MP Azan Slams Yameen's 'Two-Faced' Policy on Rasmalé After F. Atoll Criticism

Hithadhoo Medhu constituency Member Ahmed Azan has criticised former President Abdulla Yameen's policy against the Rasmalé project, which UAE's Egaal Hills company has decided to run. Speaking at a gathering held last night at the Artificial Beach against the Rasmalé project, Yameen strongly criticised the project. He said the project will be stopped by the next government and that no compensation will be given either. In connection with this, in a post made on X, Azan noted the project that was set to proceed during Yameen's administration by giving a portion of F. Atoll to the Saudi royal family. Azan said that on the day Yameen wanted to sell F. Atoll, he also brought changes to the Constitution, and that this was to be done by investing a specific amount and obtaining permanent ownership (freehold) of 70 percent of the land. And afterwards, he wrote that it could be sold to anyone he wanted, even to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, with no safeguards at all. "...All those matters were very well in place then. Then it was a 'mega investment'. Now Yameen is opposing the Rasmalé project, which does not even include giving permanent ownership of land," Azan has said. Azan has also noted that the Rasmalé project is proceeding with strong security measures included in both the Immigration Bill and the Real Estate Bill. "Giving permanent ownership of land to investors when Yameen was in power is a far-sighted, strong policy. But now, an investment made without giving such ownership has also become a problem. A very two-faced policy," Azan said. According to the Real Estate Bill currently submitted to the People's Majlis, an Integrated Real Estate Zone can be leased to a Master Developer for a maximum period of 99 years. And the leasehold rights of individual properties developed in that zone can also be sold for a maximum of 99 years under a "surrender and re-grant" model, the bill states. The bill states that selling property, leasing it, and transferring it from this zone will be prohibited to parties banned from entering the Maldives under the Maldives Immigration Act, to persons with cases ongoing in international courts, and to persons against whom such courts have issued arrest warrants. And the bill also states that it is legally prohibited to run in those zones any business or activity that is definitively prohibited as haram in Islamic Sharia. In connection with the campaigns held by the then-opposition MDP protesting against the project that was set to be run in F. Atoll during Yameen's administration, Saudi Arabia decided not to proceed with the project and stopped it.