Dear President Nasheed,
I pen this letter to you with a heavy heart. A heart that is weary of seeing the same things repeated in our society, things which are tearing this nation apart.
Our Party, the Liberal Party, joined your Administration at your request, to support you in your pledge to the people of this country to better the country. To contribute to and to take part in a process which would pave the way for good governance; and to work towards eradicating various social ills abounding this nation. However, the lack of a proper consultation process within the “Alliance” has prevented us from taking part in your Administration in a meaningful way.
In this situation, I have tried to reach out to you in numerous ways to put forward my tuppence worth of suggestions to you. I do understand that the President of the country will have mighty little time to spare to listen to the ramblings of a “has been” politician who was able to muster only 1382 votes.
Mr. President. I may not be worth listening to. But listen to the voices of the people of this country. Try to gauge their concerns by listening to them. While a few more Rufiyaas in their pockets will be appreciated by them, there may be even graver concerns. Don’t delude yourself into believing that the last election was concluded on a platform of “5 promises”. The overwhelming emotion of the public was their desperation at the lack of Justice in all its senses.
Mr. President. Are you aware that the root of all problems in this nation is the lack of the rule of law? Do you realize that Qayyoom symbolized the anti-thesis of the whole concept of the rule of law? That he became the object of the loathing of many, including you, because of it? So then, Mr. President what have you done, what are you doing, to establish the rule of law in the country? Do you sincerely believe that putting a few Rufiyaas in people’s pockets is going to bring in order to a chaotic situation? If you do, you have already started to plug holes in a brand new ship just after weighing anchor on its maiden voyage. That was exactly what Qayyoom was doing from his 10th year in office.
The systematic undermining of the rule of law by the previous regime has disgorged the entire social fabric of the country. I need not outline in detail, the woes faced by us. The lawlessness which prevails, the utter disdain for rules and laws, the loss of faith in the justice system which has people believing that they should take the law into their hands and get justice mob-style, the sheer disregard for the human person evident in the mushrooming of pedophiles, rapists and murderers, the increasingly young age of offenders all point to a systems break of the largest magnitude.
Mr. President. The problems, and their extent spells an extreme situation, and extreme situations call for extreme measures. The problems cannot be tackled by the government alone. They can’t be solved by State Officials by themselves. The entire nation has to be mobilized if we are to get out of this hell hole. You can see the reaction of the Mob in relation to efforts by the police to establish the authority of the law. They will come after the Police, the Cabinet, the MPs and any other who will stand in their way. Only the unifying of the Public, across political divisions can combat this evil.
That brings me to the point of this letter, Mr.President. It is only you who can unify the nation on this one. It is your Constitutional duty to do that. The Constitution spells out in black and white that it is your Constitutional duty and obligation to promote unity among the people. You can’t do that by ignoring the majority of the people in this country and just acknowledging people of a certain political membership. You will be deepening the divisions even further.
Mr. President. You are the PRESIDENT of this country, elected by UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. You are not the PRIME MINISTER appointed by a majority party in the Majlis. The Maldivian Constitution does not provide for a Prime Minister yet, Mr. President. I remind you, lest you forget.
Sincerely yours in nationhood,
Ibrahim Ismail,
MP for Male’
Dear Ibra,
ReplyDeleteI have lost faith in the current Parliament. The current parliament is too selfish. All these time we the public are so concerned about the gang fights. We fear to come out to street. We are now only going to the places where we had to be. When we are walking on the street, if our hand accidently touches a gang member we are being knife or hammered. Even police officers are being attacked. There is only safety for us if we or one member of our family join to one of these gangs. Then the gang will protect our family.
Every time a murder happens in Maldives it will be tabled to majlish as a ‘kohli mahsala’. What is the outcome of it? Our parliamentarians just talk about these things and that is it. Till this date there has been nothing done except talk about the murders in all of these times where it was tabled as a ‘kohli mahsala’. Are we paying these parliamentarians only to talk in the chamber with out bringing any output?
