Tag: maldives

Ministerial appointment system “defective”, says MP Nasheed

The process of appointing cabinet members has been criticised as ‘defective’ by an Kuludufushi-South MP Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed, who has claimed that constitutional changes within the Supreme Court will be required to address the nation’s ongoing political deadlock.

The independent MP today told Minivan News that yesterday’s votes on ministerial appointments, which saw a boycott of the sitting by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs before the approval of just five of 12 cabinet posts by the opposition majority parliament, may require court intervention before being settled.

The claims comes as Miadhu today reported that Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, head of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), threatened to turn to the Supreme Court if the seven ministers rejected in yesterday’s vote remained in office.

Despite the stalemate over the cabinet appointment issue, MP Nasheed said parliament today functioned “normally” with a number of bills under discussion, such as the proposed strike legislation.

However, the independent MP claimed that differences of opinion, particularly between the MDP and the DRP, highlighted to all sides that there were “defects” within the constitution concerning ministerial appointments.

The appointment process remained “beyond resolution” in a highly partisan political environment.

“The [current] political environment is not conducive for a resolution within parliament,” he explained.

According to Nasheed, this difference of opinion stems from two very different processes of thought currently within parliament.

MDP rationale, Nasheed said, was that cabinet ministers could only be rejected under a motion of no-confidence that required 39 parliamentary votes to pass. However, he added, opposition groups remained unable to table possible no-confidence motions for cabinet members that had not been appointed by the Majlis.

These differences, he suggested, revealed a major defect in the appointment process.

“Only when all these processes are agreed can there be a cabinet,” he added. “I think the matter will need to be resolved through the Supreme Court.”

The President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News today that parliamentary rules required 39 votes to pass a no confidence motion concerning an individual cabinet minister.

With individual voting for every appointee during yesterday’s sitting falling short of the number of votes required for a no-confidence motion, Zuhair said the President “is happy the ministers are rightfully in place.”

He claimed that ministerial appointments were “not a case of popularity, but confidence”.

All 12 cabinet ministers were reinstated to their positions in July following a protest resignation about what they claimed were the “scorched earth” politics of the opposition-majority parliament.

Despite talks of legal action from the opposition, Parliamentery Speaker Abdulla Shahid – himself a DRP MP – said he was optimistic that the rival parties could reach an “amicable solution” within the current political framework.

“I am urging parties to engage in dialogue,” said Shahid, who claimed the ministerial statemate created by yesterday’s decision would not adversely affect important upcoming legislation such passing the 2011 budget.

Shahid told Minivan News that despite its fledgling status, Maldivian democracy “had a history of engaging in dialogue to overcome political deadlocks. We will find an amicable solution.”

Despite ongoing uncertainty resulting from issues such as the cabinet appointments, Shahid added that it was vital to establish ‘customs and norms’ within the Maldives’ parliamentary proceedings.

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Price of an open society “is one we gladly pay”, says visiting Danish minister

Many of the climate-change related impacts occurring in the Maldives appeared to be problems “of planning and capacity building”, visiting Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Søren Pind told Minivan News.

The Danish delegation yesterday toured the islands of Fares-Mathoda and Thinadhoo in the south of the country, both of which are suffering from flooding due to poor drainage, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNDP to provide assistance.

Pind said that as a Development Minister it was also very interesting to see first-hand the challenges faced by a country following a transition to democracy, “such as the fight between those who wish to go backwards and those who wish to go forwards – and it’s not always possible to tell the difference.”

Pind noted that Denmark had only adopted a parliamentary democracy in the early 1950s, after a process “that took us 100 years. We had a nasty fight in 1870-1901 between the king and those who wanted a new democratic government.”

Scandinavian countries such as Denmark regularly top human development indices. The country has the highest level of income equality, and in 2006 to 2008 was ranked “the happiest place in the world” by Forbes magazine based on indices of health, welfare and education.

Growing radicalisation

Pind acknowledged that in the years following a transition, “of course there is a threat to democratic stability. I asked President Nasheed and he said he sees radicalisation as a key challenge.”

The way to counter growing radicalisation, Pind suggested, was to foster and promote “open society – civil institutions, NGOs, people fighting for gender rights and freedom of speech – these things counteract the same very conservative thinking that benefits from that prerogative.”

