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State Finance Minister warns National Movement will “break up” parliament

Minister of State for Finance Abbas Adil Riza has accused Parliamentary Speaker Abdulla Shahid of “challenging” the Supreme Court after he tabled a no-confidence motion despite an injunction from the court.

Riza’s comments follow parliament’s announcement last week that a no-confidence motion against Defence Minster Colonel (Retired) Mohamed Nazim has been tabled despite a Supreme Court injunction ordering parliament to halt all pending no-confidence votes.

Speaking at the artificial beach on Monday (December 17) Riza, who is also a National Movement Steering Committee member, said that Shahid’s decision to “challenge” the Supreme Court was a “cowardly act”.

“Unless Shahid immediately ceases his efforts to violate the constitution while holding the post of Speaker of Parliament, the National Movement will ensure that this comes to a stop,” local media reported Riza as saying.

Furthermore, Riza warned that should the parliament try to violate the constitution, the National Movement will “break up” the parliament.

Last week, the People’s Majlis secretariat revealed that Defence Minister Nazim has been given the required 14-day notice and his ministry also duly informed by Speaker Abdulla Shahid.

Repsonding to Riza’s comments, Majlis Deputy Speaker and fellow PA MP Ahmed Nazim said that the Parliament has not challenged the Supreme Court’s injunction, noting that it has given the full 14 days notice to the court as per stated by the law.

“We believe there is still time for Supreme Court to lift the temporary injunction, and I believe they will not see this as the parliament challenging the court.

“After 14 days, the motion will be put up on the agenda for discussion by party leaders. If the injunction remains then there is a possibility for party leaders to challenge the court,” Nazim told Minivan News.

Article 101(a) of the constitution states, “At least fourteen days notice of the debate in the People’s Majlis concerning a motion under article (a) shall be given to the concerned member of the cabinet, and he shall have the right to defend himself in the sittings of the People’s Majlis, both orally and in writing.”

When asked if there was concern from parliament over Riza’s comments, Nazim revealed that the institution as a whole did not feel threatened, however there had been “concern” expressed by individual parliamentary members.

“The institution is protected by the constitution and we have protection from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), however at least one individual has told us he feels threatened and believes that security needs to be increased.

Abbas Adil Riza was not responding to calls at time of press.

On December 3, parliament voted 41-34 to approve amendments to the parliamentary rules of procedure to conduct no-confidence votes to impeach the President and remove cabinet members through secret ballot.

MPs of the government-aligned Jumhooree Party (JP) and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) joined the formerly ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to vote the amendment through.

The no-confidence motion against Defence Minister Nazim was submitted by the MDP earlier this month on the grounds that he misused his authority as acting Transport Minister by using the military to influence termination of commercial contracts.

No-confidence motion against Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed

Meanwhile, a no-confidence motion has again been submitted against Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel today (November 17).

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) submitted the same motion to parliament on a previous occasion, but withdrew it at the last minute after the voting was scheduled for parliament.

An MP told local media that this latest motion was submitted with 17 signatures including the signatures of MDP MPs, however this has yet to be officially confirmed.

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Fault in Laamu Kadhdhoo aiport’s only fire truck causes operations to halt

The only fire truck at Laamu Kadhdhoo airport failed to start this morning causing airport operations to come to a halt.

Due to a fault in the fire truck, Ahmed Ali, who is currently in charge of the airport, said it had not been possible for any aircraft to land at the airport since 9:30am.

Operations were also suspended yesterday due to the same problem.

“We only have one fire truck. The truck has failed to start, so operations have been suspended,” Ali told local media.

While efforts to repair the truck were underway, Ali said that some of the equipment required to repair the truck was not at the airport.

According to Ali, airport operations are to resume by 8:00pm tonight (December 17).

Aviation law prohibits airplanes from landing at an airport without the presence of an operational fire truck.

