minivan – Page 192 – Minivan News

Comment: Taking the political momentum forward

It did not receive as much media attention as the one by predecessor Mohamed Nasheed a fortnight earlier in the host nation, yet when President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik came calling at New Delhi he did make his points, loud and clear in corridors and quarters that mattered.

After a lull, the Indian media did wake up though not to the same extent. However, their Maldivian counterparts gave more and instant coverage for his than for President Nasheed’s visit. An indicator for this was the better media management for President Waheed than his team is credited with in comparison.

Coming as they did in quick succession, the two visits reflected the personalities and politics of the respective leaders, their relative strengths and weaknesses.

President Nasheed’s has been people-centric politics. It has often boiled down to cadre-centric protests. In New Delhi, he made one too many media appearances. His face and his charge of a mutiny that he said had forced him out of power were familiar themes in India. But his charge of collusion by Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Mulay as kind of a co-conspirator in the alleged coup was not. The issue, and not necessarily his accusations, thus caught the imagination.

There were not many takers, however. The more he repeated his allegations on TV cameras, the more he might have ended up losing. Reportedly, his feeble protestations to the contrary did not cut much ice, afterward.

President Waheed’s was not a storm-trooper’s entry into politics. Not many in the Maldives cared about his position as Vice-President under President Nasheed until he succeeded the latter on February 7. That too owed to the circumstances under which he became President. Under President Nasheed earlier, he seemed unsure about his role in the constitutional scheme. None bothered him with a clarification to his satisfaction. The situation only worsened after he had reportedly declined to resign as Vice-President when the rest of the Cabinet resigned en masse in mid-2010, purportedly over the ‘scorched earth policy’ being adopted by Parliament against the Executive.

As a member of the Nasheed Cabinet, Vice-President Waheed would want specific responsibilities assigned to him. President Nasheed’s camp, on the other hand, would argue that as per the American scheme that the Maldives had adopted in this respect, he was only the President-in-waiting, and eternally so. It was this camp however wanted Vice-President Waheed to quit when the rest of the Cabinet quit en masse, at the instance of President Nasheed in mid-2010. In this however, Vice-President Waheed did not see any shared responsibility, to quit.

Which position between the two ? that he should have been assigned specific ministerial/departmental responsibilities, or he was only the President-in-waiting, scored in the end, is still a debatable question for future arrangements of the kind. Thereby hangs a tale.

It would remain an unanswered query of contemporary Maldivian history if Vice-President Waheed’s resignation in 2010 would have upstaged the 2012 political crisis, or advanced it by as many months. On card in 2010 was the possibility of President Nasheed putting in his papers, handing over the reign to Parliament Speaker Abdullah Shahid. The latter would have been in office for only two months, time enough for ordering and supervising fresh presidential polls under the Constitution. The inability of President Nasheed to carry his deputy with him in 2010 meant that Parliament would not clear all his Cabinet nominees, when appointed, and the Supreme Court would endorse the views of Parliament in the matter, thus fuelling fresh crises, and reviving the existing ones too since his coming to power in November 2008. The rest, as they say, is history.

Questions would remain over what if the Cabinet had not resigned with President Nasheed, when he did on February 7, and decided to continue under President Waheed, instead. This generally would have been the case, barring a few possible replacements, in the ordinary scheme of the circumstances in which the Constitution-makers had construed presidential succession. Clearly, the Constitution-makers, most of whom are still active in politics and also parliamentarians to boot, had definitely not thought about the contingency of the kind that the nation witnessed in February. A solution that was aimed at addressing a constitutional impasse under a different set of circumstances applied to an entirely new set of events and developments. However, the succession itself could not be challenged as illegal or unconstitutional for this reason.

Between the two, and compared to any other politician in the country, President Nasheed is considered media-savvy. Yet, on his overseas trips, his team had failed to take his message to home audiences, concentrating mostly on viewers and opinion-makers in host-nations. In contrast, President Waheed’s office seemed to have established a good understanding of the local constituency of the Government coalition. An extension of this was a better understanding of the local media needs, and feeding them, too, from distant Delhi. It may be too early to assess the relative benefits to the respective camps in the Maldives, but having comparatively lesser media coverage in the host-nation seems to be better than more media, as the two leaders may have found out by now.

Going by media reports, while in India President Waheed told his hosts, starting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, about his Government’s willingness to modify the terms of reference and expand the composition of the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) into the ‘mutiny charge’ held out by President Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

With Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai having visited Male twice in three weeks in February-March for the purpose, any progress in the ‘Roadmap Talks’ that President Waheed had put in place would have to await the findings of the CNI, the Indian interlocutors were reportedly told further. Translated, it would mean that the MDP and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) cannot complain about inevitable delays in the CNI coming out with its report, originally scheduled for end-May.

From the beginning, the Waheed Government had linked the MDP’s demand for early presidential polls at the end of the year to the findings of the CNI, which again was on President Nasheed’s agenda since quitting office. His camp had also argued that under the Constitution, presidential polls can happen not prior to July 2013. They are otherwise due by November 2013, when alone President Nasheed’s five-year elected term would have ended. Any advancement of elections prior to July 2013 would require a constitutional amendment, which was not possible under the current political climate.