And if a society was found to be going backwards and not forwards, “identify those forces of destabilisation”, he suggested.

Radicialisation, Pind noted, was not a problem unique to the Maldives. “All these countries I’ve visited recently – Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia – all their politicians are talking about this, and referring to some sort of ‘foreign influence’. It seems to be a common problem.”

Pind said he found it sad that concepts such as education, free media “and the whole idea of inalienable human rights” had become a religious issue, “when I have heard people who know Islam say this is not a religious issue, but a political one.”

Asked how he felt the Danish government had handled the issue of the controversial cartoons published by one of its newspapers, Pind said Demark had “never seen it as a confrontation with Islam.”

“But we had to face the fact that one man had drawn cartoons that were published in a major newspaper. We had a hard time explaining that in this country the government could not interfere with the media. That is the price of an open society, and we pay it gladly.”

The Danish delegation – including Pind and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Dr Lykke Friis, visited the Maldives to announce funding of climate mitigation programs in Kenya, Indonesia and the Maldives as part of its US$40 million ‘fast-track’ climate change initiative, but showed a strong interest in other matters affecting the country.

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Economics and value praised by industry body for ongoing tourist turnaround

The Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour operators (MATATO) believes an improving economic situation in a number of key travel markets has helped drive a bounce back in visitor arrivals to the Maldives during 2010, when compared to the same period last year.

Mohamed Maleeh Jamal, Secretary General for the group, said that an improving economic climate and better complimentary packages have been positive developments for the industry after recent negative headlines generated in light of the high profile ‘false wedding’ video widely circulated in the press and online.

The comments were made as tourist arrivals to the Maldives were found to have increased by 19.7 percent during October compared to the same period last year, marking improved fortunes for the country’s travel industry during 2010, according to new official figures.

The statistics from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture found 74,707 visitors had arrived by air to the Maldives, up from 64,432 a year earlier. The growth continues a successful nine-month period for Maldives tourism that has seen year-on-year visitor growth of 21.8 for the last ten months.

In addressing the increases, Jamal told Minivan News that an improvement in the global economic climate had aided tourist industry commitments to try to be more competitive by offering more complimentary offers like an additional night’s stay or free transfers.

Alongside an explosion of interest from Chinese tourists that the MATATO Secretary General expects to continue during the next few months and years, a ‘good number’ of travellers from established markets in Europe also continued to flock to the nation’s atolls to provide a more balanced revenue source.

Between January to October 2010, Tourism Ministry figures found that 63.3 percent of visitors to the Maldives came from European markets. Asia Pacific territories contributed 32.3 percent of overall travel demand to the country.

The figures come after a turbulent month for Maldivian tourism, following a video recording of a ‘false wedding’ conducted at the Vilu Reef Resort and Spa that depicted some staff members mocking a Swiss couple in the local dialect of Dhivehi during a vow renewal ceremony being leaked online. The incident garnered both local and international coverage.

Jamal said that with many people now deciding to take or research holidays over the internet, the high profile nature of the incident was definitely likely to stain the country’s reputation as a hotspot for luxury and honeymoon travel.

“To be honest, it was a strange incident that we never would have expected to happen,” he added. “We don’t know yet how much of an impact it will ultimately have on tourism. It is not good, but [the impact] has not yet been as bad as we first thought.”

Addressing the incident, Ahmed Solih, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism told Minvan News that he was reluctant to use the term ‘false wedding’ in regard to a ceremony that had been booked as an authentic experience for the couple who had been filmed.

In response, Solih pointed to a number of high profile apologies made to the couple – including a personal call from President Mohamed Nasheed with an offer to come back to the country as his guests – as a reflection of the serious anger among the industry and Maldivians about the incident.

The Permanent Secretary added that although it is impossible to speculate how the wedding video would impact tourist demand in the future, it was now vital for the industry’s reputation to prevent any repeats of the incident in the future.

Solih said that although the incident was isolated to a single occurrence on one of the country’s more than 90 tourist resorts, a number of e-mails and correspondence had been received reflecting the bad taste left by the incident on the tourism market.

In looking at current tourist growth though, Solih believed that the complex nature of tourism means that there are many contributing factors to the growth beyond just fauvorable economic conditions.

The Permanent Secretary claimed that the Ministry was itself focused on trying to diversify the nation’s appeal to a wider number of markets and nations wads vital to try and protect the industry from external factors such as economics that it has no control over.

