MALDIVES: BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON FOREIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001407

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS AND INR/B

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/10/2015
TAGS: PINR PGOV MALDIVES'>MV
SUBJECT: MALDIVES: BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON FOREIGN
MINISTER AHMED SHAHEED

REF: COLOMBO 1295

Classified By: CDA JAMES F. ENTWISTLE. REASON: 1.4 (B,D).


1. (C) The July 14 appointment of Chief Government
Spokesman Dr. Ahmed Shaheed as Foreign Minister (Reftel)
brings to this important post a bright, western-educated
technocrat friendly to the U.S. with whom the Embassy has
worked closely on such key bilateral issues as democratic
reform and tsunami relief. Accessible, articulate and
friendly, Shaheed has proven an unstinting source of
information (and, as head of President Gayoom's Strategic
Communications Unit, government spin).


2. (U) Shaheed has spent most of his career in government
service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, beginning in 1982
as an attache on a two-year assignment at the Permanent
Mission of MALDIVES to the United Nations in New York.
Returning to Male', he headed the SAARC Division in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1996-1998 where he was
responsible for preparations leading up to the SAARC Summit
hosted in Male' in 1997. Following a brief stint as head of
the Multilateral Affairs Division at the Ministry in 1998,
Shaheed was promoted to Foreign Secretary in January 1999, a
post he held until his transfer to the post of Chief
Government Spokesman (with an accompanying rank of Deputy
Minister) and head of the President's Strategic
Communications Unit in mid-2004. In 2004 Shaheed was
appointed by President Gayoom as a representative to the
Special Majlis convened to consider constitutional reforms.
He continues to serve in that capacity. In addition, Shaheed
has served as the President's speechwriter since 1996. It is
unclear if he will continue to do so.


3. (U) Shaheed attended schools in Male' and Colombo before
graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, with a
Bachelor's degree in International Politics and Strategic
Studies. He received a PhD in International Relations from
the University of Queensland, Brisbane, in 1995. He is
married with one son and two daughters.


4. (C) Comment: As Chief Government Spokesman, Shaheed had
the unenviable task of trying to justify a number of
heavy-handed Government blunders, including attempts to paint
pro-reform activists as radical Islamic fundamentalists, as
well as the decision to arrest Maldivian Democratic Party
(MDP) leaders on the very day that the People's Majlis
approved, for the first time, the right of political parties
to register. Despite these obvious missteps, we believe
Shaheed truly appreciates the need for democratic reform, as
well as the need to engage the international community in
bringing them about. Savvy and urbane, he will be a welcome
change from his predecessor Fathulla Jameel, an anti-reform
Gayoom crony who distinguished himself last year with a
vituperative, 80-minute tirade at a visiting delegation of EU
Chiefs of Mission. In contrast, Shaheed epitomizes the
energetic, cosmopolitan, younger-generation technocrat that
Gayoom hopes to show as the new face of his Cabinet. We have
a great relationship with him, on which we will continue to
build.


ENTWISTLE