US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO1407

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, MV, Maldives, current biographies 
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