The Government team is also said to have impressed upon the Indian leadership the inadvisability of President Waheed Manik and his Vice-President Waheed Deen quitting simultaneously, to hand over power to Speaker Shahid. Rather than facilitating early polls, as the MDP would want, it could trigger more problems than solving any. Political instability and consequent troubles for and during early presidential polls could only be one of them, but the most critical one, too. Or, so was it argued, as the Waheed camp has been telling visiting international interlocutors of whatever hue and purpose.

With the Waheed Government offering to amend the NIC mandate in ways that would satisfy the MDP and the CMAG, and also offering to include mutually-acceptable nominees of President Nasheed on the probe team, a clearer situation could emerge only after the report becames available, hopefully around end-July. Whether the CNI would require more time would be known only after reconstituted probe revisits the work already done. On that would also hinge the Government’s position on the MDP’s demand for presidential polls before year-end. How the MDP would balance its two demands remains to be known. So would be the choice of the party’s nominees on the CNI, the Government not being comfortable with the aggressive politics of some already named but rejected with equal speed.

The CMAG has however clarified that the ‘qualifications’ like past political linkages and other credentials that the Government expects in the MDP nominees should be applicable to all members of the CNI. As is known some members of the CNI, all named by the Government, have been identified with some of the ruling parties, particularly the PPM. Simultaneously, however, there seems to have been some agreement on accepting the All-Party Talks convenor Ahmed Mujthaba as the new chair of the CNI as the incumbent would be away on Haj pilgrimage. The Government has also conceded the CMAG demand for expanding the CNI to give it a non-partisan appeal, by including in it an expert from Singapore.

Doubts however remain in Government circles as to the political outcome of the exercise. On the one hand, the CMAG is seen as reflecting the sentiments andemands of the Nasheed camp. Yet, there is no guarantee that whatever was acceptable to the CMAG as the findings of the CNI would be readily acceptable to the other camp, too. More importantly and immediately, there are doubts about the possibility of the CNI process being derailed owing to internal differences that could be expected at every turn, given the politicised composition of the probe team. How this would reflect in the working of the Roadmap Talks also remain to be seen. However, there are no short-cuts to give the CNI a non-partisan outlook. Whatever charges that the Government parties could level against the MDP, the latter could and would return in a greater measure ? given in particular that the Nasheed leadership is seen as the aggrieved party in the whole episode.

In between, major partners in the Waheed Government are also saddled with internal problems of their own. Among them is former President MaummonGayoom’s second-find in the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), floated after he had split the Dhivehi Rayyathunge Party (DRP) that he had founded under the new Constitution. That came with the introduction of multi-party, multi-candidate presidential polls of 2008. As incumbent, President Gayoom lost it in the second, run-off round, after leading substantially in the first. Today, with his walking away from the DRP to found the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), the latter is yet to hold organisational elections, to satisfy the rules under the Election Commission.

It is easier said than done, as there are at least three identifiable groups vying for the top slot. In the present-day context, he who is elected party chief could also aspire to become the PPM’s nominee for presidential polls ? for which separate primaries would however have to be held, under the party’s rules. Indications are that at least one or the other of the groups would stay away from presidential poll campaign if their leader is not named the PPM candidate. This inherent and initial weakening of the PPM’s electoral position can become a problem if the presidential polls move on to the second, run-off round, as is being anticipated.

The alternative could be to find a fourth candidate acceptable to the existing three, including President Gayoom, to varying degrees. President Waheed could fit the bill. If the hunt is for an ‘outside candidate’ acceptable to the PPM factions and supported by other partners in the Waheed Government, the net could widen in good time. If allowed to fester, this by itself could contribute to avoidable speculation, and consequent political instability. Given the inevitable circumstances of coalition politics in the country since the inception of the Third Republican Constitution of 2008, speculation of the nature could cause more problems not only for the present Government but also for a post-poll political leadership in the country.

Today, the MDP too is riven with dissensions. The Nasheed camp, dominating the national council, voted out elected party president Ibrahim Didi and his deputy Alhan Fahmy last fortnight. Didi contested his ouster in the Election Commission, which in its order indicated that it would not intervene in the matter, thus favouring the status quo on the ground. He has since declared his intention to move the Supreme Court. This could have consequences, both for and by the party. Anyway, the party split is complete. Given its long drawn-out open battles with the higher judiciary in the country, the Nasheed camp in particular cannot be expected to accept any court order not favouring its position. Otherwise, it could jeopardise the Nasheed camp’s political progression in the interim if the order were to go against it, and if they are called upon to create a new identity and popularise a new symbol, flag, etc.

A conclusive split in the MDP could mean that either of the factions would have to float a new party and conduct organisational elections in time for contesting the presidential polls. It could be a tall order for a new party. For the Nasheed camp, if it were at the receiving end, it could mean that organisational elections would have to take precedence over the current phase of party primaries, where President Nasheed is still the sole candidate. He is expected to win much more than the mandatory 10 per cent vote in a single-candidate primary, but the process will still have to be gone through.

