Maldivian Mafia

Today there was a mob at Alivaage when the police went there to summon Maumoon. Most of the people over there were old women who we find are the core group of supporters of DRP. I also saw many senior people from the previous government. They were all saying that Maumoon cannot be arrested and they will not let that happen.

Later at night a lorry went on the road requesting people to again to sorround Alivaage.

Lets now imagine for a moment that Maumoon is still the president and the police is needs to question Anni and has gone to Anni’s home to summon him.

If Anni refuses to accept the summons chit, he will be tried in court for disobedience to the state.

If people gathers near Anni’s house, three things will happen. Star force will be dispatched with batons and pepper spray, Maumoon will temporarily move to Aarah, and Anni will be taken into custody for his own protection, and then later tried under terrorism.

If Anni said that the police can’t summon his or the commission is illegal, he will be taken in and tried under the penal code for damaging the public confidence of the government institutions.

The police would also unearth iron rods that were being used for weapons.

Earlier today when the police gave the news conference on their investigation of atolls ministry audit report, we got a little glimpse of how far corruption has spread in the country. It has been developed so much during the previous years that the whole thing is done under a very organised system.

Its like the Mafia. They have controlled media (Haveeru, Dhitv and Villa tv), disposable cheerleaders (Mahloof, Alhan, Nihan, Ali Waheed and Ilham) all-purpose spokesman (Mavota), so called reformists (New Maldives, now just kutti nasheed), and controlled judiciary. So, how can such a group be brought to justice?

If we are to reform this country and make a better future for our kids, we need to root out this corruption and evil that is devouring everything on its path

Posted by Wordmobi

Decentralization 101

Decentralization is not a new concept in this country. Its not something that was suddenly cooked up by the current government, or even the Special Majlis for that matter (when they wrote the constitution). It has been discussed, planned and even partially executed by the previous government.

The idea of decentralization was to form regions or provinces which can sustain themselves economically. This is very much related to population consolidation that we heard quite a lot during the last days of the previous regime.

The objective of decentralisation is to to create urban areas in different parts of the country . These urban hotspots would be like small Male’s. However they would be more effective than a Male’ because  (1) urban centres would be created closer to home, for everyone (2) resources will be utilized within the province and  for the province (3) social conditions will improve due to lesser migration and  capacity to physically develop functional families.

Now one thing we much understand is that a functional region or province cannot be developed without achieving a critical mass for development.  It is impossible and ineffective to administer provinces at atoll level. Imagine Vaavu atoll with around 5000 people as a province. It cannot survive as there won’t be enough resources and people.

For a comparison, lets look at other countries of the world. If we start from close by; India has 28 provinces or states but has a population of 1.1 billion people;  this gives around 40 million per province. Srilanka: 9 provinces and 20 Million population.  (2 million per province). Bangladesh: 6 provinces with 160 Million populaton (25 Million per province). If we look at developed countries: Australia have seven provinces and 20 million people.Canada has 10 provinces and 30 million people. Now the United States which was formed as a result of joining of a number of states, has 50 states, however with 300 million people, this gives a figure of 6 million per state.

Provinces would administer their own affairs, including commerce and services. Therefore, to take  an analogy in business, for the same reason a lot of customers are needed to reduce cost and increase quality of a service or product, a critical mass of population is needed to cost effectively run a province independently.

The previous government realised this a long time ago. All the utilities and services provided to the outer islands were subsidised. It was expensive and non-sustainable. Its very odd that they insist now that there should be 20 provinces and not 7 because two or three years ago when they were running the government, a policy decision was made by the cabinet that the country was going to be divided into 5 provinces (which was called regions at that time). This was agreed by all the government agencies and included in their latest National developement plan too.

However implementation of this policy was delayed indefinitely. The reason was that the control that  the government had on the islands would reduce as a result of its implementaion. If the policy was adopted, the regions or provinces would get to decide how to use their resources and their revenues so their dependence on the central government would diminish. And as the previous government was not a democratic administration, and as their intention was to hold onto the executive power indefinitely, this arrangement was not acceptable to them as it would advesely effect their chances of being elected in the next ballot

So getting back to the issue of forming provinces, I think this should have been resalised years ago and its something that will do nothing but good the country as a whole. The provinces need to have a critical mass of population, so for a population of 0.3 million, we cannot achieve anything with 20 provinces, I would suggest even 3 provinces is not a small number; a North, Central and a South Province.

