Tag: parliament

Parliament passes bill on broadcasting corporation

The parliament yesterday passed a bill establishing a broadcasting corporation, with board members to be appointed by parliament and responsible for controlling public media TVM and Voice of Maldives.

The bill effectively gives legal weight and parliamentary backing to the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC), which already runs state media.

Out of 69 MPs present, 42 voted to pass the bill. The bill was presented to the parliament by the government, with MPs attempting to introduce 35, but during the vote only 18 amendments were passed.

Spokesperson for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary group Mohamed Shifaz said he was happy with the broadcasting bill but was unhappy on how the broadcasting corporation bill was passed.

Shifaz said that according to the bill the board members would be appointed by the parliament.

”The parliament will be appointing people for the board,” Shifaz said. “Parliament will do the interviewing and select people.”

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahloof said he was “very happy” with the bill, suggesting consternation within the MDP over the appointment of board members was “because TVM is the only media now which promotes the government.”

Mahloof said the MDP MPs were worried that if TVM became independent, “there will be no one to promote the MDP.”

”TVM would never report anything negative to the governemnt,” he said. ”It always promotes the government, that’s why they are worried that TVM might become independent when the parliament appoints board members for the broadcasting corporation.”

He said if the bill was approved by the president, media in the Maldives would become “free and independent.”

MDP MP Ahmed Easa said that appointing the board members by the parliament, announcing for interested applicants for the position and interviewing the applicants by the parliament made the parliament “a place where business is done.”

Easa said that the opposition MPs passed the bill because “they want to change the public media the way they want to.”

”It is fine if the parliament monitors the board,” he said, ”but if they are appointing people for the board that means the parliament is [participating in] the country’s business community.”

DRP MP Abdulla Mausoom said the bill was passed with majority support of MPs.

Mausoom said the President Mohamed Nasheed should “be very happy” with the way the bill was passed claiming that many people blamed the government for attempting to control the media.

”Now the president can say he has no power over the media,” Mausoom said.

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‘Words and weapons’ bill presented to parliament

A bill banning threats, use of sharp objects and weapons was been presented by the government to the parliament yesterday, in a bid to reduce violent crime on the streets of Male’.

If the bill is passed, threatening a person will become a crime and will result in a 2-12 months sentence. If someone uses a sharp object or dangerous weapon in a threatening manner, there would be an additional 1-6 months sentence.

The bill says that using or storing a sharp object or dangerous weapon in public is also a crime, which will receive a 2-12 months sentence. Furthermore, importing butterfly knives and flick knives without the permission from the Home Ministry would also become a crime, and receive a 1-3 month sentence.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed introduced the bill to the MPs, which was forwarded to debate through the support of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ali Waheed.

Spokesperson for MDP parliamentary group MP Ahmed Shifaz said that the bill was mainly focused on reducing gang fighting to make the society “a peaceful and safe place.”

”Right now police cannot arrest somebody walking around with a knife in their hand,” Shifaz said. ”But after this bill is passed, people will  not be allowed to use sharp objects and weapons in public.”

He said anything that could be used to injure a person would be designated as a weapon, including logs and batons.

‘Threatening a person with weapons or words would also be a crime under the bill,” he said, ”and even if a police officer threatens a person, that officer can be charged.”

He said the bill would help to reduce crime rate in the country.

DRP MP Abdulla Mausoom said it was very difficult to comment on the bill as it was still in the debate stage.

”Everyone wants to stop crime in the country,” Mausoom said. ”The crime rate has risen in the capital Male’ and big islands of the country.”

Mausoom said anybody who used ‘weapons’ should not be arrested, as they were used for many purposes.

”For instance, people living in the islands – in the early morning they are out working with their axes, knives and other sharp objects,” he said.

He said the most effective solution for rising crime was to have community participation.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said the bill would help to avoid crimes in many ways.

”The bill will provide a wide range of powers to police to remove the offender,” Zuhair said.

Zuhair said everyone with a knife would not be deemed a criminal, but ”all criminals are now armed with a knife.”

He said the bill was rather an effective ban on threatening a person’s well being.

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New Auditor General to be appointed next week, government hopes

The government hopes appoint a new Auditor General by next week, after outgoing AG Ibrahim Naeem was dismissed from his post by parliament earlier this week.

Assistant executive director and interim head of the Auditor General’s office, Mohamed Hussein, said according to the law Ibrahim Naeem was no longer the Auditor General and was not attending the office.

Hussein said he did want to reveal whether staff at the audit office were disheartened by parliament’s decision.

”We always work according to the policy of Auditor General at the time,” Hussein said.

The President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said the government was “seeking a capable and educated man for the position,” and hoped to fill the position next week.