Our mothers and sisters can’t walk on the road. They are being harassed. I wonder whether Maldivians are so vulgar that they can’t keep their mouth with out harassing the women who had to walk on the road. Women who walk alone on the street are being touched sometimes by accident or sometimes purposely. Don’t the women have the right to walk on the streets? The young children of this nation are being molested. Our young girls are being raped or gang raped. Pictures and videos of all of these acts are being distributed as if it was a thing which they have to be proud of and as if the purpose of it is to destroy future of these people or the future of this nation. But for the parliamentarian what is important is passing a pension bill which has biggest benefit for them. What is important for the president is the number of MP seats that his party gets. What is important for the judges is their administrative work or to get the judicial service commission to under their belt.
The current parliament is more interested to pass a bill that will guarantee pension of the members of parliament. All these independents places are so selfish. They don’t think about any other people. They only think about their own salary, their working condition and the other benefits that they should get. I am sick to my stomach to see people with out any integrity and people with this caliber in the so called independent institution and parliament. I am ashamed to call parliament members as elected members.
I know there are few members, in the parliament, who are working hard to do things which will benefit people other than parliament members. But I have no respect to any of parliament members as the output or the works of the parliament shows how concerned you are with normal, poor and ordinary majority of the people of this nation.
So god please helps this nation if there is a nation called Maldives any more.
Yours Sincerely,
Ali Ibrahim
I am hoping he gets this - unlike some of the Maldivians who consider your blog posts as "long-winded rhetoric".
ReplyDeleteI quite not understand the crux of your appeal Ibra. Your letter rambles about the law and order situation of the country and ends by calling for ‘political unity’. More precisely you are asking for MDP to share it’s almost grip on Maldives by more practical (spirit and word) inclusion of other parties in governance.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are not another power hungry politician looking to eke out your political capital under this sad law and order situation in our country. Or is this your feeble attempt to rock the MDP boat that has been sailing steady and so far avoided the big rocks beneath?
What ever your reasons Ibra, for a people who have been denied justice for so long there is so much confusion in the minds of people about what justice means and sadly what is wrong and what is acceptable. Families want to protect their sons who chop others. Wives don’t talk about what their husbands do to them or their daughters. It is also OK to have more offspring’s and let anything spring out of them. There is apathy in our minds. We don’t really care about our fellow brothers and sisters do we?
The question Ibra is how we can weave back our torn social fabric. Thread by thread.
Politicians alone cannot solve this crisis. True they must project a united stance, make legislations, and construct jail space. But it is the society who must awaken and do the right thing as truly we have woken not.
I hope Presidents considers this letter. I had great hopes for Anni's administrations, but the anormity of the chaos and division in this country and Presidents lack of Focus on social problems is dragging us to an even worse state than before.
ReplyDeleteWe need to reform the social values and laws attached to it first and foremost. not the civil service Pay or any other pay. Money is worthless where there is no social harmony.
I hope your concern will be heard. But I am not sure the method you have suggested is the best way. I am not sure all this is happening because there is no rule of law in this country.
ReplyDeleteI am very surprised that Prosecutor General has decided to sue a minor regarding Ali Ishar December 2007 murder case. 5 members were involved in this fight. Ok police may not have evidence that these 5 people murdered ishar. But they must have evidence and they must be tried for attempted murder. Or atleast tried in court for fighting in the public. Why are these things happening. Is it because we dont have rule of law. Do we have proper laws to control the figting.
We need to find the root cause of these things. Unless the offenders are punished properly these things will never stop.
The truth is we only created this mess and only we the Maldivians are to be blamed for all of this. The question is do we have the will to make all these correct.
-G. Alim-
This lack of justice is happening all over the world. Here where I live, not in Maldives though not a day goes by I don't ache to be back, the police are threatening to go on strike because the gangs beat the hell out of the police and the police go to jail for it because their 'approach was too heavy handed.' One cop was paralyzed for life by some thug, trying to stop him the thug from hurting someone. Anyway, the point is, politics and democracy and human rights cannot solve the Maldives problems, where I live they have a far more developed democratic culture than in Maldives. No, the answer to this problem is something deeper, it is the lack of morality, it is the selfishness of society which is doing this, and I don not think rules and laws will combat this.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of losing your input in parliament makes me deeply sad, Ibra, but if the ppl don't want you they do not deserve you and they don't know that you are the best thing for them. But May Allah Bless whatever you do. Abdul-Rahman
ReplyDelete@ Abdul-Rahman :
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard from you in a while! Good to know you're still around and keeping an eye on things.
