Talking Point

Q [1] - From personal experience I can say that our press is not free because the government genuinely wants it to be so. It’s free because they have no choice at this point of time, and it’s also free because of a lot of work done by people like you within the government. I know from my personal experience that the elements within the government try to pressure most independent media to tone down their criticism against the government and to limit opportunity to the opposition. They are using every tool available to them to suppress criticism. This type of pressuring is not done through the Information Ministry and I know for a fact that the Information Ministry does not know anything about this. It’s done directly to each media office and to the leading heads of such organizations directly by the President's staff. This shows that the President cannot digest criticism. This has made me believe what Dr. Hassan Saeed and Jameel said. Do you have any information about such events? What would you say to the private media who face this kind of pressure from the highest level of the government?

The Attorney General’s Office recently made a public announcement that it would revisit cases decided in the recent past to identify loopholes through which pedophiles avoided harsh punishment. The announcement also mentioned that work is in progress to introduce procedures that would keep alleged child sex offenders out of the streets while under investigation, on trial and serving sentences. The same announcement also made it clear that a mechanism would be introduced to allow the public to check if their neighborhoods are safe from convicted pedophiles.

Here is a response from a very distinguished person very relevant to the topic under discussion. For purposes of protocol I would not mention a name. But this is the first time I am putting a post from a different person at a place other than the comment line and giving it individual treatment. If you knew the person, you would also say that the list of answers from this person does need specific treatment. I would say that the author of this post is relevant to the issue of pedophiles even more than I am. Thank you for taking time to visit the blog and leaving a specific response on a special issue.

Jetty No: 1 as it is often called is the official jetty through which the President, Chief Justice, Speaker, Ministers, high ranking Judges, Members of Parliament or other high ranking officials the Republic of Maldives board off Male’ in their travel either by sea or air.

Of recent origin, however, the immediate vicinity of Jetty No 1 is becoming a new bully zone used to intimidate and defame high ranking officials of this government.

I started this blog in April 2007. First post was written on 18 April 2007. Within these five months, I have done 103 posts. I have touched several issues. To this day, I have published 1706 comments. They have covered many issues.

From the voting age of 18 years to the bullying at the Number One Jetty, I have spoken from my heart. I have only being mindful of cabinet confidentiality and breach of ethics. Other than that nothing has held me back while writing those posts. From that first post in April 2007, the comments I have received till this day, have made me aware of various new issues and several novel dimensions I never knew existed.

Thank you for all the comments sent to the New Bully Zone at Jetty One. Here are my comments on those issues I could identify reading those comments.

I am not sure if it is. What I know is that few media outlets have in the recent past quoted anxiously from my blog on several issues: the reasons for the resignation of three ministers; offer of the post of Attorney General; division of AGO functions; appointment of an Attorney General; my own resignation and spicy sensations of like nature.

May the holy month of Ramadan bring all of us closer to God Almighty, our families and our friends. May we find time to pause and reflect upon our lives. May God reward our good deeds. May God forgive our sins. And may God continue to bless us all.

Mohamed Nasheed

Often people say that few reform bills have actually been “through” parliament and become law. Timelines in the roadmap for various bills have passed without those bills being enacted into law.

I was born and bred in Machchangolhi ward of Male’. I had left my family house on Mirihimagu, now renamed as Iskandharu Magu, when I got married in 1996. I went to live with my wife at her place in Henveyru. Since then I had moved houses a few times but never went back to my family house for several reasons.

Finally, Cable Television Rules 2007 will come into force from Sunday, 16 September 2007 onwards. What comes into effect Sunday will largely be a revision of the rules followed since 2001. The new system of rules will also incorporate major policy improvements and important policy shifts based upon lessons learnt these six years.

Hussain Fiyaz Moosa reported in Haveeru Daily that the drafting committee of the Special Majlis has adopted a provision which would preclude a person who has been president for two terms from contesting again.

Sorry, my machine was overwhelmed by viruses of all sorts for the past few days. I had to wait for the machine to be formatted. I have lost a lot of data including some comments to the last post. Whatever I could save, I have just published. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Mohamed Nasheed

The mood is being set for the Special Majlis to get into high gear to adopt the provisions of the revised constitution. Nearing a feverish pitch to meet the deadline of 30 November, almost all the chapters of the constitution are now completed by the drafting committee. Members have already being given four of the draft chapters. Some more have been completed and await dispatch to members. Others are being fine tuned by the drafting committee.