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“There was a legitimate contract signed. We are disappointed”: Malaysian Trade Minister

The Malaysian government has expressed “disappointment” at the scrapping of the Maldives’ “legitimate” contract with the GMR-Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad consortium.

Indian media reported that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was scheduled to visit New Delhi towards the end of the week and would likely be discussing the matter with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Malaysia’s Consul General in Chennai, Citra Devi Ramiyah, told reporters in Delhi that it was too early to speculate whether MAHB would seek compensation from the Maldivian government, which voided the GMR-MAHB concession agreement and ordered the company to leave by December 7.

The government had earlier dismissed a stay order for the eviction granted by the arbitrators – the Singapore High Court – as an affront to the country’s sovereignty. A day before the end of the seven day notice period, the injunction was dropped on appeal after Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of the Supreme Court of Singapore declared that “the Maldives government has the power to do what it wants, including expropriating the airport.”

Ramiyah told reporters that the Maldivian government had shown its intention “to do the project on its own and [was] willing to compensate financially. So, it is very early for us to comment.”

Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Seri Mustapa Mohamad was more concerned, according to the Economic Times, and expressed hope that the Maldives would reconsider its decision to evict the investors.

“In Male we have enjoyed very close ties with the previous government for many years. The Maldives is 100 per cent Muslim country. Of course, with the new government the lesson for us is we should be more careful, more due diligent,” Mohamad said.

“We want our investments to be protected. There was a legitimate contract signed. We are disappointed,” he added.

GMR meanwhile handed over the duty free stores today after being ordered to do so by the government.

“GMR has vacated the duty free shops at the airport. So since they’ve cleared their goods, no services will be provided from the shops,” Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Rahmathullah Ashraf told local media.

Andrew Harrison, CEO of GMR Male International Airport – GMR’s side of the voided airport development – dismissed claims in local media that the company had “stripped” the duty free store ahead of the handover.

“We were asked to close duty free by the 17th. It is not true we have stripped duty free. We have destocked and in some cases returned goods to suppliers, or found buyers through appropriate customs procedures,” Harrison said.

GMR had sought a smooth transition after being ordered to handover the airport “as we did not want passengers or carriers to suffer,” he said. “The only area left where we [were] active was duty free.”

GMR staff had begun returning to India, particularly those involved in the construction of the new terminal after the cancellation of the contracts to build it, he said.

The government has not yet declared what it intends to do with the foundations of the abandoned terminal project, built on 60 hectares of reclaimed land on the other side of the airport island.

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Sick Indian prisoners in the Maldives denied treatment: The Hindu

More than a year after India and the Maldives signed an agreement on transfer of convicted prisoners, as many as 14 Indian inmates in the archipelago are losing hope of being transferred to prisons in their country, reports Indian newspaper The Hindu.

“We have no problems. From our side, there is no delay. We welcome India taking back sentenced prisoners,” a Maldivian official told The Hindu last week, when asked about the delay in paperwork.

Just as in the case of 33 Indian prisoners in Sri Lanka, the Indians in Maldives prisons are also at the receiving end of Indian bureaucracy. But unlike in the case of Indian prisoners in Sri Lanka, most of the 14 prisoners in the Maldives are ill and have almost no access to treatment. Access to treatment for most islanders in the Maldives consumes time, energy and money. Vacancies for specialist-doctors exist even in the country’s main hospital, the Indian-built Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Male.

“I do not know what my disease is,” said a woman prisoner who has been jailed in the Central North province of Maafushi, in Kaafu Atoll. “After I have been brought to Maafushi, I have never met a doctor. Every month, they take me to Male and bring me back. Soon after that they take a signature of mine in a paper with something written in Dhivehi [the official language of the Maldives],” said the woman, in a letter to the Indian High Commissioner in the Maldives.

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Police launch investigation into sinking of Hivvaru boat

Police have launched an investigation into the sinking of ‘Hivvaru’ boat which was found about 10 days after it went missing.

