Dhivehi Observer :: The People's Press ::

Early Day Motion in UK Parliament on Maldives

Friends of Maldives Press Release - www.friendsofmaldives.co.uk 23 July 2004

Mark Oaten

Mark Oaten MP for Winchester has drawn up an EDM, Early Day Motion, which was tabled in Parliament before the deadline last night. The Shadow Home Secretary’s researchers have been investigating the situation in Maldives and supportive of the work of MDP and FOM.

Early Day Motion, or EDM, is the term used to describe notices of motions given by Members that are not generally expected to be debated. Effectively, the tabling of an EDM is a device to draw attention to an issue, and to elicit support for it by the means of inviting other Members to add their signatures to the motion.[1]

That this House, seeing the developing situation in the Maldives, urges President Gayyoom and all sides to work for urgent, peaceful democratization; abhors the detention and torture of political prisoners such as documented by Amnesty International; urges the full recognition of the Maldivian Democratic Party; and urges the British government to strengthen its representations on the matter and British and other companies present in the Maldives to refrain from any activity that impedes the growth of democracy.

The motion will be available to all MPs to sign over the Parliamentary recess. Popular EDMs with lots of signatures are guaranteed press coverage and can be debated. Friends of Maldives has already met with a significant number of MPs who have expressed concern for the democratic reform processes in Maldives and who will sign the motion.

The EDM covers both Human Rights issues and political reform, but also reflects the letter written by Reporters Without Borders urging Telecoms company Cable and Wireless to ‘use its influence in the Maldives to help free jailed net users’[2]. The British Firm however maintained that foreign investors should not intervene in the running of a country. According to the BBC report, ‘Reporters Without Borders says that the Maldives is one of the world's most repressive in terms of freedom of expression on the internet’. The EDM however would have Cable and Wireless re-evaluate their stand point in Maldives

Friends of Maldives now requests that MPs will continue to lend their support to both the EDM and the democratic process in Maldives.

[1] Paragraph from http://edm.ais.co.uk/

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3911373.stm

Rt. Hon. Mark Oaten, Member of Parliament, UK http://www.markoaten.com/

Rebecca Cork 21/07/04 - www.friendsofmaldives.co.uk