“Along with the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB) we have spent years of hard work researching and looking to new markets,” he said.

Aside from lucrative emerging economies like China, Solih claims that the industry had been making inroads to Middle Eastern and American markets in attempts to try and broaden the Maldives’ appeal around the world.

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Police appeal for witnesses to ambulance accident

The traffic police have requested those who witnessed an accident in which an ambulance collided with a 25 year-old man at the intersection of Orchid Magu and Chandaanee Magu over the weekend to come forward.

According to police, the ambulance was driving with its siren sounding en route to an emergency pickup.

The man sustained injuries to his head, face and arms in the collision and was taken to Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Police said the most accurate witnesses would be persons on vehicles waiting at the intersection of Orchid Magu and Chandanee Magu.

Police requested all persons who had information on the case to contact the police duty officer on 988 8999, or traffic police number 333 3835 or the police toll-free number 119.

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Vice President inaugurates Counter Terrorism workshop

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed yesterday inaugurated a Counter Terrorism Workshop organised by the government and the British High Commission.

The President’s Office said that it was a two day workshop that began in Aarah yesterday, and aimed to develop a counter terrorism strategy for the Maldives and share experiences on the topic between the Maldives and the United Kingdom.

”There is nothing more important than creating and maintaining a peaceful environment for the people in our country,” said Dr Waheed. ”The Maldives is not exempt from the risks associated with international terrorism.”

He also said the threat of terrorism was affected every country in the world and highlighted the importance of making counter terrorism strategy an integral part of the national security policy.

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Criminal Court issues death sentence in gang murder case

The Criminal Court of the Maldives yesterday sentenced Mohamed Nabeel to death for the murder of Abdulla Faruhad, after reviewing the statements of witnesses and finding him guilty of the crime.

The Judge said that article 88[d] of the penal code of the Maldives stated that murders should be dealt accordingly to the Islamic Shariah and that persons found guilty of murder ”shall be executed” if no inheritor of the victim denies the murderer to be executed, according to Islamic Shari’ah.

The Criminal Court identified the murderer as Mohamed Nabeel, G. Reef and the victim as Abdulla Faruhad of Hulhudhoo in Seenu Atoll. As no inheritor of the victim opposed his execution, Nabeel was sentenced to death.

This is the first such sentence to be issued in a case related to gang murder. Previous death sentences issued in the Maldives have included (in 2005) those found to be involved in the death in custody of Evan Naseem, and the perpetrators of 1988 coup. None of these sentences were implemented.

The Prosecutor General’s office filed the case against Nabeel after the police arrested him on charges of deliberately killing Faruhad in revenge for harassing his sister Aiminath Niuma. The case report did not mention what kind of harassment occurred.

The judge said that during the police investigation Niuma admitted that her brother Nabeel attempted to attack Faruhad with a six inch box cutter on March 8, 2009.

In her statement to police, Niuma said she attempted to stop her brother from attacking Faruhad as he tried to flee, the judge stated.

However Niuma was unable to control her brother from throwing the box cutter at Faruhad which lodged in his back. Faruhad died the next day from his injuries.

The PG’s office presented CCTV footage of the incident and three witnesses.

The judge said that although Niuma had later in court dismissed her statements to police, which were fingerprinted by her father as she was underage at the time, ”it is unbelievable that her father read the statement and would fingerprint a false statement given regarding his own son.”

Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said he did not know how the sentence would be carried out,  but police would implement the verdict if requested by the court.

Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad said he had not yet seen the ruling and would be unable to comment before going through the case.

Press secretary for the president Mohamed Zuhair said the the government would comment on the matter only after the judicial procedure was over, ”otherwise it could be considered as an influence on the verdict.”

He said that the accused had a 90 day term to appeal at higher courts if he felt the judgment was unfair.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the last death sentence issued in the Maldives was following the 1988 coup attempt. This has been corrected to reflect the verdict in the trial over the death in custody of Evan Naseem.

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Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be unable to enter parliament if Hashim cannot, claims Reeko

Parliamentary Leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, has threatened to bar the speaker of the Majlis and his deputy from entering parliament if Finance Minister Ali Hashim is prevented from performing his duties.