Out of the ten crew members aboard the vessel, a 76-year-old Maldivian man and a Bangladeshi national both died after the boat capsized due to rough seas.

A police media official said that a marine police team is presently active in Addu City for the investigation, local media reported.

The Hivvaru boat was found by a Sri Lankan Fishing vessel, before the coast guard travelled to bring the survivors back to Addu City last Tuesday (December 11).

Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) told how the boat captain had said the Bangladeshi and Maldivian died while they were on-board a dinghy after Hivvaru began to sink, and that their bodies were disposed of into the sea, Sun Online reported.

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Maldivian former college dean found guilty of theft in Dublin, Ireland

A Maldivian man who worked as a college dean at the  American College in Dublin, Ireland has been fined €3,000 (MVR 60,676) for using his work credit card to pay for personal expenses.

36-year-old Ali Shimaz pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 11 counts of theft totalling €5,622 (MVR 113,707) from the American College on dates between June and September 2009.

The Independent reported that Shimaz had used the work credit card to pay for flights for himself, his wife and a woman he was having an affair with for over a period of several months.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring, who presided over the case, was reported as saying “the thefts were not sophisticated and there was a clear paper trail of emails and credit card statements showing what Shimaz was up to”.

Judge Ring said she did not think society would be best served by imprisoning him and instead imposed a €3,000 (MVR 60,676) fine on him.

The thefts came to light after Shimaz, who is originally from the Maldives but currently living in Dublin, resigned from his post of Dean at the American College, where he was responsible for the recruitment of foreign students.

The Independent reported that Shimaz had originally been a student at the college, eventually becoming an employee and rising to the position of Dean.

Within this role, Shimaz travelled across the world to conferences and fairs and had been issued with a college credit card exclusively for work use.

Suspicions were aroused in October 2009 when Shimaz failed to submit requested receipts, and a subsequent investigation into his email accounts showed flight confirmations for reservations not connected with college business.

In October 2009 Shimaz met with the vice-president of the college and another Dean before agreeing to resign and repay the money he had taken. However, the money was not paid until last month when he pleaded guilty to these offences.

James McCullough BL, defending, told how Shimaz had been educated to secondary level in the Maldives and then studied from 2000 to 2004 at American College.

The Independent reported that Shimaz has since repaid the money to American College, and that he has no previous convictions.

According to the paper, Shimaz’s defence attorney James McCullough said it took Shimaz a while to accept he was in breach of criminal law, “but he has now come to that realisation and was aware of the perilous situation he is now in.”

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Down and out in the Maldives: Business Standard

The Maldives offers a range of thrills — all you need is time to kill and dollars to burn, writes N Sundaresha Subramanian for the Business Standard.

But I have neither the time nor the dollars. So I go looking for ways to get to Kandooma. Most of my fellow passengers are honeymooning couples or Maldivians returning home with families. I am the odd one out, a realisation that makes me a little jittery.

I ask an elderly security guard. “Kandooma…err.” he searches the sea and says, “Sorry I don’t know.” No one else seems to either. Finally, hidden in the arrival area, I find a counter with the name of my resort on it. I run to the frail receptionist in orange shirt and khaki pants. “A boat is leaving in 10 minutes, sir, please take a seat.” Thank god. How far is Kandooma from here? “Forty-five minutes by speed boat.”

But I need to come back to the airport for the ceremony at night. What time does the boat leave from there? “There is a boat at 8 pm. But they will charge you.” “That’s ok,” I say feeling the five 20-dollar bills in my shirt pocket. I am a little worried as the only other passengers to Kandooma are an elderly white couple. As the boat arrives I am relieved to see some more men join the crew of three.

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President Waheed commences tour of Gaafu Alifu Atoll

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has commenced a series of visits to islands in Gaafu Alifu Atoll as part of a tour designed to try outline the key concerns and issues faced by local residents, according to the President’s Office website.