For now, however, the Election Commission’s ruling may have helped revive the All-Party Roadmap talks, initiated at the instance of the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary RanjanMathai in March. Apart from other hiccups in its working, mostly based on reservations expressed by the MDP at the time, the last meeting on May 5 had to be abandoned after some non-MDP parties cited the party-split as reason enough for delaying the political negotiations until after a clearer picture emerged on that front. The talks are now scheduled for Monday, May 21, but how any order of the Supreme Court, or an interim order, could impact on the course will be known as and when the Didi camp moves the higher judiciary in this respect.

How, or how not to balance the internal exigencies of Government parties like the PPM and the forceful demands of the MDP, where Nasheed’s non-officious leadership has come under a cloud, are other factors that need to be counted in while debating any advancing of the presidential polls. On the one hand, parties would have to push through their organisational commitments under the law in time for the presidential polls, even if held only when it is otherwise due. On the other, they too would have to provide for exigencies, should the CNI finding cause a situation where the advancement of the poll became as much mandatory as politically inevitable.

The current political imbroglio has also triggered a national discourse of sorts on the role of multi-lateral agencies and organisations. The CMAG has been a hate-object for most parties in Government. In New Delhi, President Waheed clarified that he did not share the opinion of some of the Government parties that Maldives should quit the Commonwealth after the CMAG had repeatedly come down heavily on the Waheed Government on CNI-related issues, and the earlier pronouncements relating to the resignation of President Nasheed. However, Government party members who had moved a resolution for Maldives to quit the Commonwealth, remain unmoved. By keeping their resolution alive, whether they have linked it to future pronouncements of the CMAG too remains to be seen.

The writer is a Senior Research 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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Inquiry commission conditions apply to all commission members: Commonwealth

The Commonwealth has clarified that criteria for members of the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) are expected to extend to all members, under the government’s commitment signed last week.

The CNI was set up by incoming President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to investigate the controversial circumstances that brought him to power on February 7.

Dr Waheed appointed the three member panel: Dr Ibrahim Yasir, Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef and Chair Ismail Shafeeu, Defence Minister under former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – and subsequently the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) – challenged the independence of the commission and set a deadline for its composition to be adjusted.

Last week, a day before CMAG’s deadline, the government agreed to allow a retired Singaporean judge to co-chair the CNI, and also permit former President Mohamed Nasheed to appoint a representative to the commission.

Following the signing of that commitment – and the departure of Commonwealth Special Envoy Sir Donald McKinnon – the government gave a press conference during which Attorney General Azima Shukoor outlined the conditions for Nasheed’s appointee: they must not have served in a political position in the past two years, must not have taken a public stand on the transfer of power, and must “be of good behavior and integrity”.

If an acceptable appointee was not nominated before the June 1 deadline, the government stated that it would appoint a lawyer to represent Nasheed on the panel.

Following the government’s rejection of nine nominees, the MDP challenged these conditions as highly subjective: “They are [essentially] saying Dr Waheed will appoint President Nasheed’s representative,” said former Youth and Human Resources Minister, Hassan Latheef.

Spokesperson for the Commonwealth Secretariat, Richard Uku, told Minivan News that the criteria for membership of the CNI, as reflected in the commitment given to the Commonwealth Special Envoy, “are intended to apply to all Commission members, including existing ones as well as the nominee of former President Nasheed.”

“The Commission is intended to consist of persons who have not taken a public stand on the events of 7 February 2012 or who may be expected to testify to the Commission. The criteria are designed with this in mind,” he said.

“The Maldives Government has made a written commitment, witnessed by the Commonwealth Special Envoy Sir Don McKinnon, to keep one place vacant for a suitable nominee from former President Nasheed on the Commission of National Inquiry. It is the Special Envoy’s hope that such a nominee can be in place no later than 1 June 2012, so that the reconstituted Commission can commence its work,” Uku added.

MDP Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said it was likely that the Commonwealth would again have to mediate: “The government have defined ‘suitable’ in a manner conducive to them – in that case it might as well be Azima Shukoor. I think in the end it will be up to CMAG or the Special Envoy to define what they mean by this. That’s the impression I am getting at the moment,” he said.

The ‘Thinvana Adu’ campaign of NGOs has issued a statement in support of changes to the CNI, saying that it would “pave the way towards addressing the current political crisis”, and that any commitment to dialogue and working with international organisations by political actors “is a positive sign.”

Thinvana Adu spokesperson Aiman Rasheed said the NGO coalition was not able to comment officially on the conditions as they had not seen the Commonwealth’s agreement with the government and the MDP – “however any conditions should be agreeable to both parties,” he suggested. “Our stand is that the MDP should be represented on the commission, and that any people on the committee are acceptable to all parties. That is not the case with the current composition.”

Meanwhile, despite agreeing to change the CNI’s composition, the government has continued to maintain that the Commonwealth is being manipulated by opposition politicians, with President Waheed alleging to diplomats in Delhi last week that the Commonwealth was “intimidating” and “punishing” the government. He also challenged CMAG’s remit in placing the Maldives on its formal agenda.

“We are aware of the Maldives Government’s concerns as to CMAG’s scrutiny of the Maldives situation and have responded to them,” Uku told Minivan News.

“CMAG is specifically mandated by Commonwealth leaders to promote adherence to Commonwealth fundamental political values and to address situations where those values are seriously called into question. Given the situation where an elected Head of Government claimed that he was forced to resign, the nine Foreign Ministers who comprise CMAG felt obliged to be seized of the situation.”