Manik has warned that if Finance Minister Ali Hashim is disallowed to enter the parliament chamber to present the annual budget for next year, Speaker Abdulla Shahid and Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim would be prevented entry by the MDP.

Ali Hashim was one of the five ministers parliament yesterday voted to dismiss from the cabinet.

After three weeks of stalemate, parliament voted to approve five out of a dozen cabinet ministers reappointed by President Mohamed Nasheed in July, while MPs of the ruling MDP boycotted the sitting before voting began.

Seven ministers – Finance Minister Ali Hashim, Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Fisheries Minister Dr Ibrahim Didi and Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad – did not receive a majority of votes from the 42 MPs in attendance.

Moosa said that it was not for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party [DRP] to decide whether Hashim can or cannot enter the parliament in cases related to finance ministry.

”There is not even a slight difficulty for Hashim to enter the parliament as long as he remains as an appointed minister by the executive power,” said Moosa. ”The vote parliament took yesterday was also illegitimate.”

Moosa said yesterday that MDP MPs left the parliament chamber to loosen the deadlock in parliament over cabinet endorsement, so that the parliament could proceed with other necessary works such as a Witnesses Bill and approving next year’s budget.

Moosa’s remarks suggested it was a response to what DRP leader and MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and People’s Alliance party [PA] deputy leader and deputy speaker of the parliament MP Ahmed Nazim said following the parliament’s decision.

Thasmeen told the media that if the dismissed ministers remain in office to proceed with their work, ”it would be a really serious issue and the matter would be taken to the Supreme Court.”

Meanwhile, Nazim have told the media that ”there is no way Hashim could present the budget as he did not get the consent of the parliament to be in the position.”

Nazim also argued that any minister that did not get the consent of the parliament should not remain in the position.

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Parliament only approves 5 out of 12 ministerial appointees

After three weeks of stalemate, parliament today voted to approve five out of a dozen cabinet ministers reappointed by President Mohamed Nasheed in July, while MPs of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) boycotted the sitting before voting began.

Seven ministers – Finance Minister Ali Hashim, Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Fisheries Minister Dr Ibrahim Didi, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab, Defence Minister Ameen Faisal and Attorney General Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad – did not receive a majority of votes from the 42 MPs in attendance.

The five ministers who won approval were Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam, Health Minister Aminath Jameel, Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, Human Resources Minister Dr Hassan Latheef and Economic Development Minister Mahmoud Razee.

Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News today that the cabinet will remain in place as “the only way to remove a minister is with 39 votes” through a no-confidence motion, pointing out that none of the seven nominees who failed to win consent received 39 votes against.

“No consent does not amount to no-confidence,” he explained, adding that today’s votes showed that “overall the Majlis has confidence in the cabinet.”

Zuhair said that the opposition parties failure to secure 39 votes “demonstrates splits” in their ranks.

The cabinet resigned en masse in June protesting the “scorched-earth policies” of parliament, accusing the opposition majority of corrupt practices, deliberate obstruction and attempts to wrest executive control from the government.

Aftermath

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, “Reeko” Moosa Manik, MDP parliamentary group leader revealed that he “asked the parliamentary group to remain silent even if the Speaker acts in violation of the rules and to leave the Majlis and step aside.”

Feydhoo MP Alhan Fahmy argued that after the Supreme Court ruled that article 171(e), which allows nominees to be interviewed by committee, could not be applied “the whole process has to be undone” since the invalidated provision was in place when the nominees were reviewed by the government oversight committee.

Appointing cabinet members was a “fundamental power” of the president under the constitution, said Alhan, adding that parliament had to pass no-confidence motions to dismiss the ministers who did not receive parliamentary consent.

“What we saw today in the Maldives parliament was a decision made in absence of the ruling party by the opposition party on their own,” he said. “I note that by this decision, instead of helping the administration govern, they have deliberately obstructed the government.”

Alhan condemned the opposition for “acting dictatorially” by “using parliamentary power irresponsibly” to dismiss ministers the DRP were unhappy with.

“I wonder if the DRP can give any justification as to why they did not give consent to [Attorney General] Dr Sawad,” he said. “For example, they can say something about not approving the Home Minister by talking about the police and what’s happening on the street. But why would they not give consent to Dr Sawad?”

Meanwhile, DRP MP for Galolhu South Ahmed Mahlouf dismissed the government’s as “the talk of madmen.”

