Election Fever Rising Once Again

Members of the People's Majlis like to self style themselves 'honorable'. But 'honorable' could today be the last word people think of while referring to members of this supposed to be August body. Their public esteem appears to have taken a nosedive when they decided to hike their salaries several fold through a self vote. The Majlis's decision to take a holiday while important constitutional matters were pending before it did not help things. Neither did the recent debate on extending the lease tenure of tourist resorts. So what are the election prospects of the sitting members?

Today few people believe that any of the current members have any certainty of winning. The members themselves appear to share this sentiment. Most sitting members are abandoning their traditional atolls and moving to safer seats. Ali Mohamed (Noonu), Ibu (Lhaviyani), Ahmed Mohammed (Lhaviyani), Thasmeen (Baa), Shahid (Vaau), Afeef (Thaa), Modi and Maseeh (Gnaviyani) and Shareef (Seenu) are among the few who have so far announced their candidacy for their original constituencies.

The election scenario as it stands now shows the ruling party MDP ranged against former President Gayoom's DRP. In the choice of candidates the two parties appear to be adopting opposing philosophies. DRP has given preference to former government bigwigs and their families. Their list includes former ministers Mausoom, Hamdhun, Shahid and Thasmeen. Former President Gayoom's son Ghassan and Thasmeen's family members are also contesting the elections.

On the other hand, the ruling MDP has preferred ordinary persons close to the electorate. These candidates may not be rich and famous nationally, but they are quite popular in their own constituencies.

As of today, it's too early to predict the outcome of this contest between two opposing philosophies. Watch this space.

Towards a pragmatic approach to crime

The Maldives has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Currently about 1500 persons are sentenced to jail. In the meanwhile there are about 4000 persons under criminal investigation or awaiting trial. Even if half of these cases are convicted that would amount to a further 2000 jail sentences, taking the total of the jail population to 3500. Can the country handle this?

At current rates of expenditure, jailing 3500 people could cost up to 1 billion rufiyaa per year. Even if we manage to spend that amount, there is still the problem of finding space to hold 3500 people. Currently the jails have a combined capacity to hold just 900 persons (this includes buildings currently under construction.) Thus we face an impossible situation. How did we get into this mess?

With a penal code dating back to the 1960s and a drug law enacted in 1997, Maldives approach to crime has been Draconian, with long sentences passed for minor crimes. This strict approach has obviously not worked. It simply filled the jails to over-capacity and has led to the situation where "criminals go in through one door and come out through the other door." Should we continue with the current approach? Actually the question should be, 'CAN we continue with the current approach?'

The alternative to the Draconian approach is one of rehabilitation, or giving criminals the opportunity to turn a new leaf and start a useful life. However, there are many hurdles facing such an approach. One obstacle is legal. The existing laws give too few opportunities for rehabilitation, with the laws ignoring the real situation of criminals. The overwhelming majority of criminals in the Maldives are drug addicts, who have a variety of other associated crimes such as theft and drug peddling. Existing laws preclude rehabilitation chances for addicts with other associated crimes.

Another obstacle to rehabilitation is the difficulty faced by ex-criminals in finding jobs. Without gainful employment most ex-criminals return to jail sooner rather than later.

Thus the new approach to crime should be one of prevention and finding comprehensive solutions to the issues faced by criminals who want to turn a new leaf. This would ease the pressure on jails and give us the opportunity to deal strictly with the hardened criminals.

The time has come to face reality. It is simply not possible to put everyone in jail and forget about them. It's also not realistic to put all drug addicts in an uninhabited island and forget them. A more pragmatic approach is needed.

Civil Service Reforms

Yesterday the Government and the Civil Service Commission jointly announced reforms in the civil service ranging from salary restructuring to changes in working hours. As with any major change the reactions from the people have been mixed. Here is a sampling of some comments I heard.

Abolishing Professional Allowance: This has been a very divisive issue. Those without university degrees widely welcomed the move, citing equal pay for equal work. However others, particularly those with degrees, say the move will discourage graduates from joining government service.

Working Hours: Few people believe the new working hours will benefit either employees or the government. For employees the need to remain in the office till 4 pm will preclude them from doing any part time work in the afternoon. Given the traffic conditions in Male employees will have a tough time returning in one hour after taking lunch at home.

