DRP proposes amendments to Religious Unity Act

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Dr Afrasheem Ali has proposed amendments to the religious unity act.

Presenting the bill, Dr Afrasheem said that social unity among Maldivians was weaker than it had been in the past.

”One reason for this [disruption] is issues of  religion, particularly disputes over worship and (scholars) criticising each other,” Dr Afrasheem.

He proposed that the Shafi sect be enshrined as the basis of Islam in the Maldives.

”I selected the Shafi sect because it is the sect most friendly, most accepted and most widely followed sect in Islam,” he said.

People’s Alliance (PA) Party MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakuru said that the bill was necessary for the country.

”The Maldives used to be a country which was an example of social unity, but now we see cracks in that fort,” said Jamal.

Independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib also supported the bill.

”This is a very important bill,” said Muthalib, recommending several amendments to article 2(d) and article 2(e), after observing that the bill could potentially narrow the opportunity for foreign scholars to preach in the Maldives.

DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof also supported the bill.

”I recall during the last presidential elections, the Adhaalath party – which claimed to be promoting and protecting religion – tried to make (people believe) that former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was a Christian,” said Mahloof. ”This is the situation of our country today.”

He said that it was very important to resolve disputes among people.

Chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and MP Mariya Didi thanked Dr Afrasheem for presenting the bill to amend the Religious Unity Act, observing that “our forefathers have protected the religion for 800 years.”

In May the Islamic Ministry announced that it had completed the new religious unity act, and has sent it to the government’s gazette for publication.

However when the new regulations were completed many organisations expressed concern over the regulations and it was held by the president’s office for amendments.

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Sheikh Nasrulla signs with MDP

The Secretary General of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Ahmed Shah has confirmed that Sheikh Nasrulla Mustafa has signed to join the party.

Shah said Sheikh Nasrulla was “a well educated and very capable person”, and that his decision to sign with MDP was a major progression for the party.

”He signed the application form last week and it has now been sent to Elections Commission (EC) for approval,” Shah said. ”Then he will officially be a member of MDP.”

Sheikh Nasrulla declined to comment on this story, instead recommending that Minivan News clarify his application with the EC.

”If I applied and if the EC approved [my application] then I will be a member of MDP,” said Sheikh Nasrulla, when asked to confirm his application.

Religious website Raajjeislam reported that Sheikh Nasrulla had recently declared that the purpose of forming political parties and NGOs was to create splits in a society, and these institutions were therefore against the principles of the as-salaf as-saliheen (the earliest converts to Islam).

The website also said that Sheikh Nasrulla has in his sermons claimed that voting was not allowed in Islam, and that it was an ‘enmity’.

Raajjeislam’s report claimed that the government was attempting to trying to displace the Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari  and State Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed from their posts.

According to daily newspaper Haveeru, the Islamic Ministry has recently restricted Sheikh Nasrulla from using microphones inside mosques to deliver sermons, which Sheikh Nasrulla claimed was preventing him from preaching.

Haveeru reported that the restriction was put in place by the Islamic Ministry because of “numerous complaints” the Ministry had received.

Sheikh Nasrulla  has reportedly disputed the lectures of other prominent Islamic scholars during his sermons, including Dr Zakir Naik, who recently visited the Maldives.

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DRP will not honour “shady deals” made over Male’ International Airport

Vice President and Spokesman for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ibrahim Shareef has said the DRP will not honour “shady deals made according to vested interests” if the party comes to power in 2013, referring to the government’s privatising of the country’s airports.

The government has shortlisted three parties to run Male’ International airport and will select one over the next 3-4 days.

The parties include Aéroports de Paris Management Company of France (ADP) and Turkish company TAV Airports Holding Company, Indian company GVK Airport Developers in partnership with Swiss Flughafen Zurich AG, and GMR-KLIA.

Shareef expressed concern that the government’s efforts to privatise state assets, such as the airport, were not occurring with parliament approval.

“Parliament is in the process of amending a public finance bill that will stipulate the government has to put these decisions before parliament,” he said.

“If the governing party will not accept this, then the new [DRP] government will not honour this type of shady deal. We will not honour shady deals – only lawful deals according to parliament.”

Shareef said the airport was currently “making the government money”, and the asking price it had set “is so low. [The deal] is riddled with corruption,” he alleged. “If the government has nothing to hide, it has nothing to lose from asking parliament.”

Minister for Civil Aviation and Chairman of the Privatisation Committee Mahmoud Razee told Minivan News that “as far as I understand we are proceeding according to the public finance act which is currently in force. Parliament legislates but actual delivery is up to the executive.”

