Some advise to the new government of Nasheed!

1. President: Hon. Mohamed Nasheed

Don’t stay at Theemuge. Muliaage is good enough. Don’t give a residence to Gayyoom (definitely not Muliaage and not even Hilaaleege). Gayyoom should be given a good pension and a generous housing allowance and reasonable security while he resides in the Maldives – but no need to give him a residence.

Shorten the length of the presidential term to four years.

2. Vice President: Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik

Will the Vice President have a separate office – say, “The Office of the Vice President” or will his office space be inside the President’s Office. This latter option seems more practical and feasible.

3. President of the Guardian Council for Islamic Affairs & Dhivehi Culture: Sheikh Majeed
(First Deputy: Sheikh Farooq)
(Second Deputy: Sheikh Hussain Rasheed)

A large Council of Islamic Scholars (without a fixed number) should be formed. Membership of this council should be open to all Maldivians who hold at least a first degree in Islamic studies or related field. Members should also have a clean criminal record. Ten members from this large Council should form the “Guardian Council for Islamic Affairs”. Members of the large Council will elect the ten members of the “Guardian Council for Islamic Affairs”. The President of the Guardian Council will also be elected by a vote of the large Council.

The Council should advise the President and the Vice President and the Cabinet Ministers and the male holders of all political posts to be an example to others by asking their wives to wear the veil.

An Islamic Centre to be setup in each capital island of each atoll. Such a center should have a qualified sheikh as Imam. It would have a capacity for at least one thousand people to congregate for prayer and it would have a conference hall, an Islamic Library, a set of classrooms to teach the Holy Koran and other Islamic teachings, an Audio Visual room, a computer lab and some recreational or sports facilities.

Foreign Minister: Dr. Shaheed
(Deputy: Dr. Farahanaz Faisal)

Many of the current (useless) embassies were opened under Dr. Shaheed’s watch when he was Foreign Minister for Gayyoom. I believe it was Gayyoom’s policies and not Dr. Shaheed’s. The Foreign Minister should make sure that full-fledged embassies are operated only at the most important locations and that the rest of the missions are converted to Trade Offices. Costs should be cut and efficiency should be increased.

The main focus of the foreign policies should be to attract investment from abroad and also establish a "Maldives Trust Fund" for the future. A certain percentage of our revenue should be saved in this fund. Foreign donors should be invited to donate to this fund. The purpose of the fund should be to build a huge “Safe Island” (hopefully by reclaiming the whole of the Vaavu Atoll), at a height of at least twenty to thirty feet above sea level. This landmass will be able to accommodate at least three to four hundred thousand people and have a huge transshipment harbour and almost unlimited land for factories and other industrial projects and work.

Home Minister: Dr. Hassan Saeed
(Deputy: Hon. Shaheed Zaki)
Atolls Ministry should be abolished and their work should be brought under the “Home Ministry”. HA, HD atolls should be combined as one atoll; GA, GD atolls should be combined similarly and AA and AD atolls should be combined as one atoll too. This will allow us to reduce the number of atolls to at most 17.

The national anthem of our country fails to inspire the new generation of Maldivian. I feel that even the anthem “Wathan Edhey Gothah” compiled by our first president (Mohamed Amin) is also a better tune and a better anthem than our national anthem. Perhaps this wouldn’t be a very popular idea, but I feel that we need to think and debate whether we could change our national anthem.

A South African style “Truth and Reconciliation Council” could be formed and headed by an independent Judge. The purpose of this council would not be to punish the criminals of Gayyoom regime but to find those crimes and make a sentence and keep the sentence as a suspended sentence or forgive altogether. But it is important to establish the crimes. But in the case of any corruption, such money should be directly retrieved from their bank accounts or businesses or it should be retrieved as much as possible by liquidating their assets such as land.

Work should be done to ban smoking in public places and stop people (especially expatriate laborers) from spitting on the road.

As per government regulations, the shops in Male close at 11.00pm. The closing time should be changed to 9pm.

All wards in all islands (including Male) need to be abolished. We would then have no need for ward offices which is an unnecessary bureaucracy and wasteful expenditure. Instead of having wards, the people in each island should unite as one people. The unit is not the “ward”, but the “island”. Despite the fact that land in Male is limited, it has five major cemeteries. These five plots of land could be used for much better purpose if we could relocate the cemeteries to Thilafusi or Hulhumale.

Min. of Defense & National Security: Brigadier Moosa Jaleel
(Deputy: Hon. Amin Faisal)
Chief of staff: Farhath Shaheer
(Deputy Colonel Nixam)

Restructure MNDF to orient it more as a civil defense force. Strengthen Coast Guard and include an “Air force” component with light aircraft for patrolling the seas and fishing zones.

