Dhiyana Saeed's promotion and the favouritism and cronyism of Dr Hassan Saeed

When you look at a very out of date email address list on the Attorney General's Office website you will find Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed listed as a State Attorney, Mariya Ahmed Didi listed as an Assistant Executive Director, and Dr Hassan Saeed listed as the Attorney General. This can be further confirmed from a very out of date phone extension number list too.

So the question is how Dhiyana Saeed got a leap of a promotion under the patronage of the now-reformist Dr Hassan Saeed. Dhiyana Saeed became an Executive Director in Attorney General's Office overnight, bypassing several positions. A person can be given promotion if the superiors wishes to do so, and after approval from the President's Office which has the final say over hiring and firing government employees. Under the government employees regulations, a person is eligible for promotion every 4 years, even if the person is not promoted based on merit and achievements. For a normal person, it would take 32 years to achieve the promotion that Dhiyana Saeed received overnight. Lets look at the posts that lead up to the position of an Executive Director.

Assistant Director
Deputy Director
Director
Assistant Director General
Deputy Director General
Director General
Assistant Executive Director
Deputy Exectutive Director
Executive Director

Dhiyana Saeed's promotion shocked colleagues who worked with her at Attorney General's Office. Mariya Ahmed Didi, who had years of experience in the AG Office, found herself in a lower rank than Dhiyana overnight. Frustrated with the favouritism that Dr Hassan Saeed was practicing as Attorney General, Mariya quit the government and joined MDP. Today she is the Chairperson of MDP.

Dhiyana Saeed was promoted because she was a good public speaker and an able voice for spreading the propaganda of DRP. When the government of Maumoon Gayoom was weak and fragile, it was the group of new comers who tried to salvage it. Anybody willing to defend the regime was given promotions. Dhiyana later proved her ability as good mouthpiece of DRP as an appointed member of the President in the Majlis. Dhiyana aligned herself with the New Maldives till she married Abdulla Jabir, who was from a rival political faction within DRP.

Dr Hassan Saeed was completely disregarding the sentiments of the employees of AG Office, and just acting within the same old-fashioned patronage system that has existed in the Maldives, by promoting people that he favoured.

In April 2006, in the inaugural congress of DRP, Dr Hassan Saeed was elected as one of the four Deputy Leaders of DRP. He and the caucus of New Maldives were getting a foothold in the DRP, and promoting the party of the old tyrant Gayoom. Dr Shaheed was promoting his favourite staff in Foreign Ministry and Dr Saeed was promoting his favourite staff at Attorney General's Office.

It is beyond all logic that an Attorney General could be the Deputy Leader of a political party. The post of Attorney General is not a government post; it is a state post, and requires the highest degree of neutrality and impartiality. When Dr Hassan Saeed was the Attorney General and when his office received cases to prosecute members of rival political parties on politically motivated charges, doesn't that create a conflict of interest? Similarly, could the AG Office fairly prosecute members of DRP when the AG is a Deputy Leader of DRP?

This shows that Dr Hassan Saeed has very limited knowledge of how a modern democracy works. This is just one reason why you should not vote for Dr Hassan Saeed, who is showing the qualities of a tyrant, by his disregard for pluralism and multi-party system.

When Dr Saeed was AG, he promoted Mohamed Anil, the current Commissioner for Legal Reform, in another example of cronyism.

Both Dhiyana and Anil are qualified lawyers. However, a completely mindboggling promotion is bringing Ashraf Abdul Raheem as a senior staff of AG Office. Ashraf was a Dhivehi teacher at CHSE and he is not qualified for a senior position at AG Office. However, since Ashraf is a good public speaker and debater and was frequently speaking at DRP functions, Dr Saeed found him to be fit as a senior staff of AG Office.

When Dr Hassan Saeed appears on TV and speak on radio, accusing Gayoom of favouritism and nepotism, it is just one of the biggest ironies. Just like the Azhar trio which introduced nepotism to the Maldives politics, the trio of New Maldives practiced cronyism and favouritism while defending the old tyrant Gayoom. The abuse of power under the New Maldives ministers is a very long story, and it will be exposed in future blog posts.

Hussain Saeed, the brother of Dr Hassan Saeed, was a teacher at Feydhoo School, when he was promoted to the post of Atoll Chief of Addu, through the influence of Dr Saeed. Shortly after Dr Saeed left the government Hussain Saeed was dismissed from the post of Atoll Chief of Addu. His other brother Ibrahim Saeed was promoted to the post of a Supervisor of Aminiyya School. Another relative of Hassan Saeed was promoted to a managerial post of MTCC in Addu.

So all the fans of Dr Hassan Saeed out there. Just because he looks like Gayoom, wears glasses, has a voice like Gayoom, and recites verses from the Quran and Hadith, does not mean he is a clean person. He has a long history of corruption during his years as Attorney General. Just make sure you don't elect another Gayoom to power.