30 year old question

A day does not pass by without us getting consumed into a DRP-MDP argument or a debate. On one hand, there is this party who are struggling with their new found powers. And on the other hand, there is this party who are struggling to get back on power.

A very frequent complaint we hear from DRP is that all MDP does is talk about the last 30 years and do nothing else. They point out that as MDP is in chage of the the government, they have to stop their ramblings about the 30 years get back to running the country. Quite true I have to say. Well, atleast part of it.

I think MDP does need to concentrate more on running the country. Frankly, for whatever the reason, the whole government organisation is in a mess. There is no central focal agency, every Ministry is running their own plans with poor coordination, people who has never worked with a team are put in charge of agencies with hundreds of staff, civil service is not utilised at all, there is high level of mistrust between the government and the civil service, and cynism and anxiety is widespread.The government really does need to get their act together.

Well, now to the second part of the debate. This I have to say is a long part. A 30 year old long part.

I was listening to one of the interviews a few months ago about the presidential address at the beginning of the Majlis this year. The people on the panel were DO Sappe and Zuhair from MDP and Mr. Mavota Shareef, the leading authority on everthing from DRP.

Mavota, when asked about the current government’s budget said that deficit is too high and inflation is too high. When the interviewer asked about the previous government deficit and inflation, Mavota was quick to respond that we are talking about the current admistration and its expenses and not the expenses of the previous adminstration. He also quite boldly said that there will be nothing brought forward from the previous government expenses.

What a ridiculous statement! Its as if the new government is starting with zero balance, a clean sheet. Even the office procurement bills for the previous government would not be cleared by2010. And what about the advance money they took from the new resorts? Its like taking money from the future, from the next government.

Thirty years made a lot of changes to this coutry. If we are to talk about the development achieved during the golden 30 years, we should also talk about the damages caused during this period so we can analyse them and learn from them.

We are living in an ecosystem. Everything is connected. Even time. So the clock didnt just start when the new government came to power. It has been running for 30 years, it has been running much before than that.

How to question an Ex-President

Earlier this year, Ex-President Maumoon was encouraging the relevent parties to investigate him. When he came from overseas and was interviewed in Jetty 1, he said to investigate him by any commission even UN council and war crimes tribunal (war crimes??), and they would not find any problems.

So whats this now? Why is he refusing to being questioned? If he had not commited any crimes, why not just clear it up. Investigators can’t summon him. He will not answer any questions. Not even his brother. No! The commission have to go through the courts even to ask these people a question.

Anyone can say anything. Human beings are send to this earth with free will, they can say whatever they want. Do whatever they want. What we have to look into is their character. Does what someone say support what he does? If not they are simply not reliable and would cause more harm than good for the society. We should stay away from these people and not give an audience to their attempts to create doubts and divisions in the society.

So one advise I would like to give is to look into the actions of a person, not just his words. Don’t fall into the traps of the hypocrites

Auditor General’s news conference

Few minutes ago the Auditor General gave a news conference which was shown live on TVM. None of the other channels covered it. First part of the news conference was a lesson on corruption and usage of terms. He then outlined the audit reports that have been produced up until now and some important issues covered in them. I have to say that he was very thorough.

After that came the questions from the journalists. And you can imagine the question that would definitely be asked. It was about his alleged corruption case in Anti-corruption commission. He was asked weather he used AG office credit cards for any of his personal expenses. His answer was  a definite no. He explained to very detailed why they use credit cards in AG office, and about the issue in AAC.

Apparently the AG office use credit cards because the office have to buy stuff from overseas and they have to travel abroad a lot (its difficult to get US$ in Maldives). Sometimes when they travel they only take a very small amount of cash with them and have to buy clothing items like ties using the credit cards. And when they come back to Male’, they have the money reimbursed.

