A Full Analysis of The Recent Cabinet Reshufflee!:: Dhivehi Observer

Bushry Column - 8
A Full Analysis of The Recent Cabinet Reshuffle!

By Mohamed Bushry, 16th July 2005 Bushry Column Archive

The first thing I noticed about the recent cabinet reshuffle was the wrong statistics that were reported by the local media. Some of the newspapers reported that nine new ministers were appointed in the recent reshuffle. I noticed that Abdullah Shahid, who was until recently the Executive Secretary to the President, is the tenth new minister. He wasn't of course appointed as a cabinet minister, but nevertheless he is now the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

My guess is that Shahid will basically do nothing in his new post. It is just a gift for him so that he can get a hefty salary and a government car and convince himself that he too is a minister after all. Shahid's appointment will not in anyway help improve the foreign ministry, and it will not benefit the Maldivian people in any way. It will only increase government expenditure in order to pay his salary and perks. My evaluation of this appointment is to give it zero out of ten.

As for the three old guards, Fathullah Jameel, Abdullah Hameed and Umar Zahir, who resigned from the cabinet, they are laughing all the way to their new appointments. All three have filled various positions in Gayyoom's cabinet for the past twenty or more years. They are old and many members of the public wanted to see them gone from the cabinet. Unfortunately the burden of paying hefty salaries and perks to these three still remain with the people. They have been appointed as Special Advisors to the President. They will hold on to their flags and government cars and ministerial salaries and - most importantly - huge clout and power in the Gayyoom administration.

While ten new ministers were recruited, only six left. All of those six were either appointed as Special Advisors to the President or as chairmen of some organizations. In other words nothing changed except that the government expenditure on paying the salaries of this group has almost doubled with the recent reshuffle.

It is only through public pressure that Gayyoom finally decided to sideline Hameed, Fathullah, Umar Zahir, Abdul Rasheed Hussain, Mustafa Luthfee and Samarey. Former Health Minster, Aneesa was also sacked from the cabinet and appointed as a minister at the President's Office. Why can't Gayyoom just sack some of these people? Should he somehow find some job in some corner to give to those people whom he discards from his cabinet? This only increases the core-group who holds pseudo-ministerial jobs. Rashida Yousuf is also such a person. She has a flag, a government car and a ministerial salary but basically has no job. Why should the public be paying the salaries of these ex-ministers who have now become a burden to the state?

Let's look at the four ministries that remained unchanged during the recent reshuffle. Minister of Defense, Ismail Shafeeu, remains in his post. It was rumored that Mohamed Zahir (Two Two) was to be appointed to this position. But Gayyoom perhaps realized that the people would find such a change hard to digest. Nevertheless Ismail Shafeeu should have been replaced by a more capable Defense Minister.

Incredibly, Abdullah Kamaluddeen held on to his Fisheries portfolio. This goes on to show that the recent reshuffle has many flaws. AK should have been among the first to be sacked if the reshuffle was a meaningful one. He is a friend of mine but when it comes to telling the truth I don't look at the faces of friends. I would say that AK is a good person, but as a minister he is incompetent and out of tune with the people. He should be sacked immediately and replaced by a competent person at the head of the Fisheries Ministry.

As for Hamdhoon Hameed, who holds on to the job of the Planning Minister and Dr. Hassan Saeed, who holds on to the job of the Attorney General; I would say that these two should be given some more time to prove themselves to the people. That doesn't mean that we should blindly endorse them. All I'm saying is that they should be given some more time before we make judgments. The same could be said about the new appointments of Mohamed Jaleel as the Economic Development Minister, Mohamed Saeed as the Transport Minster, Dr Ahmed Shaheed as the Foreign Minister, Mohamed Mauroof Jameel as the Construction Minister, Uz Mohamed Nasheed as the Information Minister, Ahmed Tasmeen Ali as the Home Minister, Uz Mohamed Jameel Ahmed as the Justice Minister, Mohamed Waheedu Deen as the Atolls Minister, Aishath Mohamed Didi as the Gender Minister and Ibrahim Rafeeq as the Housing Minister. I would say that all these new and young faces should be given some time to prove themselves to the people. Gayyoom could be commended for some of these appointments.