Gayoom’s political party, the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), have meanwhile also demanded a representative on the CNI.

“President Nasheed has made the false allegation that our party’s interim president is behind the coup, and if a seat is reserved for Nasheed’s representative, then we must have representation on the council as well,” said PPM Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, addressing media last week.

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Comment: He is not my President

There are few individuals who have lost as much goodwill and respect of democrats in as little time as Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik.

Among them was his own brother Naushad Waheed Hassan, the former Deputy High Commissioner of the Maldives to the UK, who handed in his resignation letter following the February 7 coup d’état. In a statement, he said “…it is with a heavy heart that I have to say that this is indeed an illegitimate government and I cannot be party to it”.

Maldives Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, resigned live on air on Al Jazeera, citing “moral and ethical concerns” surrounding the transfer of power. Dr Farahanaz Faizal, the Maldivian High Commissioner to the UK, also tendered her resignation, saying: “They robbed the people of the vote and when I saw the brutality of the police… that was the final straw”.

Over 100 days later, tens of thousands continue to march in protest and express contempt for the man who undid the country’s first democracy.

Coercion

It is hardly a matter of debate that what transpired on February 7-8, 2012 was a coup d’état.

Indeed, the then Vice President Mohamed Waheed himself claims to have been watching the events unfold on national television as the country descended into chaos.

TV stations were played harrowing videos of police senselessly beating MDP leaders and supporters unconscious on the streets. We saw dramatic footage of police and military personnel, led by Dr Waheed’s brother, storming into and taking over the headquarters of the state broadcaster, as well as ransacking and destroying the MDP party campus.

Online videos show a former military colonel Mohamed Nazim (later appointed Defence Minister), demanding an ‘unconditional resignation’ from the first democratically elected President in the nation’s history.

An amateur video clip showed the alleged coup leaders holed up in the police headquarters along with a former policeman Abdulla Riyaz (who has since been appointed Commissioner of Police) and current Deputy Commissioner Hussain Waheed (who had earlier denied his presence at the scene), showed them hugging and celebrating. Gasim Ibrahim, the businessman leader of Jumhooree Party, was seen remarking that he was relieved it was over “without involving a military takeover”.

PPM Vice President Umar Naseer – a man renowned for speaking exactly more words than necessary – has publicly revealed the existence of a ‘command centre’ and openly boasted at a party gathering that the President’s life was on the line had he not resigned.

Indeed, Australian television SBS Dateline has aired devastating audio clips of an agitated President Nasheed pleading for the safety of his family in return for his resignation. In yet another leaked audio clip, Waheed’s own advisor, DQP leader Dr Hassan Saeed – has termed it a “unique coup”.

The brazen violence against MDP leaders by the regime forces, the arrest warrants issued against Nasheed less than a day of his ouster, and the subsequently leaked audio and video clips leaves no room for doubt that the first democratically elected President of the Maldives was made to resign under duress – in other words, an unambiguous, clear-cut case of a coup d’état.

There is simply no intellectually honest argument that can be made against this.

What remains to be seen is whether the perpetrators of the coup will face justice for their treason, and whether Maldivians will ever get to learn the finer details of the plot that overthrew their first democratically elected government – of how it was conceived, financed and executed.

Uncovering the facts

Whereas governments like India have spectacularly miscalculated their response to the coup d’état, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) and EU have been more forthright about their demands from the newly installed regime – early elections, and an independent inquiry.

In what is essentially Napolean hiring a council of pigs to investigate the affairs at the Farm, Waheed put together a three-member ‘independent’ inquiry commission, two of whom served as Cabinet ministers in Gayoom’s former regime, to “investigate” the coup d’etat.

The Commission for National Inquiry (CNI) came under heavy fire from CMAG, which gave the government four weeks to reconstitute the panel to include international experts and a representative acceptable to the MDP, or face the consequences.

A lot of tantrums were thrown in retaliation, with prominent figures allied with the regime ridiculing the Commonwealth body, going so far as to accuse them of accepting bribes. One MP even introduced a bill in Parliament to withdraw from the Commonwealth.

Another MP, Riyaz Rasheed, offered his enlightened opinion that the UK was not, in fact, a democracy, and proceeded to mock the British Queen as “physically challenged” in a bizarre diatribe that would have earned most people a long vacation in a padded room.

Despite the alternating complaints and swagger, the regime finally relented with just a day left on the deadline and agreed to have a Commonwealth approved co-chair on the Inquiry Commission, and also gave an assurance to CMAG that a member nominated by President Nasheed would be appointed.

However, no sooner did the Commonwealth Special Envoy Sir Don McKinnon board his flight than the regime’s obstructive tactics were back in full force.

The regime rejected all nine names proposed by President Nasheed. Instead, Waheed’s Attorney General Azima Shukoor laid out the “conditions” that needed to be met by the nominees, including the demand that they should not have served in a political position in the past two years, and must not have taken a public position on a matter that has been at the centre and forefront of the national debate for over a 100 days.

And if Nasheed doesn’t find such a candidate in less than two weeks, the regime vows to unilaterally appoint a lawyer to fill the spot.

Rewinding the clock

With the delaying tactics in place, the regime has embarked on a series of steps to try and legitimise the power grab.

