Gayyoom’s last resort?

By Nazim Sattar MNS
October 22, 2007

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On Wednesday night’s Special Majlis sitting a lot of time was wasted following Gayoom’s brother-in-law Abbas Ibrahim’s insistence that the phrase “Islamic Sharia” should be inserted to clause 4 chapter II of the draft constitution titled “The Maldivian Charter of Rights and Freedom”

The draft text of clause 4 “Freedom from Restraint” compiled by the Special Majlis Drafting Committee chaired by Ibra says:

A citizen is free to engage in any conduct or activity that is not expressly prohibited by law. No control or restraint may be exercised against any person unless it is expressly authorised by law.

The MP for Gaf Dhaal Atoll and Gayoom’s B-I-L wanted the text to read that people should be allowed to conduct any activity save those expressly prohibited by law and Islamic Shari’ah.

Abbas Ibrahim I think quite deliberately opened a can of worms.

There has never been an Islamic scholar in this wide world who could give an “expressly specific” definition of what is meant by Shari’ah. In Sunni Islam, for instance, the recognized 4 schools of Islamic jurisprudence (based on the wider circle of Shariah) of Imams Shafi, Ibn Hanbal, Abu Hanifa and Malik have different rulings on many given issues including most important things like the conduct of prayer.

All these 4 schools were codified about 2 to 4 hundred years after the Prophet.

After chasing away the Portuguese in the 1580s Mohamed Takurufaan opted for Shafism in Maldives I think because that was the school followed by everyone on the trade route starting from southern Egypt, Yemen, Kerela, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Shafism required the Prayer of Salvation (Qunoot) to be said in every dawn prayer; a stipulation now in dispute with the “dots” and “harbies” in Maldives. The Shari’ah is therefore quite open to interpretation by any given person or in any given era in time.

However all four Sunni schools agree on basic principles: that there are five prayers per day, that you must fast in Ramadan and that you must go on the Hajj if affordable. (They also do not dispute stoning the adulterer, amputating the hand and lashing the fornicator).

Taking this in mind clause two of the draft constitution chapter I says “the Maldives is a sovereign, independent, democratic republic based on the principles of Islam…”

This makes it easier for a future Supreme Court of Maldives to interpret what is meant in the Constitution by “the principles of Islam” rather than a loaded word like the “Shariah”.

On Wednesday night’s Majlis sitting Ibra tried to defend his draft constitution by saying that unless one “expressly” identified what is prohibited by Shairah in the Constitution it would be left at the whims of judges to interpret clause 4 as they see fit. And in that case the new Constitution would be worse than the present one.

Many MPs accused Ibra of being “secular”. But in my mind this has nothing to do with secularism. Ibra quite rightly had reservation on what Abbas Ibrahim has in mind – and Gayyoom.

In the MDP rally on Thursday night Anni defended Ibra’s stance and gave first hand evidence on what is meant by Shari’ah according to Gayoom’s establishment in any given time.

He said article 16 of the current 1997 Constitution says “ Every person who is charged with an offence shall have the right to defend himself in accordance with Shari’ah. To this effect, such a person shall be allowed to obtain the assistance of a lawyer whenever such assistance is required”.

Anni said until 2 years ago Gayyoom’s interpretation of the “Shariah” would not allow him to be represented by a lawyer in 4 lawsuits against him. But suddenly two years ago [following Evan Naseem’s death and the riot] the so called Gayoom’s “Shariah” found that legal representation by lawyers do not contradict the Shairah.

“This is the extent to which they have meddled with Islam” Anni said.

Bearing this in mind it’s quite clear what Gayoom and Abbas Ibrahim have in mind.