MDP says govt too top-heavy, and it ‘cannot be fixed with a poem’

Lawmakers from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) criticized President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration on Sunday, saying that the number of government ministers and political appointees in the administration surpasses that of far more developed and larger countries.

The Parliament convened for an extraordinary sitting on Sunday, to take a vote on President Muizzu’s 22-member cabinet.

During the debate, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Saleem, a politician from the MDP, said that the incumbent administration had too many ministers, and was too top-heavy.

“The dictionary defines approval as acceptance or liking,” said Saleem, as he began his address.

“If [parliamentary approval is] based on the five conditions defined in the constitution, I do not believe this should have been submitted to the Parliament in the first place. If the Parliament is merely required to check if they meet the criteria, I believe the Parliament is doing a very useless task indeed.”

Saleem, who represents the Hoarafushi constituency, said that the five conditions declared in the constitution are very basic, and that the Parliament must therefore dig deeper before giving its approval.

He said that the Parliament must ensure that people appointed to top government jobs are qualified, even if it requires legal amendments.

He said that the president must not be given the authority to appoint people to important posts without any kind of gauge.

“The Maldives has 22 government ministers. We have more ministers than Singapore. We have seen countries get run from five ministries,” he said.

Saleem said that even in the European Union, the average size of a cabinet is 17. He said he sees no reason why Maldives should have 22 ministers.

Reiterating his assertion that the government is too top-heavy, Saleem said that it costs over MVR 13 million in taxpayer money monthly to pay the salaries ministers, deputy ministers, state ministers, and officials appointed at minister-level.

“This problem cannot be solved with a poem or raivaru,” said Saleem, referring to recent comments by the heritage minister Adam Naseer Ibrahim, that his ministry was conducing research into the use of poems to treat mental disease.

In addition to the 22 cabinet ministers, the administration has also appointed 91 state ministers and 163 deputy ministers. There are also 20 more officials appointed at minister-level.