The government has already hired London-based PR firm Ruder Finn – for an assignment allegedly worth about US$300,000 – to rebuild their image in major Western countries.

Former Attorney General Dr Hassan Saeed, once employed by Gayoom as the ‘reformist’ mask on the his brutal dictatorship, seems destined to forever keep applying lipstick to hideous pigs.

As Waheed’s ‘advisor’, he has been penning a series of articles in the local media, talking about ideals of democracy and state building – a rather weak and laboured point, coming from someone who continues to play lackey to an unrepentant, brutal dictator who has never faced justice for his three decade-long crimes.

The State TV channel, forcibly renamed ‘TVM’ by the vandals on February 7, continues to be known by its Gayoom-era moniker. Gayoom’s children and close associates have all found high ranking positions in the newly formed regime, which Waheed insists is a “continuation” of the former government.

Every major MDP policy – from decentralisation to regional development – has been either reversed or suspended. Boards have been reconstituted, organizations have been abolished, and even the ministries have been reshuffled to closely resemble their Gayoom-era counterparts.

Meanwhile, in another throwback to the despotic Gayoom era, the Waheed regime has engaged in systematically dismantling all avenues of dissent against his government using a heavy handed campaign of intimidation.

Following President Nasheed’s first public appearance following on the coup d’état on February 8, a massive spontaneous protest was crushed with unprecedented police brutality that drew condemnation from international Human Rights organizations like Amnesty International, as well as the local Police Integrity Commission. The regime-appointed Police Commissioner has announced that he will not investigate the mindless violence perpetrated by the police of those days.

After weeks of demonstrations calling for early elections showed no signs of abating, the regime sent in a cavalcade of military and police vehicles to forcibly evacuate and dismantle the protest site, while also rather conveniently recovering boxes of illegal alcohol once the media was out of sight.

In recent days, the regime has indicated its intention to yet again take over the protesters’ new camp, and also usurp the land from the MDP controlled Male’ City Council.

While he has stalled and delayed elections in any way he could, Waheed has been agile and and moved fast to reward the police service with a record number of promotions and has generously increased their headcount by a further 200 staff. He has also paid out generous lump sum awards for years of “pending” allowances to the military forces, in a move that couldn’t hurt his popularity among the uniformed forces.

Waheed has also appeared to be shoring up his Islamist support, sharing a podium with far right Islamist politicians and businessmen, rallying the ‘mujahideen’ behind him in a fiery jihadi speech delivered on February 24.

Waheed’s strategy of using tried and tested Gayoom formula of employing twin pillars of religious paranoia and military force to prop up the regime is increasingly evident.

It is starkly clear that the present regime threatens to rewind the clock back by a decade, undo every progress the country has made since the democratic struggle began long years ago, and return the country back to the hands of the same tyrant whose clutches we had barely escaped.

Every day that an election is delayed is yet another day that the old monster of despotism spreads its tentacles wider.

If the international community fails to make a firm stand to resuscitate the Maldives’ rapidly failing democracy, and ensure justice for the victims, then it will turn out to be an even bigger body blow to Maldivian democrats’ diminishing hopes than Waheed’s betrayal ever was.

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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MNDF marks Children’s Day

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) conducted equipment demonstrations and allowed children to handle firearms during an event on Saturday to mark Children’s Day.

MNDF Spokesperson Major Abdul Raheem said the National Library requested the MNDF set up a stall as part of the day’s events, “so we demonstrated our equipment, and people took photos with it.”

Some of those photos – of toddlers handling heavy machine guns and staring down the barrels of pistols – were met with concern by Maldivians on social media channels, who described the images as “just not right”, and “sick and wrong”. One Maldivian twitter user questioned whether the event was part of the new government’s civic education syllabus.

In response to concerns, Major Abdul Raheem emphasised that the event was “very safe”.

“When we took the weapons outside we did not take any ammunition,” he explained. “The weapons were technically disabled.”

There was no possibility of even an unloaded weapon falling into the hands of a member of the public, he said.

Mariya Ali, former Deputy Minister of Health and Family with a 20 year background in child welfare in the Maldives, questioned the objective of the exercise.

“These children have witnessed violence from the [police and army], and now they are being exposed to the tools of violence. If it is not explained correctly, it can have a longstanding effect on them,” she said. “It is not appropriate for children under the age of eight to be exposed to this.”

Mariya said research into how children perceived authority figures such as the police showed that “Children see them as protectors – in their minds they separate the act of protecting – violence – from the protective side.”

“It would have been better to focus on the protective side, rather than the guns – things like fire safety, and cleaning up after accidents,” she suggested. “Children look up to them, they are important role models.”

UNICEF Resident Representative to the Maldives Zeba Tanvir Bukhari said the organisation was “quite taken aback” and said she hoped the MNDF would consult it when organising future events.

“It’s really very worrying. Children are very fragile at that age – the focus needs to be on care, affection, education and health. There is a huge risk of influencing children,” she said.

Images courtesy Jaawid Naseem/Jade Photography. Republished with permission.

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STO, BML and MTDC fined over financial statements

The Capital Market Development Authority (CMDA) has fined three public companies including the Bank of Maldives (BML), State Trading Organisation (STO) and the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation up to Rf120,000 (US$7782) for failing to publish quarterly reports and financial statements.