I will be contesting the Machchangolhi Uthuru seat for Majlis, and Insha Allah, I will succeed. If I don't, then it just means the public do not approve of what I am doing in the Majlis, and I have to muster the grace to bow down to the people's will and do some hard thinking.
Dear Ibra,
ReplyDeleteYour fellows in Majlis have been collaborating with the Government since 1997 (web launched in Maldives) to copy-paste legislation from the Internet without a thought to what's happening outside your hallowed chambers.
I'm fed up with the disconnected, thoughtless nature of the State.
Dear Ibra,
ReplyDeleteI saw the letter you sent to Machchangolhi Uthuru. It was as long as your blog posts. I'm surprised you think your constituency can read. If I were you I'd not be disappointed if the "public" disapproved. I'd spit on the public and move on to a more civil society away from this criminal and ignorant ghetto.
The public must be held responsible for what it's done of this place. I feel burdened by responsibility for the heroin addicts, the corruption, the murder, the violence, the whores, the pedophiles and the homosexuals. Maybe I should have done something. Smug sanctimonious disapproval is not sufficient.
"A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other."
- J.S. Mill
Regards.
@Anonymous (Mar 20, 9:08 am) :
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "Your fellows" I must say I am the only Liberal Party MP. I don't have any other collaborators in Majlis.
When you say you are "fed up" I don't believe you. If you were really fed up, you would stop wasting your time bashing me under anonymity and get off your butt and actually do something about it and have the courage to do it publicly.
Read the quote from J. S Mill in the comment by Shareef,just below your comment.
We have translated your letter into Dhivehi Language because it calls for national unity and eliminating the very core problems we are concerned about. If there is any mistake please feel free to point it/them out.
ReplyDeletehttp://opposeanni.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_16.html
Heyoverin Movement
Dear Ibra,
ReplyDeleteI have only one thing to tell to the so called elected members of Majlish. The honorable members please this in mind;
"There will be no peace until there is justice in a place"
So it wont be rocket science to identify what is important to the country right now. So I hope you people wont sit on your asses to these real issues that we face as nation.
Rgds
Hassan
@Hassan :
ReplyDeleteIt may not take rocket science to identify the lack of justice as the single weakest link in the state machinery. But it sure will take more than rocket science for me to figure out how I can sit on my stomach or my head. The only way I know how to sit is on my arse.
Yeah So better keep on sitting your ass in the real problems we face as a nation and pass all the bills that benefits the Majlish members most as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteIs this the great achievement that we can get from the so called the great new constitution. Dont the normal majority of this nation have a right to live. Does only the criminals of this nation have rights. Doesnt the Maldivians have the basic right to live. Which one' right is more important. Criminal rights or the non criminal rights.
I ask this question are we all Maldivians going to wait till something happens to a loved one of you. Are we going to talk about these when ever a person is murdered or raped and after a short while forgets about it untill another event takes place.
You can joke about me or make jokes today about my comments my dear friend Ibra. But next generation will joke about you and other collegue MPs tomorrow if you people waste your time playing politics instead of showing quick solutions. The next generation of Maldives or the future of Maldives is on the verge of dying.
Rgds
Hassan
@Hassan :
ReplyDeleteYou could have expressed your real concern even in your first comment. Are these concerns going to be solved by your snide remarks at me?
As for Majlis solving problems. Let me enlighten you a little bit. The Majlis has passed law which criminalizes murder and defined it as an offence which carries either the death sentence or a life sentence. The law says rape is an offence. The law says violence against a person or a person's property is an offence, punishable by a jail term.
If you listened to the Majlis before you lashed out today, you would have known that I have proposed a bill to Majlis today criminalizing pedophilia. This is the first time it has been done in this country.