From the government point of view the break in service from 12 Noon to 1 pm would cause inconvenience to the public. Further, employees returning late from lunch would cause further delays to waiting customers.

Financial burden: Employees would definitely welcome the increased pay packet. But people who think beyond self interest have some doubts whether the economic burden can be borne by the ailing economy.

Something Rotten in the State of our Public Companies

When Maldives Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) was launched friends advised me to buy its shares. I refused. From the less-than-respectable history of public corporations in the Maldives I had my doubts. One year later when MTDC paid a dividend nearly equal to the original investment my friends had triumphant smiles. The smiles faded last October when the company’s audit report was released.

With Bank of Maldives I was less cautious. This may partially have been because when the company went for a public issue, it had been apparently running professionally and efficiently for some years –long enough to lull my suspicions. It may partially also have been because I had worked earlier in a bank and was a bit familiar with the internal safeguards that operated in banks. But the audit report released on Sunday indicates that my confidence was misplaced. Probably I’ll lose my investment in the bank. Fortunately my savings are not in Bank of Maldives.

From Qaumee Company to MITE and MTCC to MTDC, the plight of ordinary shareholders has been the same. Forget about getting any profit, they should consider themselves lucky if they manage to get their investment back. These companies were all formed with the lofty goal of giving ordinary people the chance to invest their meager savings. But they all end up with unscrupulous managements fleecing unwary shareholders.

Today there is a Company Law and a Registrar of Companies established under the law. There is a Capital Market Development Authority and a Monetary Authority to regulate the financial sector. But things are only getting worse if any. At least in the 1960s those responsible for swindling Qaumee, Orchid and MITE companies were prosecuted and brought to book. But later those who swindled FPID, MIFCO, MTCC, STO, STELCO and MTDC were not only left scot free, but also given promotions, many to ministerial level.

Taking action against perpetrators of economic crimes is not just a question of recovering stolen money. It’s more a question of reestablishing the moral norms of our society. An entire generation has been brought up believing that corruption is the smart thing to do. If another generation goes that way, the word corruption itself will have no meaning at all. Surely that’s not the good governance we want to establish in the Maldives.

Is Majlis More Equal Than the Other Two Powers?

People's Majlis's decision to take a long holiday without passing the legislative frame for the constitutionally mandated general elections slated for February plunged the country into its first ever constitutional crisis. It also plunged the legislature into a controversy, which many believe lowered the institution's esteem by a further few notches. Supreme
Court ruled Tuesday against the Majlis decision. Now the nation waits with bated breath for the next salvo from the Majlis. In the meanwhile two questions remain unanswered.

Question 1:
Does the Majlis have final say over the other two branches of the state? Some Majlis members appear to believe that since they represent the people they must have the last word. This begs the question: who does the President represent? After all he is elected by a majority of the people of the Maldives in a direct election. When it comes to the Chief Justice, while he is not elected, his appointment by the other two branches gives him an indirect mandate from the people. Thus, the Majlis's claim to be the sole voice of the people does not appear very strong. In this particular instance can the Majlis with any confidence claim that its decision enjoys the support of a majority of Maldivians? Further, if one branch of the state has overwhelming power, is it compatible with the concept of 'checks and balances'?

Question 2: Where does the Attorney General stand constitutionally? The AG is appointed almost like any other member of the cabinet of ministers and remains a member of the executive. However he/she is supposed to represent the interests of not just the government, but the whole state in courts. This is fine under normal circumstances, but could lead to serious controversy when the interests of two branches of the state are at loggerheads.

The bottom line is can anyone, even if it's the Majlis, act with impunity and expect its decisions to go unchallenged?

 

Is Pole and Line Fishing Environment Friendly?

MIFCO tuna cans proudly display the slogan 'Dolphin Friendly.' What it means is that the cans contain tuna caught by pole and line fishing, which does not harm dolphins. That may be true. But is the method 'reef friendly' too?

As we all know pole and line fisheries depends on live bait harvested from reefs. The process is not entirely harmless to the reefs, with delicate corals prone to damage at the hands of careless boat crews. For this reason in fact most tourist resorts strongly resent bait harvesting in their vicinity.

