In my previous posts on this blog I have shed light on a new structure for the governance and administration of the country; one that would be more efficient and appropriate to cater for the needs of the people.
This idea of creating municipalities which are named after Male’ the capital of the island is to ensure that all Maale Municipalities will have the reasons for people to flock to Male’ (Furamaale) within the design of the new municpalities.
Each of these municipalities will be governed by a municipal council who will be responsible for local governance and administration of social services at the municpal level. The head of the municipal council will be a Municipality President who will be elected by the people. These municipalities will replace the current atoll offices and island offices with their atoll chiefs and island chiefs; which are actually obsolete for these modern times. They are old mechansims which have failed to cater for the new realities of modern time.
In addition, each of these municipalities will have a municipal capital and other satellite townships on islands which form a part of the municipality. This would be similar in fashion to Villingili under Male’ Municpality now. In effect, Hulhumaale is also a sattelite township of Male’ though it is still a commercial landmass assigned to Hulhumaale Development Corporation.
Each of the municipal capitals will connect with one another which will give ease of transport and communication and bind the nation through a network of infrastructure that support and enhance national integration.
I strongly believe that the Special Majlis who are entrusted with charting the future of this country and has already cost us more than a million Rufiyaa per head of a member of the Majlis, need to be a little bit more visionary than retaining or overthrowing Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom from the seat of the President.
But ofcourse they are wiser than me and a lot of us, as they claim. They are the honorable few in this country of the ordinary people. (Please excuse my sarcasm! But I couldn’t help wondering the same.)
Smile and Let Smile 
shahuru
September 11, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Such a system will lift up the efficiency of public service delivery by 2 fold and eliminate the need for asking land in Hulhumale( which yasir is frustrated about).We should perhaps discourage the creations of landmasses for commercial use as in the case of Hulhumale.The rich who get to travel seem so impressed with the sights of Singapore and Dubai that they appear to think there is no third option for us than following their models.Hulhumale has to become an island for the common people of the Maldives and no further…and developing regional satellite townships should be the national priority now… ..can we get there without slowing down reason to immigrate to Male region and unless we develop facilities and services better than Male elsewhere?Can’t we specialize each region for some important public service and allow people to move to the area for that particular purpose?
Yasir
September 10, 2007 at 2:13 am
Hi Shihab,I have failed to understand the injustice for citizens from islands and atolls other than the capital, Male’; To-date, I have not been able to accept the fact that I don’t qualify for a flat at hulhumale’ simply because I am registered to Addu Atoll; the alternative I have is to approach for land purchase in which case I would never be capacitated to build a liveable house. Excuse me! This is like an appeal for citizenship in a foreign land; am I not a citizen of the Maldives? So long as people issues are not dealt with fairly and sufficiently, it is unnecessary to think about operational efficiencies. Bottoms-up please!regardsyasir
mhilmyh
September 9, 2007 at 4:40 am
Agree with you that creating satellite cities is a very good and feasible idea.When you allocate more autonomous powers to them as you have expressed, it will solve many administrative problems and will lead to good governance. Our special majlis or even the opposition can never explore such ideas becoz their only intention is to bring down the government even if they destroy the people in the process.They are honourable only becoz they call themselves so. But they forget that they are paid by and their job is to protect and serve the honourable citizens of the country.Such drastic changes can only come about when our government exercises the political will to do so.