According to the CMDA, companies – including BML, STO and MTDC – listed under under the Securities (Continuing Disclosure Obligations of Issuers) Regulations must produce a quarterly report after every three months, within the following 30 days.

However, CMDA noted that both STO and MTDC had failed to produce first quarterly report for 2012 within the given 30 day period and therefore each company was fined upto Rf30,000 (US$2000).

Meanwhile, MTDC and the BML were each fined up to Rf30,000 for failing to publish annual financial statements as stipulated under the regulations. The statistics must be published within four months after the end of a financial year.

The companies had requested for deadline extension citing difficulties in producing the report within the given time frame, CMDA said. However the extension was not granted as the reasons provided were not acceptable, the authority claimed.

All the companies have been instructed to publish the reports by May 15.

BML was fined up to Rf10,000 (US$648) in January, after the bank failed to publish the quarterly report for the last three months of 2011 before the requested due date.

The bank said at the time that the report was delayed due to a pending audit.

“The fourth quarterly report requires more work as it must be published with annual figures that must be audited prior to publication,” BML said.

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Government to consult tourism industry on potential T-GST increase

The government will hold a consultation with the tourism industry this week to test its appetite for an increase in the Tourism-GST (TGST), Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb has said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Maldives to increase the T-GST from six percent to 12 percent, among several measures the organisation says are urgently needed to offset the Maldives’ spiraling budget deficit, and avoid miring the country in poverty.

Parliament’s Finance Committee last week calculated that the budget deficit would reach 27 percent of GDP, on the back of plunging revenues and a 24 percent increase in government expenditure.

Adheeb told Minivan News that the government would present the IMF’s report to the industry, and discuss how to proceed: “We have to be realistic,” he said.

“The IMF has recommended an increase to 12 percent – we need to discuss what kind of increase the industry would like to see over the next five years,” he said.

Adheeb emphasised the need for stability rather than sporadic increases in the tax, cautioning against a sudden change in the T-GST which would affect those tour operators who make pricing agreements and publish brochures up to a year in advance.

However, Secretary General of the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI), Mohamed Ibrahim ‘Sim’, warned that the tourism industry was already under pressure from a decline in traditional markets.

“Is there an appetite [to increase the TGST]? No, not really. The European economy is not doing well and we would like the costs to remain the same – GST is something we have to pass to the customer. We need to maintain it, at least for the moment,” Ibrahim said.

One resort manager told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that such an increase would have “serious ramifications on many of the markets.”

“Some operators will not accept the increase mid-contract and hence resorts will have to absorb this from revenue,” he explained. “The additional costs will need to be balanced somewhere in the operation and you will find resorts have to [reduce] some of the nice touches for guests, [cut] staffing levels etcetera in order to deal with these ever growing expenses.”

The manager expressed exasperation that resorts were being asked to shoulder the burden without a parallel commitment from the government to reduce expenditure.

“We have seen an increase in some public services salaries and a reduction on working hours in many government departments who are meant to serve the resorts. Many of these government departments make it difficult for the resorts to do their jobs, with bureaucracy and rules to keep extra people in a job rather than making it easier to support the resorts in order to do their job: build more business, increase revenue and hence increase GST [revenue] in a positive manner. An increase in GST right now is the wrong solution.”

The government “needs to take a more supportive approach to the resorts”, he suggested, “whether it be processing visas, expediting customs waits or speeding up the immigration process for guest at the airport. A serious revision of the various government departments is required.”

According to figures from the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), the T-GST brought in 32.4 percent of all government revenue in April.

Total revenue collected in April was Rf2.5 billion (US$162.1 million) – almost double that collected in April last year – however MIRA’s figures do not take into account the substantial revenues lost from the phasing out of import duties, previously the Maldives’ main source of tax revenue.

Former government to blame?

Adheeb blamed the need for the increase on the former government’s changes to the calculation of land lease rents, which he claimed were responsible for an Rf540 million (US$35 million) shortfall overall after the new taxes were introduced.

MATI’s Ibrahim however contended that the changes to the fixed rents were offset by the new taxes: “Our calculation at the time these taxes were introduced were that overall it balances out, but that some resorts pay more.”

Recent changes introduced by the new government to the payment of lease extensions – from a lump sum to an annual basis – have also pulled US$135 million in revenue from the 2012 budget, the ousted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) contends.

Economic indicators published by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) meanwhile show a fall in the number of tourist arrivals for March 2012 compared to the previous year, from 80,732 to 76,469. The number of bed nights fell 6.8 percent for the same period, one of only a few recorded declines since the 2004 tsunami. February – a month of high political turmoil and widespread negative international media coverage – recorded a 2.5 percent decline.

An increase in prices would affect established markets already under strain, Ibrahim reiterated.

“It’s hard to say if emerging markets would be put off – China, Russia and the Middle East – maybe not. But [price increases] are affecting the established market. The market situation is not looking good at the moment.”

A survey of nearly 3000 tourists last year reported that 46 percent believed accommodation in the Maldives was too expensive. Soft drinks, alcohol were rated as expensive by 42 percent, while food, water and souvenirs received a similar rating from 41 percent of tourists polled.

