives’ first democratically-elected government,” declared the study.

Appeal of education in foreign madrasas

Education in foreign madrasas has also contributed to growing extremism within the Maldives, with students “unwittingly attending more radical madrasas” and preaching these views upon their return.

“The offer of free education in madrasas in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is widely acknowledged as a core means of radicalising Maldivians locally, with well-meaning parents sending their children off on scholarships to ‘study Islam’,” the report states.

Following the 2007 terrorist attack in Male’s Sultan Park, “Gayoom himself warned of this problem”.

“Maldivians are influenced by what is happening in the world. They go to Pakistan, study in madrasas and come back with extreme religious ideas,” the report quoted Gayoom as saying.

Grassroots radicalisation

“The contemporary Maldivian political environment favors radical and political Islam taking root in Maldivian society, especially when political parties and civil society increasingly take refuge in religion,” the report states, citing Maldivian academic Dr Azra Naseem.

In 2010, new regulations prohibited “talking about religions other than Islam in Maldives, and propagating such religions through the use of any kind of medium.” The Ministry of Islamic Affairs published this legislation under the Protection of Religious Unity Act of 1994.

However, the report found that the “major force behind more austere religious practices in the Maldives is the Adhaalath (Justice) Party (AP), which has controlled the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, with Sheikh Shaheem Ali Saeed as its current minister”.

Given that the AP supports strict implementation of Shari’a Law, the party has “outspokenly argued that music and singing are haram (forbidden) and called for an end to the sale of alcohol at the country’s hundreds of luxury resorts,” said the report.

In February 2013, Saeed warned that “various Christian organisations and missionaries are strongly involved and active in our society because they want to ‘wipe out’ Islam from the Maldives”. He subsequently started a campaign against Christians and “Freemasons”, the report stated.

Two non-government organisations (NGOs), Jamiyyathu Salaf (JS) and the Islamic Foundation of Maldives (IFM), are considered religiously conservative Salafists who “work with the country’s political parties to further the cause of Islamism in the Maldives,” the report stated.

Extremist incidents

Extremists have directly targeted Maldivian liberal intellectuals, writers and activists, the study notes.

“On January 3, 2011, assailants attempted to kill Aishath Velezinee, an activist fighting for the independence of the country’s justice system, by stabbing her in the back in broad daylight,” said the report.

Velezinee is a whistleblower that in 2010 identified members of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) who were “conspiring with key political figures to hijack the judiciary and bring down the country’s first democratically-elected government,” the report added.

The study found that the Ministry of Islamic Affairs was “at least indirectly encouraged extremism” by initiating “crackdowns” on media outlets for anti-Islamic content.

The blog of prominent free speech and religious freedom campaigner, Khilath ‘Hilath’ Rasheed, was blocked in 2011. A month afterward, Rasheed’s skull was fractured when 10 men attacked him with stones during a peaceful rally he organised in Male’.

Rasheed was arrested a few days after the incident and jailed for 24 days for participating in the rally.

In June 2012, Rasheed was nearly killed “after extremists cut his throat open with a box cutter”.

“After the attempt on his life, Rasheed named three political leaders—Islamic Affairs Minister Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, Adhaalath Party President Imran Abdulla and Jumhooree Party lawmaker Ibrahim Muttalib Shaheem – as being indirectly responsible for the attempt on his life,” the report states.

Later in 2012, the moderate religious scholar and lawmaker, Afrasheem Ali, was stabbed to death at his home in Male’. He was considered an Islamic moderate who was “outspoken in his controversial positions,” reads the report.

In February 2013, “a reporter for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-aligned Raajje TV station, Ibrahim ‘Aswad’ Waheed, was beaten unconscious with an iron bar while riding on a motorcycle near the artificial beach area of Male’,” the study added.

Previously, during the 2011 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), protesters “intolerant toward other religious and cultural symbols” damaged monuments gifted to the Maldives by Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka.

Islamic radicals on February 7 2012 also vandalised archaeological artifacts in the National Museum that were mostly ancient Hindu and Buddhist relics, destroying 99 percent of the evidence of Maldivian pre-Islamic history.

Jihadists

“In April 2006, a Maldivian national, Ali Jaleel, and a small group of jihadists from the Maldives attempted to travel to Pakistan to train for violent jihad in Afghanistan or Iraq,” the report reads.

While his first attempt was unsuccessful, Jaleel did eventually travel to Pakistan and “launched a suicide attack at the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Lahore in May 2009.”

In September 2007, Islamic extremists committed a terrorist attack in the Maldives aimed at the tourism industry.

A bomb exploded in Male’s Sultan Park and wounded 12 foreigners. The three men arrested and later jailed for the bombing confessed that their goal was to “target, attack and injure non-Muslims to fulfill jihad,” states the report.