The risk has increased in recent years with the arrival of large fiberglass boats and the increase in fish catch to over 150,000 metric tons per year. Unfortunately despite the advance in technology these boats still depend on live bait harvested from the same reefs.

The sustainability of live bait harvesting is also under question with the increased number of fishing vessels, many of which use strong lights to attract huge quantities of bait. Perhaps we may learn a few lessons from the experience of others. A research report from the neighboring Lakshadweep Islands says, "Islanders still practice traditional pole and line fishing methods for tuna. Additionally, various stresses and the increased harvesting of live bait (for tuna fishing) within lagoons have resulted in the decline of bait fish and additional stress on the reefs."

The question is how long this can go on unregulated before bait species disappear like the sea cucumber did some years back.

Politics without Principles

 By Mohamed Shiham

The focus on the personality ethic is the instant creation of an image that sells well in the social and economic marketplace.

You see politicians spending millions of dollars to create an image, even though it's superficial, lacking substance, in order to get votes and gain office. And when it works, it leads to a political system operating independently of the natural laws that should govern- that are build into the Declaration of Independence: " We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness….."

In other words, they are describing self-evident, external observable, natural, unarguable, self-evident laws: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident". The key to a healthy society is to get the social will, the value system, aligned with correct principles. If there is no principle, there is no true north, nothing you can depend upon. You then have the compass needle pointing to true north- true north representing the external or the natural law- and the indicator says that what we are building our value system on: they are aligned.

But if you get a sick social will behind the political will that is independent of principle, you could have a very sick organization or society with distorted values.  For instance, the professed mission and shared values of criminals who rape, rob, and plunder might sound very much like many corporate mission statements, using such words as "teamwork", "corporation", "loyalty", "profitability", "innovation", and "creativity". The problem is that their value system is not based on a natural law.

Figuratively, inside many corporations with lofty mission statements, many people are being mugged in broad daylight in front of witness. Or they are being robbed of self-esteem, money, or position without due process. And if there is no social will behind the principles of due process, and if you can't get due process, you have to go to the jury of your peers and engage in counterculture sabotage.

In the movie The Ten Commandments, Moses says to the pharaoh "We are to be governed by God's law, not you." In effect he's saying, "We will not be governed by a person unless that person embodies the law". In the best societies and organizations, natural laws and principles govern-that's the Constitution- and even the top people must bow to the principle. No one is above it.

Lexicon of Decentralization and Regionalization

For centuries the representative of the Sultan in the atolls had the title ‘Vaaru Veriyaa.’ This Dhivehi term translates to something like ‘Head of Revenue,’ and gives a clue as to his job responsibility. Certainly the Vaaru Veriyaa’s post was not service oriented, though his administration did include service oriented officials –katheebs who led prayers and buried the dead, and naaibs who delivered justice. Written history gives very few clues as to any other services provided in the island by the central government. Historically therefore decentralization will be a paradigm shift in atoll governance. The terms decentralization and regionalization are not synonymous and they are also associated with other buzz words. How many of them do you know?

Regionalization: The process of dividing a political entity or country into smaller jurisdictions (administrative divisions or sub national units) and transferring power from the central government to the regions; the opposite of unitarisation.

Decentralization: The process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people or citizen.

Political decentralization: Giving citizens or their elected representatives more power in public decision-making.

Administrative decentralization: Redistributing authority, responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of governance.

Fiscal Decentralization: Dispersal of financial responsibility and ensuring adequate level of revenues

Economic and Market Decentralization: Privatization and deregulation to shift responsibility for functions from the public to the private sector.

Deconcentration: Shifting responsibilities from central government officials in the capital city to those working in regions. It is the weakest form of decentralization and is used most frequently in unitary states-- redistributes decision making authority and financial and management responsibilities among different levels of the national government.

Delegation: transferring responsibility for decision-making and administration of public functions from central governments to semi-autonomous organizations not wholly controlled by the central government, but ultimately accountable to it. This is a more extensive form of decentralization compared to deconcentration.

Devolution: transferring authority for decision-making, finance, and management to quasi-autonomous units of local government with corporate status. Devolution usually transfers responsibilities for services to local governments that elect their own elected functionaries and councils, raise their own revenues, and have independent authority to make investment decisions.

Vaaru Veriya: Originally an official responsible for revenue collection in an atoll, later took on the functions of atoll chief.

