I totally condemn the use of disproportionate force by the Maldives Police against peaceful demonstrators at Reethirah Resort

I totally condemn the use of disproportionate force by the Maldives Police against peaceful demonstrators at Reethirah Resort last night. The staff at the resort were protesting and demanding that they be granted the rights that are due to them under the newly passed Employment Act. If Bandos Island resort can fully implement this labour law and grant all the rights to the staff, why can’t other resorts such as Reethirah and Villa-Resorts implement this law. The owner of Villa Resorts being the Home Minister, perhaps it is more appropriate that he be the first resort owner to grant the rights to the staff under this law.

It is doubly disappointing that the Maldives Police, which is directly under the orders of Home Minister Gasim (who is the owner of Vila Resorts), has to use force against the protesting staff. Perhaps Gasim approved this in order to please the management of Reethirah Resort. Perhaps he wanted to show that he will fight for the rights of all resort operators.

Gasim is involved in this issue not only on the side of the Maldives Police. Tourism Minister Ali Sawad is also a senior official of Gasim’s Jumhooree Party. Sawad got the tourism portfolio because of Gasim’s insistence so it is obvious that Sawad will follow Gasim’s instructions on this.

It is time for Gasim to show that he cares about the people and that he cares about the rule of law. But I do not support IDP-leader Umar Naseer's opportunistic involvement in this. Though I support the claims of the resort staff to get their rights, Umar and the DRP-gang are trying to create trouble to achieve their political ambitions. So, I call upon the government and the Tourism Minsiter to solve this problem in an amicable way so that opportnists such as Umar do not get any room to exploit.

The law has given certain rights to workers, including those who work at resorts. If Gasim and this government use disproportionate force in order to suppress the rights of people, then what difference does it have with Gayyoom’s regime? It is time for President Nasheed and Tourism Minister Sawad and the Home Minister Gasim to show some leadership and solve this current impasse in the resorts before this thing blows out of proportion!

Joining the ILO, closing the “Thauleemee Fund” and the cost of usd 10 million to deport the illegal immigrants!

New Human Resource Minister Hassan Latheef held a press briefing on Thursday, 27th of November to brief the media on the issue of labour – including the growing problem of expatriate labour. Some of the highlights of this meeting are as follows:

1. Maldives joining the ILO:

Minister Latheef said that the new government has decided to join the International Labour Organization (ILO) by 04th December. This is an important step which the old government of Gayyoom has been procrastinating. This means that the Maldives will be a member of ILO within the next five days. It was revealed that the initial administrative cost of joining the ILO will be a relatively meager amount of about RF 350,000 or about usd 30,000.

2. Impasse between resort employees and the resort operators:

Maldives will get numerous benefits by being a member of ILO. We will get technical help to formulate various regulations regarding employees and we will get the knowhow on how to form and regulate trade unions (which is a very alien thing to us). The ongoing dispute between resort employees and the resort operators is one example of the current problems in the sector. Resort employees demand the full implementation of the labour law by the resorts while the resort operators say that this law is designed for civil servants and is hence not suitable for industries such as tourism and fisheries. If trade unions were functioning properly in the Maldives such disputes could be solved without the level of impasse that is prevailing currently.

3. Close the corrupt “Thauleemee Fund”

Joining the ILO would also provide us technical help in running pensions funds and social security funds. This would make the existing funds such as the “Provident Fund” more profitable to the employers and the employees. On this note it has to be pointed out that there are very inefficient and corrupt funds such as “Thauleeemee Fund” (Education Fund) which is operated by the Ministry of Education. This fund has many plots of land and buildings which they rent out and earn a significant amount of money. Employees of the education sector are supposed to get loans from this fund but it is often used as a political tool by the heads of the education ministry to make political rewards. Hence I call upon the new government to take all this land back to the state and close this corrupt fund called the “Thauleeemee Fund”!

4. It will cost the government a staggering usd 10 Million to catch the 20,000 illegal expatriate laborers:

The government estimates that there are about 20,000 illegal expatriate laborers who are in hiding or on the run. At an estimated cost of about usd 500 per head, this will cost the government a staggering usd 10 Million to catch, detain and subsequently deport these 20,000 people. The biggest problem, said Minister Latheef, is to find proper accommodation to detain such illegal immigrants who are caught. The new Controller of Immigration and Emigration recently suggested to me that it could be better to bring the immigration problem of the expatriates under his department. Perhaps this is something that can be worked out between the Human Resource Ministry and the Controller of Immigration and Emigration.

Managing Director, Mayor, Governor of State!

It was nice to see the Vice President come out of the shell (or rather given the opportunity to come out of the shell) a few times over the last couple of days. In one such outing, VP Waheed was sitting with Waheeduddeen at a press briefing at the President’s Office today. The press briefing was regarding the government’s policy on decentralisation or local governance. Waheeduddeen was there due to the fact that it was during his time as the Atolls Minister during Gayyoom’s regime that the idea of local governance first came to the public fold.

I fully support the quick implementation of this policy and give 100% support to the whole idea. I hope that the Parliament (Majlis) will give full approval and backing to the government in the implementation of this policy. I would like to mention some pointers that we can ponder regarding this policy.