“President Mohamed Nasheed has promised to appoint someone as capable and as educated as the former Auditor General,” Zuhair said.

Naeem was formally dismissed by parliament in a DRP-PA coalition-led no-confidence motion on Sunday, after corruption allegations were sent by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in a letter to a parliamentary sub-committee chaired by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim.

The ACC also sent the case to the Prosecutor General’s office, seeking to initiate court proceedings.

Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem confirmed the office had received “a huge file of documents.”

“I don’t think [the case will be influenced by Parliament’s decision] as we look it from at a completely different angle,” Shameem said.

“It’s a different process to Parliament. We have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether or not he is guilty. Parliament decides on the basis of whether or not he was doing his job.”

Shameem said it would take “weeks” to decide whether the case would be forwarded to the court.

Meanwhile DRP Vice President and MP Ali Waheed said he wished Naeem “a bright future.”

Waheed said the 43-28 vote in favour of dismissal was successful due to votes from the Qaumee Party, Peoples Alliance and many independent MPs.

”This shows that even if a dictator tries to go against the law, the politicians of the country will not allow him do it,” Waheed said.

DRP held a ceremony at the DRP office following to the vote, to celebrate its victory in the no-confidence motion.

”We celebrated the victory as we had tried very hard for this,” Waheed said. ”We were arrested and police took us to Dhoonidhu and people tried for this so much.”

He said all the demonstrations over the weekend were because the MDP MPs “tried to deadlock the parliament.”

”We do not want parliament to be cancelled for even one day,” Waheed said.

He called on people to show the same effort when the parliament begins debate over the controversial decentralisation bill.

He said he do not want to say anything about accusations the Auditor General made against senior DRP officials in his audit reports.

”That will be decided by the court, whether they are true or not,” he said.

Zuhair claimed that the vote against the Auditor General proved the DRP had “the best interest of their political party in mind and not the best interest of the country.”

He said Naeem’s reports contained accusations against former government ministersare now independent MPs.

”That’s why they voted the way they did in the no-confidence motion,” Zuhair said.

He added that the audit report was not only the work of the Auditor General, “but a big team in the Audit Office.”

Minister for Home affairs Mohamed Shihab is another government official facing a potential no-confidence motion from the DRP, in response to a police decision to detain Waheed and several other senior DRP leaders.

Shihab said he would not comment on prospect of a no-confidence motion against him “until I receive notice of it from parliament.”

Spokesperson for Maldivian Democratic Party Ahmed Haleem did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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Parliament votes to dismiss Auditor General 43-28 in favour

Parliament today voted to dismiss Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem, with 43 voting in favour of the no-confidence motion and 28 against.

President Mohamed Nasheed was last night reported to be seeking to urgently meet with MPs, foregoing a function marking the close of the donor conference.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Shifaz said all the party’s MPs had voted against the no-confidence motion on Auditor General ”as it was a responsibility of the government to defend all its institutions, and we are on the government’s side.”

On the other side, MPs of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party-People’s Alliance (DRP-PA) coalition were joined by seven independents, the two Dhivehi Qaumee Party MPs and the sole Republican Party representative.

Shifaz said he believed the Auditor General had not committed anything that warranted a no-confidence motion.

”DRP want to remove him from that position due to the reports he released, which accused many senior leaders of corruption including former president,” he said. ”They had personal issues with him.”

He claimed the parliament procedures need to be changed and there were many things to be corrected.

”The speaker has not revealed the Anti-Corruption Commissions report to MPs yet, because it contains things which accuse his own party’s members of corruption,” Shifaz claimed.

DRP MP Ahmed Ilham said it was now “very clear” that the Auditor General was corrupt.

”Independent MPs who always vote on MDP side voted on DRP side today,” Ilham said.

He said the government was trying to defend Naeem in many ways, “which proves that the government is promoting corruption in the country in the name of erasing it,” he said.

”MDP MPs forced the parliament to be canceled two days, and MDP activists disrupted the peace of the nation just to defend the Auditor General.”

Ilham said that if there was a credible corruption case against former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, “the government should not wait a single second before investigating those cases.”

”Those are just rumors they spread,” he said. “Why won’t the government go ahead and prove it to the people?”

Ilham said while people believed Naeem was independent as the Audit Office was a independent institution, ”that the government tried to defend him proves he was a man fully on MDP’s side.”

Naeem was appointed by Former President Gayoom and a DRP-majority Majlis.

What happened

The Auditor General was accused of corruption by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for using the government’s money to buy a tie and visit Thulhaidhu in Baa Atoll.