Another important observation is that two important portfolios have been left vacant after the recent reshuffle. Finance Ministry and Youth Ministry are now without ministers. It has been reported that Gayyoom would soon make new appointments for these two positions. It is rumored that Rilwan Shareef will be named as the Finance Minster and Aishath Shiham will become the new Youth Minster. In fact these two names were suggested in the list of proposed names for a new cabinet which I compiled some weeks back. After the publication of that list, I received a number of calls from members of the public, stating that Rilwan and Aishath Shiham wouldn't be good ministers. Most people complained that Rilwan has been alleged with corruption charges and that Aishath Shiham is too close to the First lady to be a good minister. We will soon see whom Gayyoom appoints for these two important portfolios.

I say that these two portfolios are important because Finance Ministry is related to our economy and the Youth Ministry could help control the widespread use of narcotic drugs amongst the youth. Hence these two positions should be filled by capable people who have character and guts - and are bold enough to implement difficult but meaningful changes. Let's wait and see.

During the reshuffle, former Gender Minster, Zahiya Zareer has been quietly appointed as the new Education Minster. People didn't pay much attention to this change because Zahiya is such a low profile character, but it has to be said that this is a bad appointment. I would give minus two out of ten for this appointment. My logic goes like this: if Zahiya couldn't handle a relatively small ministry such as the Gender Ministry, how can she cope with the day to day pressures of managing a gigantic portfolio as the Education Ministry?

I have worked with Zahiya for a brief spell of time, during my days at the Education Ministry, when she was a Director there. She is soft-spoken and quite charming at a personal level, but that doesn't qualify her as a leader. We need our ministers to be good leaders, not soft-spoken and charming buddies. It is my belief that Zahiya doesn't have the character and the guts to be the minister of any portfolio, let alone Education. It is a national tragedy that she is now at the helm of this important ministry. What can she do that former minister Shaugee didn't do?

During all this mayhem of the reshuffle, Gayyoom has quietly created a new ministry. Did anyone notice that? One huge, god-damn ministry has been created and that too would increase public spending. The new ministry was given to Ahmed Abdullah. He is now the Minster of Environment, Energy and Water. I wonder what Mr. Abdullah knows about any of these three categories. This should be rated as one out of ten points. Mr. Abdullah should have been shown the door out of the cabinet - or perhaps he too should have been made a Special Advisor to the President. How many advisors does Gayyoom need anyway?

Gayyoom's younger brother, Yamin, who was formerly the Trade Minster, is the new Minister of Higher Education, Employment and Labor. We have an Education Ministry, so why should we have an independent ministry for Higher Education? Why not have ministries for secondary education and primary education as well? I can think of some lousy losers who could be appointed as the Minister of Primary Education! My personal belief is that Yamin would have served the nation better as the Chairman of an organization such as STO instead of as a minister. Hence I would rate this as a zero out of ten.

I almost laughed my guts out when I saw Ilyas Ibrahim's name behind the title of the Health Minister. The best thing is to say "no comment" and rate this appointment as zero out of ten. It is tragic that we have to leave our health sector in the hands of people such as Ilyas when we have so many qualified people to fill such a position - people such as Dr. Abdul Sattar Yousuf or Dr. Adul Azeez. After all that laughing now I feel like crying. It is a sad day for the sick people of this country!

Now let's look at Dr. Shaugee's appointment as the Minister of Tourism and Civil aviation. Like Shaugee, former Tourism Minster, Musthafa Luthfee too was trained in the field of education. Has Gayyoom discovered that training in the filed of education is vital for the management of an economic field such as tourism? What is happening here? If Dr. Shaugee failed miserably in managing the Education Ministry (something for which he was trained for), how in the world is he going to manage an economically sensitive sector such as tourism? Is this a joke or what? Or is this the seat that Shaugee got in the game of the musical chairs, when the music stopped? I would think that the members of MATI and the private businessmen in the tourism industry would be equally baffled and even infuriated with this brain-numbing appointment. I wouldn't even rate this. It's way below zero - beyond freezing point. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

All in all it's an interesting, but sometimes baffling and mind-numbing cabinet reshuffle. Gayyoom should be given full marks for trying, but effort alone is not enough. We need to see results and commitment and meaningful changes. Changing the players may have an effect but the head coach remains the same. Will we see sincere reforms or the same movie with different actors? Personally I don't have the patience to even wait and see. I'm contemplating on leaving this country to study for my PhD. Perhaps when I come back with the title of "Dr." in front of my name I could be appointed as the Minister of Energy, Water, Tang juice and Juice-Petty!