It is the opposition’s “prerogative to say what they wish,  but the reason why experienced and reliable companies are involved in this bid is because they believe that this is a viable project.”

The Male’ airport privatisation deal would be for 25 years, extendable by another 10 years, and would require a minimum level of investment towards upgrading the airport in the first three years to meet a certain level of service.

“A certain percentage of the service charge will to go to the government, and in addition [the operator] will also prescribe a percentage of the revenue,” Razee said.

Within three years, the government would expect a new terminal on the eastern side of the airport islands, up to international standards, and the completion of aero bridges (passenger walkways), effectively doubling the annual capacity of the airport from 1.6 million passengers to 3 million passengers.

The intention was to enable fast growth of the country’s tourism market, he explained.

“It’s bound to grow – particularly the Chinese and Indian markets,” Razee said. “We’ve already received applications from Air Asia and several Chinese carriers.”

Meanwhile, the government yesterday signed an agreement with Dubai-based company Supreme Fuel Trading to manage Gan airport for 30 years, in an agreement intended to hasten development of the southern region of the Maldives by allowing 747 class aircraft to land.

“At the moment the largest aircraft that can land [in Gan] is the 767 and the Dash 100-200,” Razee said.

The government has also received a proposal from GMR to upgrade Hanimadhoo airport and increase tourist traffic to the northern atolls.

For a country dependent on international tourist arrivals, the airports are the ventricles of the Maldives economy. Addressing concerns that privatising them would loosen the government’s control over these critical assets, Razee observed that all the interested parties being considered “have experience running many international airports”.

“Security will continue to be overseen by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), and the airport will be certified by civil aviation authorities irrespective of who is running the airport,” he explained.

Tourism in the Maldives is showing signs of steady growth, with an increase of 20 percent in the first five months of 2010 compared to last year.

Arrivals for first five months of this year were seven percent higher than for the same period during the boom year of 2008.

Meanwhile, the 91 resorts in country had a steady occupancy rate of 82.3 percent.

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DRP condemns NYT ‘looters’ article as “cheap propaganda gimmick”

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has issued a statement condemning an article published in the New York Times, in which journalist by Matthew Saltmarsh described former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom as a “looter” and alleged he had misappropriated state funds.

The article further claimed that the present government was working with the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), a joint initiative of the World Bank and the United Nations, to recover US$400 million allegedly stolen by the former administration.

The DRP stated that the repeated accusations of embezzlement leveled at Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom “are the MDP government’s last ditch efforts to resuscitate its waning public support and confidence in the face of its failure to manage the Maldivian economy.”

“The MDP government, in an year and a half of searching through its ‘presidential commission’, has failed to find anything that they can pin against President Gayoom to defame his character. The MDP government will continue to fail in their sinister plots,” the DRP statement read.

“This latest accusation is no different from that by MDP official Hassan Afeef in the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election. A defamation suit was filed against him. It is notable that Afeef has to date ignored the verdict of the court of the set compensation,” the statement noted, adding that “local MDP-controlled newsletter ‘Miadhu’ has also published an article repeating the many lies in Matthew Saltmarsh’s article.”

The party observed that the allegations in the NYT article were largely based on a 2009 report by Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem, who “was sacked recently following serious acts of corruption and misappropriation of state funds.”

“It is common knowledge that Naeem’s audit reports were both politically-motivated and riddled with inaccuracies. References from such documents are unbecoming of professional journalists, albeit the MDP government utilises them as handbooks to achieve their political objectives. Furthermore, the fact that Finance Minister Ali Hashim had himself provided the quotes for the article is notable,” the DRP statement said.

“The DRP will take all necessary action to alert the international community to the government’s sinister motives behind the allegations against the Former President. We condemn the government for its continued attempts to shroud its incompetence in running the country behind cheap propaganda gimmicks.”

Speaking to newspaper Haveeru, Gayoom dismissed claims in the audit report as “politically-motivated” and “lies from A to Z”, and vowed to “protect myself from defamation” by taking both Saltmarsh and Hashim to court.

“He [the former Auditor General] issued the reports during the 2008 presidential election with certain political motives,” Gayoom told Haveeru.

“The reports were directly targeted at me with an agenda to attack my dignity, just a day before voting began. Moreover, the reports are definitely questionable, since he was sacked by parliament through a no confidence motion,” Gayoom said, insisting he had “never abused state funds.”

Government could be seeking US assistance

Meanwhile, newspaper Miadhu carried unverified claims this morning that Hashim, along with Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab and Attorney General Husnu Suood, had rendezvoused in Europe to meet with FBI officials “at an unidentified location in the European continent.”

Hashim told Minivan News he had nothing to clarify as he had “never met FBI officials anywhere in the world.”