Addressing islanders in Dhevvadhoo, Nilandhoo, Gemanafushi and Kan’duhulhudhoo, President Waheed noted that many islanders in the atoll were still waiting on the provision of basic facilities.

Clean drinking water, efficient sewerage systems and developed harbours were among many of the requests made, the President’s Office website stated.

Whilst noting that these facilities are basic rights, Waheed told the inhabitants of Dhevvadhoo that the government was committed to accommodate these needs.

However, speaking in Kan’duhulhudhoo, Waheed admitted that a lot of the time was given to less important things.

Waheed also noted the importance at present for Maldivians to minimise internal conflicts, lessen political colours and instead raise the national flag above all voices.

Waheed’s visit to Gaafu Alifu Atoll comes after the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – including former President Mohamed Nasheed – recently completed their ‘Journey of Pledges’ to the northern Atolls of the country.

The MDP visited over 40 islands to hear the needs of people, and to find out how many of their pledges had been fulfilled both during Nasheed’s presidency and after his controversial transfer of power on February 7.

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Comment: Human Rights Day 2012 marks exclusion and imposition of government by force

As we look back on this week’s celebration of Human Rights Day 2012, it is important to recall what, beyond the pageantry and back-slapping, this day really stands for.

During the 30-year long dictatorship of President Gayoom, those of us who longed for a fair, just and democratic Maldives would mark Human Rights Day by wearing secretly-printed t-shirts to mark the occasion – printed in stealth, worn in stealth. We took this risk (open advocacy of human rights and political reform was liable to end with a jail-term) because Human Rights Day was, we believed, important – a moment to remember that the outside world stood steadfastly behind our hopes for a better future.

It is therefore difficult, in 2012, not to feel a sense of disappointment – even shame – at what Human Rights Day has become, at least for Maldivians.

Human Rights Day 2012 goes under the banner of “inclusion and the right to participate in public life”.

Over recent days we have heard the UN Resident Coordinator encourage people to play an active role in public life and to hold public servants accountable (no word, however, about securing accountability for the systematic human rights violations that have occurred since February). We have heard the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives warn us that enjoying human rights should not be taken as an excuse to break the law (an unusual message for a national human rights institution to focus on – but not entirely a surprise). We have heard the Commonwealth Secretary-General remind the government (more in hope than expectation) that those responsible for gross human rights violations following February’s coup – mainly police officers guilty of beatings and torture – must be held accountable.

And yet, these platitudes come against a background wherein, in 2012, the majority of Maldivians who voted in 2008/9 have been disenfranchised; wherein those of us who want a new election in order to reassert our fundamental right to choose our government are being routinely beaten, arrested and tortured, wherein members of parliament who have sought to protest against the death of our democracy are being hounded, threatened and chastised as infidels; wherein the presidential candidate of the Maldives’ largest party is being manoeuvred into prison by the ancient regime; wherein the man who stands accused of torturing many over his 30 years of dictatorship announces he is likely to be a presidential candidate, again, and wherein our corrupt and immoral judiciary is openly attacking parliamentary prerogative and the constitutional separation of powers in order to protect those guilty of sexual harassment, and to protect the government from democratic scrutiny.

How is it possible that the UN, the HRCM, and our friends in the international community can let this year’s Human Rights Day pass without any mention of the dismantling of our democratic rights; without any suggestion that in 2012 we have lost, for the foreseeable future, our right to participate in public life and to determine, freely, our government; and without any meaningful call for those who have had their rights violated in 2012 to receive justice and redress?

For those of us who weep for the lost promise of our young democracy; for those of us who flinch at every new injustice heaped upon us; for those of us who wish our former friends in the international community would stand-up for the rights and principles that they purport to uphold; Human Rights Day 2012 will be remembered as nothing more than an empty shell.

Not even worthy of a hidden t-shirt.

Eva Abdulla is an MP in the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

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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