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Amnesty, NGOs concerned about Maldives PR “whitewash”: Independent

An international lobbying firm, based in London, has accepted a commission to boost the reputation of the regime that toppled the first democratically elected President of the Maldives, writes Oliver Wright for the UK’s Independent newspaper.

“Ruder Finn has been condemned for taking the contract – thought to be worth £300,000 – to boost the image of the Maldives in the UK and America.

Mohamed Nasheed, the elected former leader, was made to quit in a military and police coup in February. He was replaced by Mohammed Waheed Hassan – who, it is claimed, is backed by the ex-dictator who ran the Maldives for 30 years.

In the weeks since the change of power, Amnesty International has denounced violence by the security forces against peaceful protesters. In March at least six protesters were injured, some seriously, when police and military officers attacked around 300 MDP protesters in the capital, Malé. Amnesty said this was part of a wider pattern of attacks on supporters of the former President Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party.

In a pitch, won by Ruder Finn, the new Government said it was looking for a firm to provide both lobbying and public relations expertise. The new regime said it wanted to “renew the Maldives image in major countries” and create “an alliance of support for the Maldives.” It wanted to “seed” positive stories about the islands in the media.

It expected the company to “arrange briefings to build links at various levels with the UK, US and major European governments.”

It would also be expected to “leverage outcomes from relationships with governments, academics and NGOs”.

Abbas Faiz, South Asian researcher for Amnesty International, said it had significant concerns about the contract.

“If a government hires any firm to whitewash human rights violations with impunity we would be very concerned. I was in the Maldives in March and the level of atrocity that we witnessed was entirely different from what we were being told by the Government.

“We will be watching the activities of Ruder Finn… if we have concerns about their role we will be raising them.”

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Mulay failed to pass information on coup to Indian government: Open Magazine

Senior figures of former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government have accused Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar M Mulay of failing to pass critical information to the Indian government on February 7, as mutinying police and army officers joined opposition demonstrators to overthrow Nasheed’s presidency.

The allegations were published in India’s weekly current affairs and features magazine, Open, following Nasheed’s recent visit to India.

Former National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal told the magazine that he was “surprised” that Mulay was in the company of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, during the upheaval, and made no attempt to contact the elected government.

“I believe that proper information was not passed on to Indian authorities,” Faisal alleged, to Open.

“I was surprised that instead of contacting us, the government [of the Maldives], Mulay was having a discussion with opposition party leaders like Yameen in the Indian High Commission, when the coup was happening. In a situation like this, why call the opposition and not establish contact with the government? Before this happened, I never suspected [any conspiracy]. We were very close,” he said.

“I maintained a close relationship with Mulay. I called him three or four times while the coup was underway. I could not contact President Nasheed. At that point, he was inside the army headquarters and his phone was jammed. I spoke to Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem, instead, for his advice on seeking Indian intervention to control the situation. He told me that President Nasheed did not want any military intervention as it was an ‘internal matter’,” Faisal recalled.

“Later, Naseem called me to request some assistance from India. As the national security advisor, I called up Mulay and sought Indian assistance… He asked me to ask the foreign minister to send a note. I told Mulay that this was no time to be sending notes or love letters.”

Mulay, Faisal contended, “could see what was happening from his window. The whole coup was being telecast live. As a diplomat, he should’ve known that the whole country was in chaos.”

Faisal further claimed that Mulay had earlier informed him that the Indian Navy vessel INS Suvarna was in Maldivian waters three days before the events of February 7, and departed that morning. Open independently confirmed the presence of the vessel in Maldivian waters on that date.

“If the Indian Naval ship was just an hour away, it was in our territorial waters, why was the [Maldives] government not informed of it? What was the Indian naval ship doing there?” Faisal alleged.

Open observed that former President Nasheed appeared careful not to go on record with any allegations himself – and instead deferred to Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) interim Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, “to speak on my behalf”.

“[Mulay] became so powerful that he started behaving like the prime minister and not a high commissioner. In early 2011, we felt that Mulay was drifting away from the MDP. He wanted to meet leaders of opposition parties. He wanted to be invited to all official functions that took place in Maldives. He was invited to many government functions, but not all. We found that a lot of companies were coming [to the country] for business through Mulay. We were floating tenders for big projects. He would act like a middleman,” Manik alleged to Open.

“Mulay would visit various [Maldivian] islands with his Indian friends, many of them businessmen. The government did not know who they were. Mulay has good connections with opposition parties, particularly Gayoom’s party,” he further claimed.

Manik also alleged that Yameen was present in Mulay’s office on the morning of February 7, while outside, a group of opposition supporters had joined police in an all-out assault on the country’s main military base in Republic Square. A second group broke down the gates of the state broadcaster, and took over the station. President Nasheed subsequently resigned, later alleging this was under duress.

“How many times did Mulay try to talk to somebody in the Government of India when all this was going on? How many times did Mulay call the Indian Government to ask them to intervene? There are 30,000 Indians living here and Indian business interests are at stake. He should have informed the Indian authorities. There is something fishy about Mulay’s response,” Manik told Open.

Open sought response from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, which did not address the allegations, but instead expressed “full confidence” in Mulay.