Naeem claimed the charges were an attempt to discredit his office and prevent him from reclaiming the government’s money stored in overseas bank accounts.

“A lot of the government’s money was taken through corrupt [means] and saved in the banks of England, Switzerland, Singapore and Malaysia,” Naeem claimed two weeks ago, during his first press conference in eight months.

The motion to dismiss him was put forward by the parliamentary finance committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, who the previous week had pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the former ministry of atolls development while be was Managing Director of Namira Engineering and Trading Pvt Ltd.

Tension over the motion led to violent clashes inside parliament, which spread to supporters of both major parties outside the chamber. Police were forced to use tear gas on several occasions over the weekend to subdue crowds of violent demonstrators.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair claimed the DRP were trying to remove Naeem because he had accused the party’s senior leaders of corruption during their administration.

”They are intending to spread doubt among the people, and they think it will be easier to defend themselves if the Auditor General is dismissed,” Zuhair said.

The dismissal of the Auditor General would “not be a big loss” to the government’s attempts to recover the money, ”as there are many professional accountants in the Audit Office”, Zuhair said.

He said all the political benefits being attributed to the no-confidence motion on Auditor General were due the government, ”as [Naeem] was elected by a majority of DRP MPs.”

The dismissal of the Auditor General is unlikely to slow the government’s appetite for reclaiming state funds it believes are stashed overseas.

Today during the closure of Donor Conference, President Mohamed Nasheed confirmed that a “stolen asset recovery program is part-and-parcel of the World Bank projects.”

“We are a member of that program and will of course be working within the framework available to us,” he said.

“If there are any stolen assets I’m sure we will be able to identify them, and if they are ill-gotten I sure we will we will be able to repatriate them.”

There was “no timeline”, the President added.

The Stolen Asset Recovery program (StAR) is a 2007 joint initiative between the World Bank and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “fosters much needed cooperation between developed and developing countries and between the public and private sectors to ensure that looted assets are returned to their rightful owners.”

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MDP holds parliamentary group elections

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) held its parliamentary group elections, reports Miadhu.

Moosa Maniku was the only candidate for the chairmanship of the parliamentary group, and was elected by 20 out of 24 votes cast.

Mohamed Aslam and Ahmed Abdulla were elected as vice-chairs by 21 and 10 votes, respectively. Ahmed Sameer and Mohamed Nasheed also ran for the vice-chair post, receiving eight and seven votes, respectively.

Mohamed Shifaz, Ilyas Labeeb and Eva Abdulla were elected parliamentary whips with 23 votes each.

Hamid Abdul Ghafoor was elected Secretary General of the parliamentary group.

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HRCM condemns recent violence and political confrontations

The Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM) has condemned the recent riots and political confrontations, reports Miadhu.

In a press statement released today, the HRCM has said the recent conflicts erupting during political activities and confrontations between people of different opinions are causing great physical and mental harm to the people.

The HRCM has requested the people avoid violence and cooperate with police. They have also asked the police to continue their work in preventing and dispersing violent demonstrations, and to respect the laws and Constitution of the Maldives.

They stated that although the Constitution provides “right to freedom of peaceful assembly without prior permission of the State” as stipulated in Article 32, this is limited by the “regulation on freedom of assembly” which was drafted before the new Constitution came into force.

The HRCM also expressed concern over the violent acts that took place in Parliament on 23 March, and requested the Parliament resolve issues by discussion and not to disrupt the work which needs to be done in the Majlis.

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AG proposes narrowing ‘the right to remain silent’

The Attorney General Husnu Suood has proposed a bill to be presented to parliament removing the right to remain silent during investigation of people suspected of commit serious crimes.

The bill removes the right given under Article 48[N] of the Constitution that a person need only reveal their name and thereafter remain silent during police questioning.

The bill proposes that the right to remain silent should be removed in such cases such as threatening a person, attacking a person or his property, assault on a person using sharp objects or weapons, murder, drug trafficking, storing drugs to deal, importing drugs, using a sharp object or dangerous weapon in public without a valid reason, storing a sharp object in secret without a valid reason, gang rape and terrorism.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government believed it was necessary to remove the right to remaining silent on these cases.

”Why should we provide the right to remain silent for a man arrested with five kilograms of dope?” Zuhair asked.

”If the bill is passed people arrested in connection with these kind of crimes will be convicted for objection to order if they remain silent.”

He said the police would only arrest a person in the first place if they had conclusive evidence.

Spokesperson for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group Mohamed Shifaz said the MPs had tried very hard to introduce the right to remain silent.

”The government would try to remove it in certain cases only when they notice a credible reason,” Shifaz said.

Vice president of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Umar Naseer, a former police officer, agreed, saying the right to remain silent “should be removed for all the cases.”