The Foreign Minister appeared to be in no hurry to dispel the rumours, however.

“Should that meeting have taken place, obviously we wouldn’t be talking about it,” Dr Shaheed said. “What I can say is that the government is serious about reclaiming stolen assets, and we’re very confident it will happen really quickly.”

He said he doubted Gayoom or the DRP had a viable case against the NYT.

“The DRP should consider the distinct international legalities governing past and present politicians, particularly heads of state. Mr Gayoom should recognise that people in such positions will face criticism.”

“I don’t think they are serious,” he said. “In defamation lawsuits the onus is on public figures to prove malicious intent or reckless disregard for the truth. One must have a lot of money to hire a hotshot lawyer capable of proving that against a particular article by the NYT.”

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PA proposes bill to protect Dhivehi language

A bill to protect Dhivehi, the Maldivian language, has been presented to  parliament by People’s Alliance (PA) MP Abdul Azeez Jamaal Abubakuru.

Jamaal said that the Dhivehi language was “why Maldivians remain as Maldivians” and the source of the country’s success.

”Dhivehi is one of the most valuable national relics that our forefathers have delivered to us,” Jamaal said. ”Without doubt it is our responsibility to deliver it to the next generation safely, like our forefathers did.”

Jamaal said if people were careless with their mother-tongue, there was a potential for words to be lost.

”I believe that allowing the Maldivian language to dissolve is like dissolving our nationality,” he said.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed thanked MP Jamaal for presenting the bill, but said he did not believe a bill was the only solution.

Nasheed said that linguistic experts of had noted that languages  form, change and decease naturally.

”A perfect research paper on this was produced by Dr Noam Chomsky,” he said. “All these things are mentioned very clearly in his book, ‘Language Death’. It mentions three stages a language goes through before it dissolves.”

Nasheed said that research conducted by UNESCO showed that there were 6800 languages used in the world.

”Our language is included in a list of languages in the report that are at risk of disappearing in 20 years.”

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Deputy Leader and MP Ali Waheed said that he supported the bill.

”It was not  for political gain that we criticised the disbanding of the National Centre for Arts and Culture,” Waheed said. ”We were just expressing concern.”

Waheed said that although the Maldives was just a small dot compared to many much larger countries, “we should be proud to have our own language.”

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MDP MP accuses parliamentarians of ”demolishing the constitution”

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza has claimed the constitution of the Maldives gives too many powers to parliamentarians, and accused them of ”demolishing” it.

MP Hamza said the constitution narrowed both  presidential power and the power of the judiciary in favour of parliament.

”The powers are split into three so one power can compel another to act with responsibility,” MP Hamza said, ”but today we are seeing something different – we see the parliamentarians trying to take over the presidential powers.”

MP Hamza said the constitution very clearly stated the responsibilities of each power.

”However, the parliamentarians are trying to narrow the presidential powers,” MP Hamza said, ”for instance, some parliamentarians are trying to take the power of proposing names and appointing people for independent commissions, which actually is a power of the president.”

He said that the power of appointing people for the government’s media and Civil Service Commission (CSC) was also sought by the parliament.

He condemned  a bill proposed to the parliament by Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed, which he claimed was trying to take over the power of appointing people for senior posts in the armed forces.

Deputy leader of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Umar Naseer said that what Hamza said was ”certainly true.”

”But he does not mean that DRP MPs, he was speaking about MDP MPs,” Umar said. ”There are such bills proposed by MDP MPs recently, but I can’t recall them immediately.”

Umar said that the presidential powers should be narrowed “because when a sword is given to a silly person, people should establish ways to manage it.”

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Bill to control thalassemia presented to parliament

A bill to control the recessive disease ‘thalasemia ‘ has been presented to the parliament.

The bill was presented to parliament by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Visaam Ali.

Thalassemia is a recessive blood disease that can cause anemia, and the Maldives has the highest incidence of it in the world with 18 percent of the population thought to be carriers.

As a result, a large number number of families suffer from the consequences of the disease

DRP MP Ahmed Nihan said there were two main purposes of the bill.

”One is that the Maldives, relative to its small population, has a large number of thalassemia patients,” Nihan said. ”The the current government has been careless with thalassemia patients, so we need a law for this.”

Nihan said that the increasing number of thalassmia patients in the Maldives was “a serious social issue, which should be prevented for the future of the country.”

”The disease was first discovered in 1921, and Maldivians became aware of it after Madam Nasreena [wife of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayum] formed the ‘Society for Health Education’ and conducted awareness programs,” Nihan explained.

For a long time people were unaware of the disease, he said.