A month following the bombing, the investigation led to Darul-Khair mosque on Himandhoo Island. However, “some 90 masked and helmeted members of the mosque confronted police, wielding wooden planks and refusing to let the police enter,” said the report.

Although the Maldivian army eventually established control, “The stand-off resulted in a number of injuries, and one police officer had his fingers cut off.” In November, a video of the mosque confrontation was posted on the al-Qa’ida-linked alEkhlaas web forum by a group called Ansar al-Mujahidin with the message “your brothers in the Maldives are calling you,” the report states.

Evidence suggests that three Maldivian jihadists planned to establish a terrorist group in the country around 2007-2008 and send members for military training in Pakistan.

“At least one of these individuals did in fact travel to Pakistan, as Yoosuf Izadhy was arrested in Pakistan’s South Waziristan Agency in March 2009, along with eight other Maldivians,” states the report.

In 2009, then-President Nasheed warned that “Maldivian people are being recruited by Taliban and they are fighting in Pakistan,” quotes the report.

“Despite its reputation as an idyllic paradise popular among Western tourists, political and religious developments in the Maldives should be monitored closely,” the report concludes.

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Student protest shuts down school over teacher shortage

Students prevented teachers from entering Rathafandhoo Island School in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll on Monday, shutting the school for the day in protest over a three month teacher shortage.

Tenth grade students have been without an accounting teacher since January, despite the school sending a request to the Ministry of Education immediately after the position became available.

“Half the tenth grade students created problems by preventing teachers from entering the school. They were demanding an accounting teacher to be provided,” Rathafandhoo School In-Charge and teacher Thasneema Shakir told Minivan News.

“We have been without an accounting teacher since the second week in January. The [education] ministry was informed in January; the documents requesting a new teacher were sent,” said Thasneema.

“They said the request was being processed. I think it’s a big process they have to undertake,” she added.

Thasneema explained that policy guidelines dictate each subject has to have a specific teacher, and so while the school has been waiting for an accountancy teacher, the class has been taught by commerce and economics teachers.

“They are doing their best, but are not qualified and are facing difficulties. Students have been complaining they cannot teach accounting well,” she stated.

According to Thasneema, the Education Ministry informed the school today (March 18) that a replacement accounting teacher would be sent tomorrow.

Systemic education shortcomings

Teacher shortages, lack of qualifications and training are some of the systemic education system problems former Education Minister Shifa Mohamed and former Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfee previously discussed with Minivan News.

“Even for basic education we are still struggling with the teachers at the middle school and secondary level,” Shifa stated.

“There are not enough local [Maldivian] teachers. Close to 70 percent of teachers from middle school onwards are Indian expatriates. The ministry spends a huge amount of money on these foreign teachers,” she added.

Shifa explained how the lack of training opportunities for local teachers negatively affects how the curriculum is taught and that it prevents students from developing critical thinking skills.

“Critical thinking skills are lacking generally. Creative thinking is very minimum within classrooms, because there is a very rigid form of teaching going on.

“Teachers are not very familiar with curriculum. The main thing is that there is no proper assistance given for teachers and opportunities for teachers to develop themselves,” Shifa said.

She also explained how these shortcomings are compounded by poor management and lack of community involvement.

“School middle management has a lot of influence and what they’re doing within the schools is something that has to be changed. They exert very strong control over what teachers are really teaching students from the curriculum during ‘coordination’ meetings.

“Instead of really looking at things at a broader angle and trying to help the kids, they simply talk about what going to do on which date, etc. They don’t concentrate on literacy, creative writing, and the things that need to be really focused on.

“The teachers blindly follow what middle management and leading teachers say. I don’t blame them because they don’t have required amount of training on some of the islands,” Shifa said.

The lack of parent involvement in school boards and parent teacher associations compounds these issues. School board guidelines were issued under Nasheed’s government as a broad way for parents to be involved in all aspects of their children’s education, however this opened the schools up to public criticism, according to Shifa.

“In a democratic country people should be more engaged and one method is through community involvement in schools.

“While some principals did a great job working cooperatively, others really violated whole thing and didn’t even nominate people.

“Some principals are really scared of opening up schools, because for them its their own secure territory. They can easily manipulate the community,” Shifa stated.

Shifa stated the education system reforms undertaken during former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government, as well as by her predecessor Dr Musthafa Luthfee, would be taking effect now if President Waheed Hassan Manik’s government had continued them.

She explained that in 2008 – following former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30-year autocratic rule – the government took responsibility for 323 schools.

“It was a good decision, but was a huge budgetary strain. The education system was decentralised, the province units were very effective, a huge amount of money was invested in infrastructure renovations to provide healthy water and toilets, and teachers were more closely observed.