”This would make it very easy to prosecute criminals, so I think it is very important,” he said.

The Maldivian Detainee Network issued a statement saying it was “concerned by the news that the Attorney General proposes to narrow fundamental rights afforded to persons accused of certain serious crimes.”

“We urge the Attorney General and Parliament to ensure that any legislation proposed or passed fully embodies the principle that all persons are innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, any narrowing of rights must be done in accordance with Article 16 of the Constitution which states that “Any such law enacted by the People’s Majlis can limit the rights and freedoms to any extent only if demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

The NGO added that while it was concerned about the recent rise in crime and “the inability to successfully prosecute criminals, we would like to caution against reactionary steps which threaten fundamental rights.”

“The answer to rising crime in society is the full and effective implementation of a rights-based system by addressing the numerous issues within the criminal justice system,” it urged.

“The rush to discard fundamental rights is not only a short-sighted strategy which not only ignores the moral and practical imperatives behind those rights, but also risks returning to a society in which innocent citizens needed to fear the criminal justice system.”

Deputy Attorney General Abdulla Muiz did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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MDP call for no confidence-motion against speaker

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will put forward a no-confidence motion against the speaker, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Abdulla Shahid, spokesperson for MDP’s parliamentry group Mohamed Shifaz said today.

Parliament was cancelled again today because of chaos in the chamber. Police blockaded streets around the parliament and presidential palace in the wake of running protests, while a political gathering at the artificial beach this evening erupted into violence and was dispersed by police using tear gas.

”We do not believe that a man under such pressure can do anything correctly,” Shifaz said, accusing Shahid of siding with the opposition coalition ”most of the time”.

”He adds things to the agenda against the procedures of parliament,” Shifaz said. ”If there is a bill that makes things difficult for the government, that is the first thing he wants to discuss.”

Shifaz said the MDP MPs were “still unsure” about their security and safety inside the parliament chamber after yesterday’s brawl, and had sought reassurance from the speaker.

In a letter posted on parliament’s website, Shahid said he had requested that police investigate the incident, and adding that “what happened inside the chamber was not acceptable behaviour for a parliamentary debate”.

In addition, he said he had ”no pressure on me from any political party. I call on all the political parties to cooperate with each other.”

Shahid insisted he “had control of the parliament”, and said he did not wish to comment on the no-confidence motion reportedly being drafted against him. Instead, he called on MPs to cooperate and continue work.

DRP MP Ali Waheed, Ahmed Ilham, and Vice president Umar Naseer did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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Parliament cancelled when only 18 members show up

Parliament was cancelled today because only 18 MPs were present inside the parliament chamber.

MDP MPs had sent a letter to the speaker of the parliament asking him to ensure them that the chamber “was safe for MDP MPs”, after a brawl broke out yesterday between the two major parties.

According to the parliament’s regulations at least 20 MPs must be present inside the chamber to hold a meeting.

MDP MP Rugiyya Mohamed said 89 per cent of MDP MPs attended the parliament ”but did not enter inside the chamber due to what happened yesterday.”

Ruhiyya said that the MDP parliamentry group had sent a letter to the speaker of the parliament to ensure that the chamber would be safe for the MDP MPs, but had not responded.

”I believe that Abdulla Shahid is influenced by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP),” she claimed. ”He cannot even control the parliament.”

DRP Vice president Umar Naseer said MDP MPs were attempting to prevent a vote regarding the corruption allegations against the Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem, as they “are afraid of democracy.”

”Shahid must stand on our side,” Naseer said. ” He was elected to the parliament by our ticket with the vote of our members.”

DRP MP Abdulla Mausoom said he had no idea why the MDP MPs refused to enter the chamber.

”It was a waste of one day for me.” he said. ”I went to parliament with the hope of discussing a national issue.”

He said that it was fine “even if two [MPs] came.”

MDP MP Mohamed Shifaz said the MDP MPs “are not sure that the chamber is safe for them any more.”

Spokesperson for the President Mohamed Zuhair said it was up to the speaker to hold consultations with party leaders and get the MPs back into the chamber.

“The government believes politicans should only defeat their opponents through speech,” he noted.

During a meeting yesterday, DRP MP Ali Waheed said if the vote was not taken tomorrow, the party “will make sure no more votes are taken in this country.”

“It will be the biggest political mistake President Mohamed Nasheed makes,” he warned.

In response, Zuhair accused DRP MP Ali Waheed of pretending to injure himself in video footage of yesterday’s brawl.

“He was at the back of the chamber and clearly takes a dive. But then he is a former footballer so he would know all about that,” Zuhair said.

Waheed did not to respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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