Commissioner of Police: Major Latheef
Deputy Commissioner of Police: Mohamed Rizwan

Change the uniform of the “Star Force”! This uniform now brings fear and paranoia to our hearts.

Minister of Presidential Affairs: Hon. Maria
(Deputy Doctor DidI)
Chief Government Spokesman (or Chief Spokesman for the Presidnet): Ibrahim Hussain Zaki

The Chief Government Spokesman should meet the press preferably five days a week or all working days; or at least twice weekly.

Change the title of “Minister” as “Secretary”. This is the case in many developed countries such as the United Sates and the United Kingdom. For example, instead of having a Home Minister we could have a Home Secretary.

Speaker of the People’s Majlis: Hon. Mohamed Shihab
(Deputy: Hon. Hamza)

Amend the constitution to avoid anyone who has served two presidential terms to become president again.

Amend the constitution to stop state funds to all parties who fail to get at least one seat in the parliamentary election. No party who fails to get at least one parliamentary seat should get state funds.

Attorney General: Hon. Muththasim Adhnan
(Deputy: Hon. Dhiyaana)
Min. of Justice: Dr. Jameel
(Deputy: Husnu Sood )

Death penalty to be imposed for drugs traffickers. This isn’t only an Islamic thing. Death penalty is practiced in Singapore too.

Min. of Housing, Construction & Public Infrastructure: Hon Aslam Shakir
(Deputy: Hon. Shahid (Saabey)
Min. of (Planning), Development and mega Projects: Hon. Gasim Ibrahim
(Deputy: Dr. Mohamed Shareef – Sarippey

A certain percentage of the state revenue should be saved in a new fund called the Maldives Trust Fund. Foreign donors should be invited to donate to this fund. The purpose of the fund should be to build a huge “Safe Island” (hopefully b y reclaiming the whole of the Vaavu Atoll), at a height of at least twenty to thirty feet above sea level. This landmass will be able to accommodate at least three to four hundred thousand people and have a huge transshipment harbour and almost unlimited land for factories and other industrial projects and work.

The proposed transshipment harbour at HA Atoll should be realized. Addu Atoll Gan should have a huge hotel, and the runway there should be extended and the possibility of a parallel runway there should be explored. A new layer of Iranian tar should be laid on the Gan runway to enable international flights to land there without the risk of slipping. A seaplane harbour should be built at Gan too. Laamu Atoll should become an industrial zone an factories should be setup there.

Min. of Health: Dr. Abdul Sattar Yousuf
(Deputy: Dr. Aminath Jameel)

International level hospital to be setup here so that Maldivians do not have to go abroad for medical treatment.

We need to rethink our current stand on population control. Is it helping our economic development? In a way we have limitless land, so if we let our population grow freely, that could help our development instead of controlling population growth.

Min. of Environment, Energy, & Water: Dr. Riza
(Deputy: Dr. Mohamed Ali)

Wind energy, wave energy, solar energy, better sewage and water in all capital islands at least.

Study the benefits of taking Stelco and MWSC public.
Once the study is done, take the right action immediately.
Stelco & MWSC could be combined as one single entity under the Utility concept.

Min. of Tourism & Civil Aviation: Hon. Mahmood Razi
(Deputy: Hon. Abdullah Solih)

Stop Sri Lankans controlling our tourism industry through their companies such as the Aitkin Spence and John Keels.

Introduce new concepts of toursim such as educational toursim, medical toursim, sports toursim (cricket, surfing, etc.). Also allow highrise hotels in some resorts instead of making all resorts as low-rise resorts.

Min. of Trade and Industry: Hon. Ahmed Mjuthaba
(Deputy: Hon. Ali Shiyam)
Min. of Finance & Treasury: Hon Arif Hilmy
(Deputy: Dr. Riyaz )
Governor of MMA: Hon. Shafinaz Abdul Sattar

Make us dollar a floating exchange but hold the current rate for at least 6 to 12 months.

Attract foreign investment to mega projects. Diversify the economy. Establish a Maldives Trust Fund. Invest that fund's money in the US or Europe.

Min. of Sports, Arts & Vocational Education: Hon. Shafeeq (DO Sappe)
(Deputy: Hon. Hamidh Abdul Gafoor)

Increase the use of vocational education in the schools and also establish vocational educational schools.

Establish sports academies / schools where the normal curriculum of schooling is taught but it the school will be oriented for only those who wish to excel in a certain sport or art. For example their could be a football academy / school where normal O’level subjects are taught but the school will focus on developing young footballers to feed to the clubs and the national team.

Sports Tourism could be promoted by establishing an international level cricket stadium and hosting international cricket matches. We could take advantage of the popularity of the sport in the region – in countries such as India, Sri lanka.