1. Could we give a corporate title such as “Managing Director” to the Island Katheeb?

Each island will of course have an Island Council. The members of this Council will be elected by the people of the island. The members can then vote amongst themselves to elect a head of the Council. This person will in effect be the head or the “Katheeb” of the island. Will we call him the “Katheeb” or could we give a corporate title such as “Managing Director”? Since the basis of all development is economics, it could very well have a positive effect if we give such a corporate title to the “Katheeb”! Now if we follow this idea, we could have an “Island Council” in each island and every island would have a “Managing Director”!

2. Could we change the Atoll Chief’s title to “Mayor”?

Now all these Managing Directors could automatically sit as elected members of the Atoll Council. A head of this Atoll Council would be elected by the members of the Council. This “head” of the Atoll Council would in effect be the Atoll Chief. Could we then change the Atoll Chief’s title as “Mayor”?

3. Could we call the “Provincial Minister” in each region the “Governor” of the region?

Since the country will be divided into seven regions for local governance, there will be two or more atolls in each region. The region would be run by a Regional Council. The heads of all Atoll Councils could automatically sit on the Regional Council as elected members. The members of this Regional Council could then vote amongst themselves and elect a head of this Council. This person will report direct to the “Provincial Minister”. Could we call the “Provincial Minister” in each region the “Governor” of the region?

4. Each provincial region could be addressed as a separate “State”!
Now, if we call each head of the region, the “Governor”, then we could address each region as a “State”! Hence, the country will have seven States and each state will have a Governor, and every atoll would have a Mayor and each island would have a Managing Director!

Where has the Governor of the Central Bank (MMA) gone?

At a time of international fiscal turmoil and at a time when the Maldives is facing difficult economic times, it is surprising that Governor of our Central Bank (MMA) is missing. Fazeel Najeeb (a close ally of Yamin Gayyoom) was appointed as the Governor of MMA during the last few weeks of Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s presidency.

I believe that Fazeel, who lives and studies in the UK, has not come to the country since his appointment to the post. While a new budget is being debated and while such drastic changes are coming to our fiscal system, it is shocking that no one is talking about the Governor of MMA. Where is he? Is the new government planning to ask the Majlis to appoint a new governor? If so, why isn’t anyone talking about it?

The Aarah factor in the new budget!?

One striking point in the new budget is that there is no allocation for the presidential retreat (Aarah). This is a stark indication that the new government does not plan to use the island as a retreat for the president. Though the government has not made any announcements on what their policy will be regarding the presidential retreat, there is speculation that the island would be rented out as a luxury tourist resort for the mega rich billionaires.

The fact that not even one Rufiyaa has been allocated for Aarah in the 2009 budget shows that President Nasheed is serious about cutting wasteful costs and that he will close down Aarah as a presidential retreat and find a better and more profitable use for the island which is very close to the capital Male.

How much do we have in our Foreign Currency Reserve?

1. Speaking at the Parliament, to present the new budget, the Finance Minister has revealed that the Foreign Currency reserve of the country has come down by usd 50 million over the past one year. The reserve at present is usd 259 Million. At internationally accepted standards, for a country of our size, the foreign currency reserve should be at least usd 400 million. But, given the international financial meltdown at present, it is unlikely that we can reach this level of reserve in the next two or three years.

2. In fact the government estimates that by the end of 2009 the reserve in our Treasury (MMA) would be usd 241 Million. This is usd 18 Million less than the current reserve. Hence, unless there is surprising turnaround in international finances we are bound to experience financial restrictions in achieving the ambitious developmental targets of the new government.

3. It has to be said that Nasheed’s government has cut wastefulness and cut government and state expenditure drastically. This is reflected in the proposed budget for 2009, which is Rf 7 Billion less than the budget for this year. Nasheed has cut down on the number of Ministers and their salaries and closed down some wasteful or unnecessary offices such as the “Maldives Government Office” in Singapore. The budget for the President’s Office and the Presidential Palace is also proposed to be drastically lower for 2009, compared to the budgets for this year.

Where is the Vice President?

Since the election of Nasheed as President we have barely heard Vice President Dr. Waheed talk (even at a small press conference). Dr. Waheed is often seen standing behind Nasheed (like a poodle) when Nasheed conducts certain ceremonies. What we are seeing is Ibrahim Hussain Zaki (the Special Envoy of the President) taking a more central stage.

Zaki is seen to be playing the role of the Vice President and the real Vice President is seen to be a personal assistant to the President (more like a secretary). I would bet my humble possessions that Zaki is more powerful in the government than the Vice President.

I respect Zaki and I appreciate the role he played in maintaining the strength of MDP during hard times too. But I think it will be folly for President Nasheed to listen to Zaki’s every word as if that’s a revelation! Zaki is a relic from Gayyoom’s old regime, and despite whatever good that he may have done, we will never be able to cut ourselves from the past and soar to new heights as long as we are anchored to the past by people such as Ibrahim Hussain Zaki.

I don’t mind Zaki being in the government but I would like to see Dr. Waheed play a more apparent and effective role in the policy formulation and interact more with the people. I would also like to see Nasheed become more a man of his own rather than feel anchored by “personalities” such as Zaki, Gasim and even Mausoom!