The other issue was supposedly a personal trip that the AG made to Baa Atoll. AG said that the trip was not a personal trip but an office trip, where he did office work and took the MTCC ferry to get there. He paid the money back to AG office because it was a trip made during the holidays.

Well two points I want to make. First it seems that the reason the Auditor General is blamed is because he paid back the expenses to the office. I believe and it seems that he also believes that he is within his every right to have these particular expenses paid by the AG office budget. I remember a lot of times when much larger expenses than this goes unnoticed. This is absolutely ridiculous! Boy, there really much be people who are desperate to have him sacked.

The other point I would like to make is that what DRP is doing is pure defamation. Last night Mavota Shareef was talking about character assassination and that MDP is doing it to DRP people. Well I don’t know a bigger attempt at character assassination than what DRP is doing now to the Auditor General.

Majlis debate on TVM

We are seeing Mavota, mahloof and hamza and another guy from MDP on TV debating about what happened today in Majlis.

I think this debate will go on for a long time. However I think today in parliament we saw the result of extreme frustration from the public. Its so obvious now that all DRP parliamentarians do is try to protect their investments.

Remember they were holding all powers for 30 years, and never anticipated of losing it. So they have made heavy investments in this country, the most important being Maumoon’s kingdom.

Why does DRP put on Mavota shareef on TV all the time? Does they not know that he is a failed politician? Why don’t they put on someone like Yamin or Thasneem? Arent they the seniors in the DRPA coalition.

Poor Mahloof and Mavota. And Mavota is the special envoy of the party! I bet the next thing they are going to have are advisors to the Zaeem. Mavota, Mahloof and the rest of the newbies are like janitors in the party. They have to do all the dirty work and the cleanup afterwards. Watch the majlis and you’ll know what I mean. You will never see Yaamin or Thasneem or Hamdoon proposing a ridiculous petition or supporting one of them. Its always one of the young activists, who themselves would not have the experience or the imagination to write up one. For instance today, when Nihan submitted the Hulhumale flat petition, he was speaking as if he had read it for the first time.

So one word description for DRP bigshots? Cowards

Posted by Wordmobi

Top heavy

Anni’s government seems so top heavy. I wonder why Anni allowed this to happen.

When he came to power, he promised the public that there will be unprecendetant reform – from top to bottom. Among other things, he promised that his government will be unlike the previous one.

After hearing all these speeches I thought he would not have as much political jobs as he does right now. But he does so its dissapointing.

When I think about the causes of it, I think he is obliged. So many people helped him to become the president that I think he is paying them back – with a highly paid job.

One thing that bothers me is how many unqualified people are there in senior posts. Sure there are educated people. But most of them are with no relevent experience especially on the management side. Some of them have just managed a few staff under them before becoming deputy minister or state minister.

What happens then is that they don’t have a clue on how to manage 100s of qualified civil service staff. And so they go into micromanaging, and being unable to utilize any of the staff at their respective offices.

Its not because the staff are anti-government that the government is finding it difficult to work with the civil service. Its just that they do not have qualified political staff.

So what is the next option for Anni?

Get another deputy or state minister into that office to do what a small section did before??

This is a sad situation. This increases the cost of running the government unnecessarily. These are places where the government can cut costs. Save another 30 or 40k a month.

Religious Harmony

During the time of President Maumoon, he used religion for his propaganda. Now, we all agree that he did this to extend his rule. He selectively chose parts of the Quran and Ahadith to emphasise on his version of Islam. We rarely heard a mention of the authenticity status of the Ahadith when he or his propaganda machine quotes.

Now after the new administation came to power, we are seeing less of an influence on religious issues directly by the president and more involvement by the Islamic Ministry. Or rather the Adhaalath party.

It is commendable that Adhaalath party has taken upon themselves to educate the public on religious issues. They’ve held sermons after sermons to address critical issues regarding Islam that could not be addressed before.

But when it comes to politics I find that the sermons or the messages propogated by the Adhaalath Ministers are very much to promote their political interests.

If you look at the friday newspaper hidhayathuge magu, you see articles on issues like taking photos, provident fund, etc… which frankly I think are less important than other critical religious issues in our society.