Mahlouf argued that 39 votes were not needed to remove a minister as the constitution specifies that consent must be given by “MPs present and voting.”

“We voted for the people we believe are competent,” he said. “I do not believe the rest of them are ministers anymore. They should immediately give up their official cars and other state assets and they should not go to work tomorrow.”

While the MDP MPs maintain that Finance Minister Ali Hashim would still present the 2011 budget, Mahlouf claimed that he “certainly would not allow Ali Hashim to enter the Majlis.”

He further insisted that DRP’s voting reflected the will of the public and not personal prejudice: “[Defence Minister] Ameen Faisal was involved in the November 3rd coup and we tabled a no-confidence motion against [Education Minister] Luthfy when the cabinet resigned and Ali Hashim has sold our airport.”

He added that the opposition voted to approve ministers they believed were “competent and performing”, such as Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam and Islamic Minister Dr Bari.

“For example, we voted for Dr Bari because we believe that if we didn’t the President might appoint somebody like [Aishath] Velezinee (President’s member on the Judicial Services Commission) as Islamic Minister. We didn’t want to take that risk.”

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Communication among Muslims a key challenge: Farah Pandith

Extremism is the ‘front and centre’ of concerns shared by Muslims all over the world, at least according to Farah Pandith, the US State Department’s Special Representative to Muslim Communities, who is paying a four day visit to the Maldives.

Pandith, who reports directly to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is using the visit to meet with government and political figures, as well as NGOs and local people, to look at the possible social challenges facing the Maldives as an emerging Islamic democracy, as well as how best to respond to such difficulties.

Speaking on Sunday at the American Centre in the National Library in Male’ to an audience of local people and foreigners from across the private and public sector, Pandith said that even in the current Facebook age, communication among Muslims was seen as a major challenge facing Islamic communities.

According to Pandith, a large proportion of the world’s Muslims are believed to be under 30 years of age, yet the US Representative claimed that amidst a divide between followers of the faith and non-Islamic people, many young Muslims were not part of the “conversation” relating to differing faiths and viewpoints.

The representative said that this lack of communication about Islam in some cultures has further added to a global culture of ‘us and them’ between Muslims and other faith and belief groups.

In such a climate, the US State Department claims to now be looking to work with NGOs and local enterprise to better directly address discontent in Islamic societies all over the world.

In considering this more hands on approach by the US government, Pandith acknowledged that some US foreign policy during the last deacde, particularly in the Arab world, had been “unpopular” – not just amongst Muslims but large swathes of the world’s population. However, she claimed the country was moving beyond a so-called “freedom agenda” of pushing democracy, by trying instead to promote initiatives and activities designed to directly address prominent social concerns.

In addressing local audience members at the talk, Pandith asked the 20 or so people in attendance what it meant to them to be Maldivian and Islamic.

The response, according to some in the audience, was confusion and possible consideration of leaving the country amidst concerns over what they perceive as issues of free speech in relation to the role of faith.

Having met Pandith during her visit, State Minister for Islamic Affairs Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, told Minivan News that principles such as free speech and human rights were an important part of the Maldives constitution and the influence of Islam in the country.

“The Maldives is very unique as we are both 100 percent Muslim and democratic,” he said.

Pointing specifically to Article 27 of the constitution, Shaheem stressed that there was freedom of speech within the Maldives, though this right to speak was bound by the principles of the Islamic faith.

Ultimately, the State Minister for Islamic Affairs claimed that Islam has formed the backbone of Maldives society for hundreds of years and was central to national ideas of human rights and free speech.

“In war for example, Islam forbids the killing of woman and children,” said Shaheem as an example of the religion’s impact on the notion of human rights.

In relation to the potential challenges of establishing more debate over Islam in the country, Shaheem said he believed the major concerns the ministry faced in the country were more related to drugs and the emergence of extremist ideas, both religious and non-religious in nature.

Although stressing his belief that the country has no Al Qaeda-style organisations, the State Minister said it was important to counter and not give any opportunity for more radical, extreme forms of Islam to take root in the country.

To try and meet this aim, Shaheem claimed that education and academic pursuits formed a major part of efforts to retain the country’s status as a moderate nation.

The Islamic Ministry says that greater links it has with many western nations like the UK reflects a more collaborative relationship with Muslim communities across the world.

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