Pledges: signed, sealed, undelivered

The Maldives embraced a new Constitution in August 2008 and held its first multi-party presidential elections under the new constitution the same year. Mohamed Nasheed became the first democratically elected president in this historic election, and ended the 30 year autocratic rule of President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom. 

Nasheed, unable to secure a majority in the 2009 Parliamentary elections, faced many challenges  throughout his administration and in efforts at reforming the state machinery. Nasheed’s government was challenged at every turn by the parliament, judiciary, and other newly formed independent state institutions like the Civil Service Commission, Judicial Service Commission, and the like.

In fact, in February 2012, after extended protests against Nasheed bordering on violent civil unrest, and with the police rebuffing orders from the executive, President Nasheed was forced to resign. President Nasheed would immediately afterwards characterise his resignation as forced, and a coup engineered by his political opponents; many of whom he would later embrace, including President Gayoom, as coalition equals in a bid to successfully block President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom going on to a second term.

After a nearly two year rule by his former vice president, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, half-brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was elected President in November 2013. The rest is history. With a majority in parliament, and as a result with political influence over all state entities, President Yameen was branded corrupt, unjust and an enemy of democracy.

Yameen’s Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor, operated more like a Prime Minister, with most powers delegated to him and full control of almost all state institutions. He was regularly spotted visiting the central bank, Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), the Supreme Court, and other state bodies, and was constantly surrounded by cabinet ministers, and MPs, from both the administration and the opposition. 

Accusations of corruption by then-opposition MDP was mostly on the MMPRC scandal, involving Tourism Minister Adeeb and embezzlement of over USD78 million of state funds collected as acquisition fees for the long term lease of over 50 islands and lagoons. The 25 storey Dharumavantha Hospital building, costing more than USD140 million was also a target, in addition to the Velana International Airport development project, and the Malé-Airport-Hulhumalé bridge project. 

Under Yameen’s watch, a journalist went missing without a trace and a reform-activist-blogger was brutally murdered. The MDP and opposition members leveraged these against Yameen in the 2018 presidential campaign, and promised justice for all murders, corruption and other injustices — many civil servants and other public sector employees were reported to have been dismissed unfairly and based on political ideology. Justice and a swift reinstatement of all such jobs were also promised. 

In order to defeat Yameen, the MDP entered into a coalition with long time rival President Maumoon, business tycoon and Leader of Jumhooree Party Qasim Ibrahim, and leader of the religious conservative Adhaalath Party Imran Abdulla. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was chosen as the presidential candidate while President Nasheed was in exile, after having been found guilty of terrorism charges brought against him by the Yameen administration. With the election won, President Solih was sworn-in on 17 November 2018. The prison sentences on Nasheed, and on Gayoom, Qasim, and Imran, were annulled by the courts. 

The MDP, under Solih’s leadership, although in coalition with other parties, decided to overlook the coalition agreement and run for the parliamentary elections as a single party. Their ‘Agenda-19’ promised the people of Maldives justice and “Zero Tolerance” to corruption. 

Elections were held on 6 April 2019 with the MDP obtaining a “supermajority” of 65 out of the total available 87 seats. President Nasheed was elected Speaker of the Parliament and Nasheed’s cousin, Eva Abdulla, was elected Deputy Speaker. With the supermajority in Parliament, and the newfound influence on all state bodies, the heads of the entire state machinery have been replaced during the past two and half years. This included national universities, the employment tribunal, the broadcasting commission and other state bodies — a brief timeline of some of these important appointments are below;

While these are welcome changes to the Supreme Court, the people had very high expectations on the much needed reforms in the judiciary. According to the Chief Justice, from September 2019 until September 2020, more than 250 hearings have been held at the Supreme Court. He also noted that in the past 11 years, the Court had only a 24 percent completion rate, but during the 2019/20 period, there has been a 49 percent completion rate. 

While justice has not been delivered for the murders of Yameen Rasheed, Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla, and Dr. Afrasheem Ali, and not a single Rufiyaa has been recovered from the corruption scandals from the Yameen administration,  the government and state bodies have also been unable to properly address newly reported cases of corruption, and crimes, that have occurred over the past two and half years under the Solih administration. 

Public fury continues to simmer on the ventilator scandal, the sexual harassment allegations against the former tourism minister, the sexual harassment allegations agains President Solih’s former communications head, the sexual harassment of an expatriate woman aboard a safari yacht at Hulhumalé and the various compensation payments to politically connected companies — these are among some of the major issues, the Administration needs to tackle immediately. 

During the past two and a half years, six cabinet ministers have been either removed or resigned and two government ministries have been abolished and absorbed into existing agencies. Yet with all these changes; with the state machinery completely overhauled within this current administration, tangible reforms, and justice, still remains out of reach.

As the Solih administration heads into the latter half of its term, what should be clear is this: that instead of deferring delivery to “the next term” the administration needs to deliver on its key promises within its first term — with a largely cooperative judiciary, a supermajority hold on the legislature and control over the executive, the administration has no excuse for the position it finds itself in, in terms of actual delivery verses public relations double-speak.