Talking Point

Legal Reform has been added to the list of my official responsibilities. With that addition comes responsibility for introducing implementing legislation that would be required under the new constitution; that would be required for the economic development and social transformation that is taking shape; that would be required to complete the milestones of the reform agenda; that would be required for specific sectors in aiding their own development; that would be required for creating a framework that is conducive for a liberal democracy to become a reality in the Maldives.

Al Jazeera International, on its “101 East”, the Asia Pacific current affairs show, presented a Maldives special on Thursday, 1 November. It was called the “Frontline: Maldives”.

Yes, I did say on this blog in August that I would not become Attorney General and that accepting the post after Hassan’s departure would be like marrying the ex-wife of my best friend. At the time, I was expressing my honest feelings. The resignation of Hassan could have been a good breaking story for some, a good piece of news for others. But for me, it was an irretrievable fact of life that caused a deep sense of shock and disbelief.

In adopting the provisions of the draft constitution, the Special Majlis has often been brought to the brink of collapse on the issue of Shari’ah. When the Bill of Rights was adopted the issue surfaced many times. It almost tore the floor in half every time the issue arose. Some members insisted that certain rights must be subject to Islamic Shari’ah. Some rights were also argued to be in conflict with Shari’ah. Today again, the assembly revising the constitution went into a huge uproar on the issue of Shari’ah. The Majlis was debating the chapter on judiciary when it had to close the meeting prematurely for losing the requisite quorum.

For want of a single vote, the Bill on Freedom of Information failed today in parliament. Two years of expectation, several months of work, and three days of intense debate went down the drain this noon when the vote to see if the bill was acceptable to parliament failed to win the required 26 votes. There were a total of 27 members. 25 voted in favor while 2 members abstained.

A story carried by AFP on 14 November 2007 under the heading ‘Maldives moves against veiled Women, Jihadis on TV” has generated media excitement here in the Maldives. There were a few calls made to Ali Khalid at TVM asking for clarifications. The article was based on an interview the author had with me a few days back.

In the afternoon of Saturday, November the 17th, when some key provisions of the chapter on the legislature failed in the Special Majlis to sail through, government ministers became the natural target of an orchestrated bashing spree during the following session held the same day. Amongst those key provisions which failed to get through in the Saturday afternoon session were draft provisions relating to ministers questions before parliament, impeachment of the president and immunity of the legislature.

In my previous post, I was talking about the issue of executive accountability to legislature and the reasons surrounding the failure of that provision to carry through in the Special Majlis on November 17th.

I have read the article published in Miadhu Daily on this link http://www.miadhu.com.mv/news.php?id=4335 regarding the publication of two articles by Praveen Swami of The Hindu on fundamentalist tendencies in the Maldives. The Miadhu article also refers to my meeting with Praveen and also the meeting held at the Television Maldives. I will make two clarifications here in respect of those two meetings.

I met the media today. In the aftermath of the defeat of the Right to Information Bill in parliament on 14th November 2007, there has been significant media speculation about the future of any freedom of information bill or any regulatory mechanism to institute that right in the country. My aim in meeting the media today was to put all that speculation to rest and explain the position of the Government.

The amendment that I proposed to disallow Maldivians having foreign spouses to run for the country’s top job came under intense media scrutiny today. I have been accused of putting up a cheap legal impediment to bar Dr Hassan Saeed from running for President. The Maldives Government has had to suffer a similar attack.

“On World Press Freedom Day, the report card on press freedom in [_______] must be characterized as chilling. It is not an iron curtain over access to information, but for some forms of information of public interest it might as well be. Public discourse is increasingly hindered by restricted information, cover-ups, deliberate misleading spin and suppression.

I read with great disbelief that Haama Noos as an “independent and responsible” daily newspaper would want to portray me as a pathological liar. For the benefit of readers I must underline here that I have put the phrase “independent and responsible” in describing Haama Daily in inverted commas.