And I noticed that when discussing the issues, they do not discuss both sides of the story and rarely give any evidence to their argument.

Im not arguing about the validity of their verdicts, but Im just pointing out that they seem to be selectively choosing their topics which are in line with their political interests.

Posted by Wordmobi

Solving the drug issue

There are two areas we have to look into One is drug use, the other is drug trade. I believe capital punishment should be given to drug traffickers.

It is a well known secret that during the previous regime’s time, drug traffickers were given leniency because people higher up in the administration was benefiting from it. There is no reason to do so right now, and it seems that more drug trafickers are caught these day.

The other part of the problem is drug use. People are so sick with these addicts that all they want is to get rid of them… unless the addict is from their family.

From families of addicts we hear stories of sorrow and hardship. From the other side we hear stories of neglect and abuse. So what is the solution?

I believe the solution to drug use is much more difficult than drug trafficking, although they are both connected. Ofcourse fewer drug trafficking, fewer drug use. But that doesn’t solve the whole problem.

We have an alarmingly high rate of drug use compared to any country around the world. We can reduce it, but we cannot make ourselves drug free. There will always be youngsters who will fall into the trap of addiction.

We can say that this can be reduced if parents take care of their kids more and keep track of what they are doing.

Nowadays parents are complaining that they do not have time to take care of their kids- they have to work, both of them have to work to sustain the family. The other issue is the way we live in our society. Especially in places like Male’ huge families together live in confined areas. This creates additional social problems.

In regards to youngsters, they do not find it attractive or even comfortable to stay at home. They are always outside the house until its time to sleep. This further reduces the time families have with their kids.

Then there is the problem of youngster’s attitude on earning a living. The current generation is under the impression that we can have fun, not work, and live at the same time. The parents aren’t helping that either, and neither is the current education system.
This gives lots of free time for youngsters and nothing worthwhile to do, so they go to the easiest entertainment.

Then the problem comes with enforcement of laws. The streets on Male’ are so dangerous that people get mugged and knifed in daylight.

Dangerous streets – open for illegal business.

So as we can see the problem is more complex and needs a holistic solution.

The following is a list of things I think we need to do to fix the problem. Ive listed the parties I think would be involved in each task. It is also important the each and everyone of these tasks be carried as they are all related and one’s success depends on carrying out the other

Enforce capital punishment for drug trackers – Majlis to take action

Individual empowerment on functional and caring – Parents, NGOs, Religious scholars

Incorporating social eithics in the education system – Education Ministry, Parents, Religious scholars

Incorporate practicals and field work into the academic system to reduce the gap between school and work- Education Ministry

Reduce cost of living by providing housing, enabling decentralisation – Government

Reduce income gaps for sustainance of functional families by introducing income tax, social welfare, capping minimum wage – Majlis, Government, Private sector

Enforce laws on the street – Police

And most important of all to everyone to do their part and not fill our time in monitoring other people’s task.

So as we can see there is huge involvement needed by a lot of parties (Parents, Teachers, Education Ministry, Goverment as a whole, Majlis, Police, Religious scholars) to make this work in any meaningful way.

Posted by Wordmobi

Strike season

A few months ago there was the teacher’s strike. Then came the resort employee strike. Then the doctor’s strike.

Do doctors strike??!!
What was the reason?

Money

Basically they need more money. They are not happy with what they are getting now.
I was really alarmed when I heard that the teacher’s were going to strike. Then I was more troubled when I heard that the doctors went on strike.
Do they not have any moral obligations? Do they not have any work ethics? As far as I am concerned certain types of workers should not be allowed to strike on will. Jobs that would affect the public as a whole. Jobs where there is moral ethics involved. Jobs which are sought not for their salaries but for the oppotunity it allows the job holder to serve the public.
People who become a doctor just for the money it offers should seriously think of finding another career path.
I urge the public to ask them to resign too.
Otherwise we would be seeing our healthcare costs going up the roof
People like Dr. Raazi should be ashamed of himself. He apparently encouraged his children to become doctors so that they can also become filthy rich.

Posted by Wordmobi