Min. of Education and Youth: Hon. Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra)
(Deputy:Dr. Amal Ali)

Open the first University of Maldives and invest in promoting educational tourism by attracting foreign lecturers and foreign students to this university.

Establish sports academies / schools where the normal curriculum of schooling is taught but it the school will be oriented for only those who wish to excel in a certain sport or art. For example their could be a football academy / school where normal O’level subjects are taught but the school will focus on developing young footballers to feed to the clubs and the national team.

Inviting ex-president Ibrahim Nasir to the Maldives

Ibrahim Nasir was our second president - a leader who laid the foundations of our two most important industries, i.e. tourism and fisheries. Though he too had dictatorial traits during his presidency, Nasir was treated very unfairly and vilified by Gayyoom. Nasir lives in Singapore and never returned to Maldives during Gayyoom’s 30-year-rule. Now about 80 years old and extremely sick, many Maldivians want their former leader to return to Maldives even for a few days before he passes away.
It is something that Nasir deserves and something that many Maldivians want. It will also be a slap on the face of the outgoing president who tried his best to take credit for the good things that Nasir did to this country.
Hence many MDP supporters and a large chunk of the ordinary people want the president-elect Nasheed to invite Ibrahim Nasir to the Maldives even for a few days and to welcome Nasir as a state dignitary.

Will our future first lady and the MDP Chairperson wear the veil?

Redefining “moderate Islam” is one critical area that needs to be addressed urgently. If MDP alienates the moderate Islamists then there is great danger of the party losing their credibility. Moderate Islam does not mean having the freedom to dress whichever way one wants. We all attacked Gayyoom because he does not make his wife Nasreena to wear the veil. I wonder what many Maldivians would say if MDP chairperson Maria starts to wear the veil. Would that inspire Nasheed’s wife to do the same? I wonder what many Maldivians would say if president-elect Mohamed Nasheed’s wife (Laila) resides at the presidential palace without wearing the veil.
If we turn our backs on Allah, it is easy for Allah to reverse this victory and bring us down and give the leadership to whoever He wishes. This may not be the most popular idea but I call upon president-elect Nasheed and the Vice-President-elect Dr. Waheed and the MDP Chairperson Maria and the leader of the Jumhooree Gulhun Gasim Ibrahim and Adhaalth party leader Sheikh Hussain Rasheed and Sheikh Ilyas to come to some sort of feasible compromise so that the issue of the veil is addressed properly.

DRP and Yamin could make a comeback if MDP fails in meeting their promises!

Well, half of the battle is over by wining this election. On the other hand Maumoon, Yamin, Thasmeen, Kutti Nasheed, Azima, Aneesa, AKamaaluddeen, AHameed, etc. will join their financial muscles and deception and try to take advantage of any hiccups from MDP. As they have said repeatedly, they will try to win the next parliamentary election. Though this is unlikely we should never underestimate them. IF MDP-Iththihaadh fails to realize their promises to the people then it will open a door for DRP to gain access to the minds of the electorate.
The constitution could be amended to say that anyone who has served two presidential terms at anytime in our history could become president again. But this will still not close the door on corrupt elements of Gayyoom from coming to power – people such as Yamin! We cannot close that door through any law but we can close that door if MDP-Iththihaadh rules humbly and se per their promises.
Some of the most critical issues include housing, narcotic drugs, inflation control, reducing wasteful government expenditure, making better use of Theemuge, making better use of Aarah, strengthening Islamic values amongst us, promoting our culture, reducing crime, introducing a performance related corporate culture, promoting good governance in the civil service and the political circles, etc.
Good governance should be the key all successes in the future. That needs to be established urgently.

Wearing of veils in girls’ school uniforms and for civil servants to wear the veil during office hours

Gayyoom has consistently challenged the wearing of the veil. To put the record straight we need to do certain things. First, we need to increase Islamic awareness so that girls’ schools can redesign girls’ school uniforms to include the veil and long pants.
We also need to introduce a regulation so that all ladies who serve in the Maldives civil service need to wear the veil during office hours.

Establish an “Islamic Center” in each capital island of each atoll

This Islamic Centre would not be just a mosque. It would have a capacity for at least one thousand people to congregate for prayer and it would have a conference hall, an Islamic Library, a set of classrooms to teach the Holy Koran and other Islamic teachings, an Audio Visual room, a computer lab and some recreational or sports facilities allowed under Islam.

“Air force” to protect the seas and the exclusive economic zone

A special program, in collaboration between the Coast Guard and the Fisheries Ministry, should be carried out to protect our seas. We could also introduce some “Air force” component to MNDF or under the “Coast Guard”, which will have at least a few helicopters and some light aircraft that could patrol our exclusive economic zone. Such an “Air force” could be vital in blocking the entry points for drug traffickers and smugglers as well.