Current administration unwilling to disclose even the most basic information: MJA President
27 ޖުލައި 2026 | ހޯމަ 15:53Ahmed Naif, President of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), has raised concerns that the right to information is being undermined as the government continues to withhold essential data, such as the total number of political appointees. He noted that instead of fostering a culture of transparency, the administration is actively concealing details that should be accessible through the national budget and Right to Information (RTI) requests.
Ahmed Naif, President of the Maldives Journalist Association, speaks during RaajjeTV's special coverage of Independence Day. | raajjemv
Ahmed Naif, President of the Maldives Journalist Association, has stated that President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration is unwilling to disclose even the most basic information.
Speaking during RaajjeTV’s special Independence Day coverage, Naif stated that governments must be administered with the conviction that the public's right to information is one of the state's most fundamental obligations.
Regarding the refusal to disclose information such as the number of political appointees, Naif stated that President Muizzu's administration is withholding these details because the President has failed to fulfill his pledge to limit the number of political staff to a specific threshold.
The extent to which they are concealing the current number of political appointees is evident in the changes made to the budget book. Previously, the document included a specific table at the end detailing expenditures for all state employees. This section explicitly categorized the number of political staff, uniformed personnel, and contract employees, along with their respective projected annual costs. In an attempt to hide this information, that entire section—which provided these detailed estimates—has been removed from the budget.Ahmed Naif
Noting that the President's Office is failing to comply with the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Naif stated that the law has effectively become obsolete. He further asserted that as long as the President's Office disregards the Act, information will remain undisclosed, even if President Muizzu instructs the Ministry of Finance to release it.
President Muizzu is now claiming that there is no longer a need to file Right to Information (RTI) requests. Well, of course there is no point in filing them if the information is being withheld. What we are seeing now is the cultivation of such a culture.Ahmed Naif
Furthermore, Naif stated that no administration has considered the provision of information to the public to be a matter of importance.