The Majlis has passed a police act which gives the police legal powers to investigate offences and arrest criminals and to take people into protective custody. The Majlis has passed law to setup a prosecutor general's office. The Majlis has written a constitution which has made the judiciary independent. The Majlis has given legal status to a criminal procedures regulation, which will formally become law in the next couple of weeks. The Majlis has passed timely budgets as per governments proposals to enable them to enforce law. The Majlis has appointed a Supreme Court, and made provision for a High Court and a criminal court. The Majlis has appointed judges and authorised their salaries.
What more do you want the Majlis to do? We didn't do all this from our butt either.
The people have elected a President to execute all these laws. Why don't you ask the President what the hell he is doing without enforcing the laws that the Majlis has passed?
Dear Ibra.
ReplyDeleteI think you are one person who really works for the benefit of the people in the parliament. Most members are blood sucking vampires who only wish to make things better for themselves. Few people I think who knows of what they are talking about is you and Yameen(sorry to say but I m not a big fan of Yameen or his party)
So what you have to say about this.
ReplyDeletehttp://maldivesdissent.blogspot.com/2009/03/ibras-bill-will-not-protect-children.html
Hi Ibra
ReplyDeleteWe wish you good luck. Hope you will win the seat and pray for that. Request to visit each household of your constituency and clear their doubts (some have depressing thoughts due to negative propaganda of your opponents). We too campaign for you. WE NEE A PERSON LIKE YOU TO RAIS PEOPLE VOICE IN THE PARLIAMENT. We appreciate the work you do, hope you will forward bills related to DRUGS to parliament, drugs is the main course of all these crimes. Hope you will support to decentralization and find ways for the development of atolls. Make families unite and live together happily in their homeland. Some say you do not support decentelization. Male is congested and overloaded, if something sad happened to Male 1/3 of Maldives population will be in a.....Hope such catastrophic event will not happen. We have immense social problem due to congestion in Male. Pls help us
Hussain
I wonder why it is that people who do not seem to care about people are at the highest levels of government ? Do they become like that once they are at the top,or are we as a public so foolish and gullible in allowing such people to be positioned there?
ReplyDeleteThe current majlis is hardly a peoples' majlis for it clearly has failed to address issues that are of most concern to the people. Otherwise most people wouldn't still be struggling to make ends meet. The current majlis certainly doesn't represent me or any one I know for that matter. Few people like Ibra are the only sane voices we hear. Hope the public is smart in electing a majlis that represents them well this time.
Hello Ibra
ReplyDeletewish good things happen to you.
I think DRP and PA together will succeed the majority seats of the parliament.
I have done a little research and it come to end with the above result. Many say Nasheed government performance not met with their expectation and have believed what oppositions say about the consequences of giving majority to ruling party. There are still plenty of people who Love Former President and willing to vote DRP candidate regardless of the ability and character of the candidate .In our constituency we have approximately 2100 eligible voters and 12 candidates are contesting. It seems 35% who voted to Gayyoom in the presidential election will vote to DRP and make them to succeed the seat .The rest 65% vote will goes to 11 candidates. So should make strategic plans not to make them to control the next parliament since we are in the early stage of the democracy after the 30years of their autocratic corrupted rule.What you say about this as you are someone who study and reasrech the political and social spectrum of the Maldives.
(Rekifuthaa)
To Ibra.
ReplyDeleteYour action in putting a bill "to protect our children" forward is admirable. However, it fails to offer a better solution to replace the "evidence" laws which render your bill useless. What good is a "harsher punishment" when the same old, and easily exploitable rules based off Sharia law exist?.
I state categorically, that if you want to rape someone in this country, all you need is a good knowledge of Sharia law.
I know you will not be able to bring any further changes to the evidence rules, as it will be considered "unislamic" to go against Sharia law. But kudos for you even trying to give the hardliners who wish to keep Maldives in the middle ages a difficult time.
Regards,
The Shadowrunner.
@Shadowrunner & Anonymous (Mar 26,9:21 pm)
ReplyDeleteThe bill I presented was to define by law that pedophilia is a crime. Currently, this is not defined as such. There is a huge vacuum in the law on this.
