Author: Ahmed Nazeer

Forty percent of women between the age of 15-25 are unemployed, says HRCM

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has published a report revealing that more than two thirds of the Maldivian population are unemployed, with only 110,000 of the country’s 350,000 population holding paid jobs.

Women are particularly affected, HRCM noted, with women holding only 37 percent  of those jobs. Forty percent of women between the age of 15-25 are unemployed, HRCM stated.

Of the 124 senior government positions, women filled 28 positions, HRCM noted. Females also hold 12.5 percent of roles in independent commissions, 3.85 percent in parliament, 1.9 percent in the judiciary, 2.3 percent in the military, and 1.6 percent in the police force.

“The government should give high priority to training [women] and conducting awareness programs to make women more active in employment,’’ said HRCM. ‘’It is necessary that there are job opportunities for females in the islands and opportunities for females to train for jobs at atoll and island level.’’

“Our goal is to establish a society where women and men are equal in civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields. The commission calls on everyone to give women equal opportunities in every area of life.”

HRCM also noted that women were outperforming men at school, but this was not reflected in their employment or positions in society.

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MDP MP proposes death penalty be administered if upheld by Supreme Court

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Rasheed has presented an amendment to the Clemency Act during yesterday’s parliament session, requiring the death penalty to be administered where the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

While the Maldives theoretically has a death penalty under Islamic Shariah, in practice this has been implemented as a 25 year prison sentence.

In November 2010, the Criminal Court of the Maldives issued a death sentence to a person found guilty of murder. However the last person to actually be judicially executed was Hakim Didi in 1953, who was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of consipiracy to murder using black magic.

In last year’s death penalty verdict, the judge referred to article 88[d] of the Constitution, which stated that cases of murder should be dealt accordingly to Islamic Shariah, and that persons found guilty of murder ”shall be executed” if no inheritor of the victim denies the murderer to be executed, as according to Islamic Shariah.

According to MP Rasheed’s proposed amendment, if the Supreme Court upholds a death penalty ruled by a lower court, or if the Supreme Court itself serves death penalty to a person, the death penalty shall be executed.

Rasheed said he felt he had to present the amendment because of the increase in assaults and murder cases, which had “forced the living to live amid fear and threats.”

He noted that police were sending these cases to court after “thoroughly investigating and researching” them, but the reason the criminals were escaping was because the Prosecutor General was sending “young, untrained lawyers” to the courts. In many cases, he alleged, the PG’s office was not giving its lawyers the police investigation report.

In 2008 Rasheed said 104 cases of assault were sent to Prosecutor General, increasing to 454 in 2009 and 423 cases in 2010.

”I beg this esteemed Majlis to try and make the Prosecutor General accountable,” he said, adding that if his amendment was passed, “violence in this country will be eliminated.”

”In Quran, Sural Al Baqarah verse 178, God says: ‘O ye who believe! the law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then grant any reasonable demand, and compensate him with handsome gratitude, this is a concession and a Mercy from your Lord. After this whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave penalty’,” he said. ”During broad day light in this very city of Male’ people have been chopped, sliced and crushed using axes, machetes – just like fish are chopped.”

”I am saying brains have leaked out, after being constantly hit by shovels until their skulls are crushed,” he said.

DRP MP Ali Waheed said that he supported “killing those who kill.”

Waheed claimed that “more than 600 youths have been charged in murder cases.”

However, he said, ”slaughtering those who murder is not the solution. We should first try an adequate measurement for this [penalty] instead of implementing death penalties.”

”The corpse found in Lhaviyani Atoll is being buried today after taking DNA samples. But [police] is not sure whether it is the corpse of the Kendhoo person who fell in to the Kaashidhoo Ocean or the corpse of the person missing from Naifaru,” said Ali Waheed. ”This is the situation today.”

President’s Member on the Judicial Services Commisson (JSC), Aishath Velezinee, who wrote her thesis on Sharia, equality and family law, said the country had to first attend to the issue of trust in the judiciary before discussing the death penalty.

“While Islam provides for the dealth penalty in certain cases where preconditions are met, there must be no doubt as to justice has been delivered. There must be absolute faith in the judicary for the death sentence to be delivered – it cannot be reverted,” she said.

“It is an affront to the constitution we adopted for parliament to be discussing this issue without first addressing the multitude of complaints against the JSC. Parliament has shown absolute disregard for the lack of independence of the judiciary.”

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Preventive medicine is better than cure, says President on decentralising health sector

Decentralising public health services will promote preventative medicine in the Maldives, President Mohamed Nasheed said today announcing that the health sector would be the first to be decentralised.