Khatheeb: Originally an island official responsible for religious services, later taking the role of island chief.

Naaib: An island level official responsible for justice, later replaced by Qazi and finally magistrate.

Atoll: Originally a ring shaped group of islands, later an administrative unit consisting of a 3 to 17 islands.

Rah: originally an island, later an administrative unit in an island, some islands having more than one unit functioning as a Rah –example Fuahmulah.

What factors will decide the Majlis elections?

"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none." –Jean Baudrillard

The conventional wisdom till October last year was if one had enough 500 rufiyaa notes to distribute on Election Day, one was assured of victory. This doctrine however came for a severe hammering almost overnight with the lukewarm response Qasim Ibrahim received for his presidential bid. All of a sudden one started hearing comments such as, 'Qasim is a good businessman and philanthropist, but not the type of person we want as president." Does this herald a paradigm shift from the plutocratic politics of the past decade, and if so what will the new determinants of the forthcoming Majlis elections be?

Money: Even if the direct influence of money is reduced it will continue to play a significant role because money will certainly be needed for campaigning. Even in the past, campaign financing may have been as important if not more important than direct vote buying. In the days prior to the formation of political parties, only government officials and businessmen had the resources to conduct campaigns in the atolls.

Government performance: Most people who voted for MDP Coalition probably voted for change –not just any change, but change for better governance. Thus the government's ability to deliver on its promises will influence voter choice. In South Asian politics a phenomenon referred to as the "Anti – Incumbency Factor" plays a significant role in elections. This factor is likely to increase if Majlis elections are delayed.

Island level patriotism: Parochial feelings at the island level are likely to be more important this time than in the past because of two reasons. One, smaller electoral constituencies comprising few islands or even a single island in some cases will enable island based leaders to campaign with relatively low budgets. Two, disillusion with party politics that is widespread in the islands will favor independents.

Religion: Religion is likely to play a relatively smaller role in this election. The truth is that the status of Islam in the Maldives was never under any real threat. The bogey of Christianity was raised as a convenient platform to attack political opponents. "Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations…
Today's Islamic fundamentalism is also a cover for political motifs." –Jurgen Habermas

G-Factor: Let us not forget that former President Gayoom had the support of 40% of the Maldivian electorate as shown by the results of the first round of presidential election. It's left to the readers to guess what this percent will now be. Physically Gayoom may be old and past his prime, but not his image among a certain segment of the population. In elections simulacra are more important than reality.

Renewing an Age-old Friendship

During President Nasheed's current visit to Sri Lanka he will be renewing a relation that is as old as Maldives itself. According to the generally accepted hypothesis on the origin of human settlement in the Maldives, it was a Sri Lankan prince who brought the first pioneers to the archipelago.

Maldivians and Sri Lankans share close ethnic and linguistic features reflecting their common ancestry. Sinhala and Dhivehi are closely related cousins, both belonging to the Indo Aryan family of languages, in contrast to the Dravidian family of languages prevalent in South India. Before the Maldives embraced Islam in 1150 CE, the two countries also shared Buddhism as the common religion.

The two countries have been exemplary neighbors throughout their long history. Despite the close proximity Sri Lanka has never attempted to invade the Maldives unlike the Malabaris of South India. This perhaps reflects the peaceful nature of the Sinhala culture.

Over most of the past century Sri was the gateway to the Maldives and the Maldives representative in Colombo was responsible for external relations and trade. Sri Lanka was also the market for Maldives' main export product –Maldive fish.

Bilateral relations further strengthened when in 1960 Sri Lankan teachers laid the foundation of modern education in the Maldives. Today the relations circle more round business with Sri Lankan developers investing heavily in Maldivian resorts.

Over the next few days, President Nasheed will be meeting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and holding official talks with the President and Sri Lankan officials. The President and First Lady will be officially welcomed in Colombo and President Rajapakse will hold a State Banquet in honor of the President. President Rajapakse visited Maldives and attended President Nasheed's inauguration on 11 November 2008.

Sri Lanka is the favorite country for a large number of Maldivian students for schooling and higher education. A large number of Maldivians also visit Sri Lanka to receive medical treatment from its renowned hospitals. For many Maldivians Sri Lanka is truly a home away from home.