“Unfortunately, Waheed’s government has doubled down and re-centralised,” Shifa claimed.

Luthfee echoed these sentiments in previous discussions with Minivan News.

“Maldives school education will continue to improve if the current administration goes along with the policy guidelines put in place by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) government.

“When we were in the government we did several things to improve education. They included establishing single session schooling, providing service training for teachers, enhancing educational management, decentralization of education supporting private higher education and establishing Maldives National University (MNU),” said Luthfee.

Shifa further detailed how education problems were not discussed among the public, therefore they “don’t really grasp the huge implications this has on society”.

“For a long time during Gayoom’s 30 years everything was very quiet, because you cannot simply express yourself. When you don’t have the opportunity to express yourself, who cares to think about something you should not be thinking about.” Shifa said.

“Over the years political figures go to schools and promise certain resources. This has become both a means of getting something for the schools and a campaign tool. Prize giving day [for students] should not become a political thing.

“Under Gayoom and in the past governments have used this very well to manipulate and get the votes for each election,” she added.

Shifa emphasised that politicising education is an ongoing problem and the sweeping reforms put in place under the previous government would have addressed many of the systemic problems preventing students from receiving a quality education. However, she has not seen any of these programs continued.

Additional shortcomings

Shifa highlighted a number of other training and policy programs previously implemented to ensure that school quality standards were met, teacher training opportunities are provided as well as vocational and higher education opportunities existed for students.

The initiatives include a teacher licensing program through the College of Open Learning, the Excellent ‘Baraabaru’ Schools Program, and the Skills ‘Hunaru’ Training Program.

“These programs would have taken the budgetary strain off government and ensured local teachers are adequately trained to administer a diverse education,” stated Shifa.

“Under the Baraabaru Program, seven principles for evaluation must be met, so schools and teachers understand that their job is not only teaching, it is building good well-rounded, model people, of quality character.

“We gave 150 million for the Hunaru Program, which was the most huge amount of money we allocated for any program in the nation in many years. This talent program was totally for youth development, not infrastructure,” Shifa said.

She further explained the program would have provided higher educational and vocational training for youth in any sector, thereby minimizing the need for foreign workers, both skilled and semi-skilled.

Shifa emphasised she was “very concerned” with the assessment efforts made by teachers, primarily because their current focus is on exams.

“We need to change teachers’ perceptions to let them know assessments and exams are for the sake of learning, not a separate thing,” Shifa said.

She explained that the methodologies teachers are using – or lack thereof – are problematic because the curriculum is not being used as a tool for teachers to “change and teach”.

Shifa detailed how curriculum revisions – for preschool, primary and secondary school – were already occurring in 2008 and that one of Luthfee’s “highest priorities” was to continue this process. He commented on these issues as well.

“Current school curriculum is in two parts, namely local curriculum and up to grade 7 and Cambridge curriculum in secondary. Both curricula lacks the ability to provide critical thinking and civic skills,” said Luthfee.

“However we are hopeful that the local curriculum which is being developed would fill the gap unless undue influences are exerted by people with extremist views,” he added.

Shifa explained how some small schools will have only five or so children in a class, but still have to provide seven or eight teachers – one per subject – for the students to continue on to secondary school.

According to Shifa, one of the most important ways these problems can be solved is through multi-grade teaching, which would improve the quality of teaching on the islands and bring down expenses.

She discussed how Nasheed’s government was trying to introduce multi-grade teaching nationally “in a pattern whereby the public will accept it through smart school projects”. To this end, a pilot-program training center was being established on Kudafari island in Noonu atoll in June 2011.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm within the school to continue this. Therefore, we made the infrastructure for the school to go single session – and along with the help with the continuing center for education – and start off the multigrade teaching program,” Shifa said.

The lack of quality education and resources then puts students at a disadvantage to continue their education – A-level, higher education, and vocational training opportunities.

“So many students are getting good marks and completing grade 10 but are unable to take A- levels because the Maldives is lacking well-functioning centers. Except for Male’ and a few regional centers, options are few and far between,” stated Shifa.

Education Ministry

Education Minister Asim Ahmed spoke to Minivan News about some of these ongoing educational issues.

“The challenges of teacher training and development are addressed by this government in a very systematic way.

“Teacher shortages is not a systemic problem. This year there are more teachers in schools than during the past three years combined.

“The evidence of this is the record level O’Level pass rate this year. Students will not pass if there are no teachers.

Ahmed also highlighted that the government will conduct teacher development programmes, continue MNU training, and increase overseas training for teachers.

O’level results still withheld

Preliminary results for the 2012’s Cambridge O’Level examination have not been released due to “difficulties” in analysis, the Ministry of Education has said, despite claiming “one of the highest pass rates to date”.

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