”Many lives have been lost due to the disease through a lack of awareness,” Nihan said, ” and yet there was no laws about it.”

He said that all the DRP MPs supported the bill, and congratulated MP Visaam for his work.

”I would like to take this opportunity would like to thank the police, NGOs and individuals who work really hard for the thalassemia patients,” he said.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Eva Abdulla said the bill should be more broader and comprehensive rather than focusing solely on for thalassemia.

”As thalassemia is a blood disorder, the bill could be broadened by making it a bill for other blood disorders,” Eva said. ”There are many blood disorders that are very common in the Maldives.”

Eva noted that 38 percent of females of reproductive age were affected by anemia while 50 percent had child anemia.

”We want the bill to be a bill for other blood disorders,” Eva said. ”The treatment policy in the bill was just the same policy used previously – awareness programs and screening.”

Eva suggested that prenatal diagnosis would be more effective to prevent the disease.

”The third thing we highlighted was to establish a hematology (blood) centre instead of a thalassemia centre,” she said, adding that all the suggestions would be incorporated in the committee stage and discussed.

”We want the bill to be broader,” she said.

Correction: This article formerly stated that 38% of women suffered from anemia, when it should have read 38% of women of reproductive age. Several translation errors have also been corrected.

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VP agreed to bring in Gitmo detainees, claims Reeko Moosa

Maldivian Democratic Party MDP parliamentary group’s leader MP Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik has claimed that it was Vice president of the Maldives, Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan who agreed to resettle Guantanamo Bay detainees in the Maldives.

Moosa further claimed that the government of United States has agreed to assist the Maldives to reinstate the government’s money which was allegedly taken by the former government and stored in bank accounts abroad.

He criticised the way parliament’s national security committee was operating.

”The national security committee works in a different spirit,” Moosa said, ”DRP [Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party] MP Ali Waheed has declined to explain how he became the recipient of confidential documents stolen from the government.”

Moosa said that the case of DRP MP Ali Waheed being the recipient of the documents should also be investigated by police.

”The penalty for his crime should be given according to the law,” he said. ”MDP will also investigate this case.”

He added when parliament starts its session, the MDP parliamentary group will propose a bill to prevent assaults and gang wars in Male’.

Vice President of the Maldives Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan denied the claims made by MP Moosa Manik.

”I did not agree to resettle Guantanamo Bay detainees,” Dr Waheed said, ”But a [US official] I met during my visit to the States proposed the idea to me.”

Dr Waheed said that after he concluded his visit and returned to the Maldives, he had informed the Foreign Ministry of the issue.

”The Foreign Ministry did not respond to my request to give advice about how I would deal with the issue,” he said. ”I have no information on who agreed to bring in those detainees.’

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Education Minister and Deputy Trade Minister joins MDP

Minister of  Education Dr Mustafa Luthfy and Deputy Trade Minister Ahmed Inaz yesterday left the Gaumy Ihthihaadh Party (GIP) to join the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

Last week the MDP National Council announced it was tearing up its coalition agreement with GIP, and requested President Mohamed Nasheed remove all GIP ministers from public office. Economic Minister Mohamed Rasheed was sacked several weeks ago amid ongoing tension between the two parties.

Dr Luthfy, who was deputy leader of GIP, said  he joined MDP not because he had been influenced or under threat of losing his job, but because he felt that it was “the best way to continue serving the people.”

”I discussed it with GIP Leader Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik before taking the decision,” Dr Luthfy said. ”He said it was sad, but said to do as I wished.”

Dr Luthfy said he did not condone criticising the government while he was a member of it.

”I do not know whether GIP might join the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP),” Dr Luthfy said, ”but I noticed that during a recent GIP rally held at Giyasudeen School, a lot of DRP members attended.”

He said that there was no split between the government and GIP, and that the tensions were rather between the two parties.

”The President told me I could stay in the position as an a individual,” he said, ”but I preferred to join MDP of my own wish.”

He said that MDP had invited him to join the party on several different occasions.

Vice President of the Maldives Dr Waheed Hassan Manik, who is also a key figure in GIP, said the decision by Luthfy and Inaz was their own and he had nothing to say.

He said their decision would not affect GIP and that he was not sad about it.

”[Luthfy and Inaz] discussed it with me,” he said. ”I told them to do as they wished.”

MDP Spokesperson Ahmed Haleem said both the Education Minister and Deputy Trade Minister had been serving the party unofficially long ago, in different ways.

”Now have they returned to where they belong,” Haleem said. ”It will be a progress for them.”

He claimed that GIP was now “close to joining DRP”.

”In my political experience I can say that it is very likely to happen,” he suggested.

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