“The alleged references to the High Commissioner’s conduct in some media interactions by former President Nasheed were raised during his discussions with Indian officials,” noted MEA Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

“Former President [Nasheed] had clarified that he had not said the things attributed to him in the media. He said that he had known the High Commissioner for three years. The High Commissioner was a poet and he liked him. There were never any issues with the High Commissioner and he would clarify this to the media appropriately,” Akbaruddin claimed.

“We do not think it is appropriate to bring our High Commissioner into the discourse. He enjoys our full confidence.”

Speaking to Minivan News, Mulay declined to comment on the specific allegations, “as my government has already responded”, but described them as “completely baseless, a flight of fancy.”

Yameen confirmed to Minivan News that he had met with Mulay on the morning of February 7.

“It was Mulay who SMSed me and asked me to come and discuss the national crisis,” he said. “Mulay asked me to get a checklist of demands [from the protesters] and try to see if there could be a three-day respite.”

Asked why he believed Mulay had contacted him, Yameen said he believed it was “because PPM was the largest opposition party [at the time].”

Additional allegations made by Manik and published in Open, that Yameen had “ transferred several thousand US dollars from Colombo to some army and police officials by way of travellers’ cheques”. However Yameen dismissed the allegations as “absolute gibberish.”

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Comment: Weathering the storm – the Commonwealth and Maldives

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) is in the eye of a storm in Maldives. In its last meeting on 16 April it warned that it will consider “stronger measures” if the terms and reference and composition of the Maldivian National Commission of Inquiry is not “amended within four weeks in a manner that is generally acceptable and enhances its credibility”.

“Stronger measures” is probably a hint at suspension from the Commonwealth. Over two weeks have passed since that decision, now in Maldives there is talk about withdrawing the country’s membership from the Commonwealth.

How did all this come about? In the past few months, events in the Maldives have caught headlines and raised eyebrows across the world. These months saw the country’s democratic transition plagued by serious uncertainty. The most sensational part of this turn of events is mystery around the exit of former President Mohamed Nasheed.

The National Commission of Inquiry (NCI) was set up by the government to look into what transpired on the fateful day of 7 February 2012 when Vice President Mohamed Waheed Hussain took over following Mr Nasheed’s resignation – which the latter subsequently claimed was forced at gun point. The immediate backdrop for this is the military’s arrest the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court on 16 January 2012 under Mr Nasheed’s orders – a move that attracted international condemnation and regular protests in Maldives.

Mr Nasheed claimed that the judge who was under investigation by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) represents a judiciary that is dysfunctional – while protests continued to rage and reports of a possible police mutiny began to emerge as 7 February unfolded.

Storm clouds have gathered over Maldives for long and the recent series of events are a culmination of what has been brewing for a while. Following a drawn out pro-democracy struggle in the Maldives led by Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the 2008 Presidential elections saw Mr Nasheed contested against the incumbent Mr Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and winning – albeit by a margin of about eight percent.

The end of the 30 year regime of former President Gayoom was widely perceived as the beginning of full-fledged democracy in the Maldives. Since then, what began as a smooth ride eventually began to get bumpy. Rising prices, drug and crime issues, economic disparity, corruption allegations and concerns over the transparency of increasing foreign investments all began to cause unrest. Towards the end there were frequent public demonstrations and political standoffs.

While stalemates between the opposition dominated Parliament and the executive has been an issue, divisions also emerged between the executive and the judiciary – most of the appointments in the latter had been made during Gayoom’s tenure and the executive viewed this wing of state as being unreformed and loyal to the former regime.

The international community including the Commonwealth eased out of their heightened scrutiny of Maldives following the 2008 Presidential elections. In the aftermath the country’s nascent democracy has faced severe tribulations. Maldives is precariously located in the tip of South Asia, in the middle of strategic sea lanes making it important economically and politically both for the West and the two Asian giants – China and India. The crisis in the Maldives is an important bellwether of the edgy geopolitical climate in this region which has already found reflection in other countries of the region such as Sri Lanka.

While a lot of the current focus is mired over opposing political views within Maldives, it is important to remember that the vagaries of politics inside and outside the country should not ultimately lead to the Maldivian people viewing the values of human rights and democracy with blighted hope. It is important that these values are upheld and the protections that they afford are ensured.

An important step in doing this is to make sure that truth is both told and is seen to be told, freely sans politicisation. In this context, it is important that the National Commission of Inquiry is credible and is able to investigate and report freely and publicly. This call for credibility and impartiality has also been aptly echoed and elaborated by several Maldivian NGOs coming together in a new civil society coalition called ‘Thinvana Adu’ or ‘Third Voice’. Independent institutions in the Maldives such as the Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) and the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) should follow this lead and conduct their own parallel investigations and report publicly at the earliest.

Even though the Commonwealth should have made more early and transparent efforts to scrutinise the progress of democracy in the Maldives, it is a good sign that after years of being dormant CMAG has now taken the directions given to it in the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting seriously. It is also important that CMAG has recognised the need for a credible National Commission of Inquiry. If Maldives decides to leave the Commonwealth it will be the only other country after Zimbabwe to do so – a parallel that may be politically damaging for Maldives to equate itself with at this time of crisis.

R Iniyan Ilango is a Coordinator for the Strategic Initiatives Programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

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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