Raajje News Blog

Male', Maldives. The Maldives civil climate is heating up as Maldives Police Service and Defence Forces yesterday threatened the use of force against protestors at today's planned rally in Male'. The rally, organized by civic associations together with interest groups, is to call upon President Nasheed and his Government to stop their blasphemy against the state religion, Islam. President Nasheed came to power in 2008 aided by foreign powers based on a promise to allow the open practice of other religions in the 100% Muslim country. Since usurping power, Nasheed has consistently and vocally spoken out against Islam and Muslim practices. These include questioning the Qur'an and Islamic Sharia to the extent of blasphemy against Islam. Today's protest, scheduled to start in the South east corner of the capital Male', after early evening prayer (A'sr prayer), is expected to be the biggest in the country to date as concerned citizens gather to protest Nasheed...

The revolution is in your heart; do not be afraid to acknowledge it. The revolution, the desire economic independence and a more just world, lives deep within you and you must bring it out. Do not be afraid of yourself, for in you lives the truth. Do not let the fear of society’s cruel masters – the so called politicians -take over your life. Do not allow the heinous to intoxicate you with their political rhetoric. The revolution lives in you and you must stand ready to live it, to feel it, to become it. The revolution lives in you, so do not be afraid of letting it guide you to the path of a more honest humanity. Do not allow the politicians and the media, the sellers of false morality, to determine your life. You must liberate yourself from the mental bondage; you must become the truth by living the truth. Do not allow those politicians who crave their success at the cost of your destruction to tamper with your mind and your visions. Make your life, every single day, a true symbol of...

Like any other Government, even the Nasheed-Administration is highly dependent on legitimacy; it is up to you to undermine this legitimacy, to question their credibility. As part of the movement for change, citizens must begin to doubt and challenge the actions of the rulers. For better or worse, any change is highly dependent on the ability to convince people that those to whom they have entrusted their future (the Country’s future) are paid agents of capitalist dons. You must find ways to convince Nasheed fans that he’s no more than a fraud – an inefficient puppet, used by the clans that rule our tourism industry, to control the emotions and psychology of Maldivians. Nasheed’s 10 to 15 thousand fan believe in him the way mystical people believe in their God, you must doubt this faith, this belief in his ‘imagined’ mystique. You must undermine the credibility of agents working for the system that has produced this puppet, expose their pay, and expose their loyalties. You must do every...

The Total Revenue figure estimated by the government for 2009 is 9.5 billion mrf. That is the total. And this total includes what the government terms as Capital Revenue of 3.8 billion mrf. Capital revenue being an euphemism, a fancy term for the sale of those supposedly non-existent assets which Maumoon did not create in his thirty year rule. The mid-term budget 2009-2011 proposes to generate 5.7 billion rufiyaa by sale of capital assets not created in the last thirty years. As Yaameen said in one his speeches, those who do not know how to run businesses make money out of selling the capital assets created by those who did. But we divert. If we deduct the 3.8 billion mrf. to be generated from the whole-sale liquidation of the wealth not created in the last thirty years; something that looks increasingly unlikely to be approved by the current parliament, the government’s revenue figure for 2009 is 5.6 billion mrf. Let us at this juncture, ignore the fact that expenditure is rising fas...

It is still surprising how so many people can still be made to believe in something if enough people go around shouting about it. A case in point is this piece of legislation about revisions to Law No. 31/79, Import Export Law of Maldives. Submitted purely in order to prevent and delay the passage of bills submitted by Nasheed to protect, in his words, ‘the service chiefs’ (chief of defence and commissioner of police) and the other more ominous bills due to enter the parliament floor soon. This is a bill that was tabled, debated, argued upon and sent to the relevant committee, where members spent countless hours amending the bill. The committee version of the bill was even finalized and signed and sent to the full majlis. In keeping with the practice of the majlis, the speaker of the new 17th majlis, sent the bill, WITH the committee amendments and their report back the government. However, in its haste to totally prevent, or at least to delay the debate on the bills relating to the pr...

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed today made the much awaited nominations to Parliament for the Elections Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and Prosecutor General. The nominees primarily comprise of members of President Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party, Opposition Leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party and its coalition partner, People’s Alliance. The names proposed for the Elections Commission are Sheikh Hussain Rasheed Yoosuf (MDP); Ogaru Ibrahim Waheed (formerly MDP, now posing as Independent); Mohamed Ibrahim (formerly DRP, now MDP); Fuad Thaufeeq (formerly MDP, now PA) and Mauroof Ahmed (PA). Sheikh Rasheed is the son of Baa Thulhaadhoo MDP leader and Counselor for Baa Atoll, Yoosuf Moosa. Ogaru Waheed was previously head of the Department of Inland Revenue in the Gayoom administration. Mohamed Ibrahim headed two state companies before becoming Deputy Minister of Construction and Infrastructure in the Gayoom Administration. He then moved to the interim ...

On June 4th, the Maldives High Court ruled that documents submitted by Maakun Mohamed Falah (cousin of Auditor General Maakun Naeem) in his case against the Maldives Elections Commission had been doctored, and therefore dismissed the case. Maakun Falah’s attorney, Maldivian Democratic Party senior lawyer Husnu Sood, presented the falsified documents at the High Court hearing of the case. Husnu Sood is the incumbent Attorney General, appointed by President Mohamed Nasheed on June 3rd. Maakun Falah, MDP candidate for Maafannu Dhekunu Constituency, had lodged a case against the EC, demanding that the May 9th parliamentary vote in his constituency be declared void, and a fresh vote be ordered. In the High Court hearing on the case, Falah’s attorney Husnu Sood claimed that the official report of elections officials on the day’s proceedings contained false information. Sood also deposited as evidence of this charge, a copy of what he claimed was the said official report. The High Court foun...