This bill, if passed will provide some solutions, particularly in raising penanlties (currently, even if the crime is proved in court, the punishment is about 2 years, whch can be paroled or pardoned. WIth this bill, the punishment ranges from 8 years minimum to life.
Secondly, if passed, this bill will not allow judges to declare consent because the victim did not scream. What constitutes as consent is now defined.
Thirdly, this bill will give the power to child protection authorities to remove a child from the care of pedophiles, even without a court order. The onus will be on the suspected pedophile to seek court order to keep the child.
Regarding the evidence act, this bill is not the place to go into details of what constitutes evidence. That is a separate act which cuts across all criminal cases. However, the Criminal Procedures Bill, which will become law in a couple of weeks provides some remedies.
As for the accusations that this bill was submitted by me for political gain, well....does it matter? Or are they saying that this bill should not be passed because it was proposed by a politician? Who else, but a politician can propose a bill? As far as I am concerned that is sour grapes in the political field.
Shadowrunner, do a bit of research. Islamic Sharia does not prohbit forensic evidence. We will get the evidence act amended. But don't expect 80 different laws to be written all at once, on the same day.
@ Rekifutha :
I think the people are aware enough now to return a reasonably sane Majlis, and I hope that no party gets a majority.These are turbulent times. I am optimistic that when the dust settles, things will start becoming alright.
hello Ibra
ReplyDeleteI was expecting you would say something about my comment Hussain 27March .36 ..decenterlization ...etc
Hussain
Ibra,
ReplyDeleteThe Maldives new Majlis (1 member for every 5000) may be the highest number of parliament members compared with a population, in any country of the world. What is the general idea behind this? In India every 1.8 million, in US every 200,000, in Srilanka every 80,000 gets a parliamentarian. In small countries such as Luxemburg its every 8000. Maldives may also be the country which pays the highest salary/benefits for a parliament member in comparison with the GDP. Something is seriously wrong with these things. In fact our totally yearly income is around 7 billion and we spend 4 billion of that on the 30,000 government employees as salary/benefits. How fair is this? What say you Mr. Ibra?
@Hussain :
ReplyDeleteI support decentralisation. In fact, it was I who proposed that provision be made for decentralized administration in the Constitution, and that proposal was passed by the Special Majlis.
However, I have fears about recentralisation in the name of decentralisaton. Read my Post for my thoughts on this issue: http://ibra2008.blogspot.com/2009/02/decentralization-or-recentralization.html
True, that. Most of my information about Islam comes from a fundamentalist family where I hide among, so my information may be somewhat flawed.
ReplyDeleteAnd good luck with amending the evidence laws. You'll be remembered for dealing a deathblow to the era of state-sponsored child abuse.
ibra there is an article about you in a website called maldivedigest
ReplyDeletehttp://www.maldivedigest.com/
what dou you say about it. is it true.
@Anonymous (Mar 31, 10:27 pm) :
ReplyDeleteThe only appointment to this government that had any of my say in was Hassan Latheef to the cabinet. I was present in the Liberal Party Council meeting which decided on the nomination.
When Hassan Latheef proposed Hussain Ismail as his deputy, I opposed it in the Council. I was overruled by the majority of the Council.
The Liberal Party or I have not been consulted on any other appointments to this government.
I personally have not recommended ANY appointment to this government to President Nasheed, nor have I been asked for any opinion.
As for where am I? I am doing what the public gave me a mandate for : represent them in Majlis. I believe I am doing it reasonably well.
come on , stop ur self pity. u wrote how much vote u got tobegin wit. i have faith in YOU ppl to fix wat we lost over the last 30 years . so its up to al of u ppl in the majlis n the government to fix it . I still hav faith in you ppl . dont let the country down. cause the end of the day, dats wat matters. Not the party u represent.
ReplyDeletepeace.
@Manson :
ReplyDeleteThis Majlis has got only a month left in its life. Not much more it can do, I guess. All I can say now is that I will continue to do the work I have been doing if the people decide to return me to the Majlis. If they decide otherwise, there is not much I can do, I guess.
Anyway, thanks for the vote of confidence.