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The term 'Atoll Council' as defined in the decentralization bill currently under debate in the Majils has led to a political maelstrom and a war of words between the President and his Attorney General, who believes the councils are unconstitutional. Below is what the Constitution says on the subject.
Article 230 (b): "For the purpose of governing the administrative divisions according to the principles of decentralization, the President has the power to create institutions, posts, island councils, atoll councils and city councils, as provided in law."
Schedule II of the Constitution lists out the 'administrative divisions.' The list comprises 21 divisions: the existing 20 atolls of Maldives plus Male.
In the light of Article 230 (b) above, the President has the power to create 5 entities, three of which are councils. The question is where do these councils belong?
Let us start with 'island' council, probably the least controversial among the three. There appears to be no dispute that the word 'island' here refers to the existing administrative islands of Maldives (which in some cases could be more than one in a geographical island, e.g. Fuvahmulah).
Defining 'city' council is also not that controversial. According to common perception, Male is the nearest to a city that the Maldives has. Further, Schedule II lists Male as an administrative division. Since it is the only division in the list which is not an atoll, putting 2 and 2 together, it is reasonable to assume that 'city council' belongs to Male.
This brings us to the bone of contention –atoll council. Attorney General Dhiyana Saeed appears to favor the view that an atoll council should belong to one of the 20 atolls listed as administrative divisions in Schedule II. However, this is not how the draft bill on decentralized administration sees things. According to the bill, an 'atoll' council need not belong to just one administrative atoll. Rather it could belong to the 2 - 4 atolls in the provinces proposed by the bill.
The decentralized administration bill is currently in the Majlis, where members will decide the issue and pass the law. After that it could perhaps go to the Supreme Court for a ruling on whether the law is constitutional.
9 comments:
The Constitution must be amended to provide for provinces. Atolls are too small for development.
Is AG supposed to give unsolicited opinions? or is she supposed to reply to questions put to her? Now that there is a prosecutor general the role of AG is more or less redundant. Even civil service is not listening to her.
After all this happend Dhiyana must resign. why is she staying in cabinet?
feel sorry for dhiyana. she's a good girl. but needs more education, more experience.
Maldives is a unitary state. these councils can only do municipal services and limited socio-economic programs. Beyond that their mandates will clash with government ministries.
a fakka mistake, Di...whether they are called atoll councils, they must belong to sectors. I really don't understand what we are going to achieve by having once again a nationalised planning of the atolls this time in a different name calling them 'provinces' which maybe good for long term planning. But if we do first thing first and develop a revenue generating region, a resourceful region, like Addu Atoll to a city type island, all this 'council' ideas will become outdated and change form into governance.
I believe the attorney General has stepped outside of her legal boundaries more than once. She has used her position for political gains. Her office is not an independent institution. According to the constitution article 129 (b), the Attorney General is a cabinet member. The Attorney General's oath reads "...discharge the duties and responsibilities entrusted to me by the President...", further article 134 (a) says "Members of the Cabinet are responsible individually and collectively to the President" (b) says "Members of the Cabinet shall regularly and fairly report to the President on all matters under their jurisdiction" 136 (b) says "A member of the Cabinet shall not use his position or any information entrusted to him by virtue of his office to improperly benefit himself or any other person" Article 137 (a) says "The President may at his discretion remove any member of the Cabinet from office" Its time to fire the attorney general. No government should tolerate this kind of behaviour from a cabinet member.
AG,although a cabinet member must discharge her duties in an independent manner. According to the constitution in discharging her duties she must only take direction from the law and the constitution.Giving legal opinions/advice to the Government is her duty.
Why doesn't Anni make one happy big Atoll Council. This Atoll Council could be the Majlis. Then it becomes cheaper and more in the spirit of unitary state that Maldives is.
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