”We always hear that this hospital is lacking this machine, or that hospital is lacking doctors, or complaints that islanders cannot access adequate health facilities,” said Nasheed. ”This government’s objective is to prevent people from falling ill, because prevention is better than cure.”

At a press conference today, Nasheed said the government was trying to organise the health sector in a way that newly-elected island councilors could supervise the health sector of each island.

”We want to make sure that all persons that require special assistance are provided with that special assistance,” he said.

Islanders in at least one division have already expressed concern that many of the elected councilors were not capable of handling positions of responsibility.

One islander from the central region of the Maldives recently told Minivan News that on his island, only two of the five elected councilors had finished their GCE O’Levels.

”Because they ran as candidates for the seats under different parties, supporters of those parties have voted for them for the sake of promoting their party,” he said. ”Votes were not made with consideration for how educated the candidate is, or how capable the person, just by what political party he belongs to.”

At this morning’s press conference, Nasheed said that ministers and senior government officials from different areas including the health ministry had begun visiting different islands to conduct workshops and to provide information to the new councilors about their role in decentralising the health sector.

Addressing the concerns of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the cost of the new layer of government, expressed in a recent notice published at the conclusion of the organisation’s Article IV consultation with the Maldives, Nasheed acknowledged that “the short-term cost [of decentralisation] is likely to be high.”

The salaries alone for the island and atoll councils are expected to cost the Maldivian state an extra Rf173 million (US$13.5 million) a year, on top of the country’s 21-22 percent budget deficit.

“Although the short-term cost is high, it should be obvious to the IMF and other donors that in the long term decentralisation will reduce costs,” Nasheed said.

There was, he said, a public appetite to decentralise, which was “a cornerstone pledge” of most political parties in the country.

“It is very obvious to the government that providing services at a local level is cheaper than centrally-imposed services [with disregard] for local conditions. All over the world decentralisation is expensive to start, but highly cost efficient when it starts running.”

Nasheed also sent his condolences to the mother and family of the child who recently died during labour, forcing doctors to resort to surgery to save the mother’s life.

“We can’t say this is something that should happen, or something that we can say is right,” Nasheed said.

There was bill on medical negligence pending in parliament, he added.

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MP Privileges Bill sent to committee for amendment

The MPs Privileges Bill has been today sent back to committee for review and amendment.

Out of 67 MPs present in the Majlis today, 40 of them voted in favor of sending it to the committee for amendment.

DRP MPs did not vote to send the bill to the committee, according to Haveeru, while there were two MPs who did not vote on the issue. Some DRP members did speak out during the session to call for amendments to the bill.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Alhan Fahmy, who previously voted in favour of the bill, said during today’s parliamentary sitting that the privileges for MPs were very clearly stated in article 90 of the Maldives constitution. He called on fellow members to send the bill to committee for amendment.

”In all the other countries, MPs do have some privileges,” said Alhan. ”In Article 127 of the constitution the procedures of how a MP should be arrested on criminal charges is mentioned.”

DRP MP for Naifaru, Ahmed Mohamed also suggested the bill should be sent to a committee for amendment.

”This bill was passed by the vote of MDP MPs, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and Independent MPs, now there is no reason that either should criticise the other,” said Mohamed.

Mohamed said he would not approve article 4[c] of the MPs privilege bill, which “states that MPs cannot be arrested while they are on the way to the parliament, inside the parliament or while they are on the way back from the parliament, even if they are charged on a criminal case,” said Mohamed.

”A MP might commit murder while on their way to parliament, but he can’t be arrested.”

PA MP for the Maavashu area, Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakuru, also suggested that the bill should be sent for a committee for amendment.

”If this bill does not get passed I am fine, and if it gets passed also I am fine,” he said.

On January 17 President vetoed the controversial privileges bill, which would have seen MPs earning salary and benefits on a level with developed countries such as Sweden, as well as excusing them from paying import duties on automobiles and giving them immunity from prosecution.

The President made the decision following legal council from the Attorney General, Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, as well as consultation with the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM).

The bill, which was submitted by Vilufushi MP Riyaz Rasheed, was passed with 44 to 21 in favour, and 10 abstentions, and would have seen MPs earning thousands of dollars more in salary and allowances than MPs in countries such as France, India and Italy.

The matter has triggered lively demonstrations outside parliament since it was first announced, while a group of “concerned citizens” petitioned the President claiming that not only was the salary increase excessive, but that elements within it gave MPs extrajudicial and unconstitutional privileges. The bill was about less about state-building and more about status, the petitioners claimed.

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Government attempting to implement agenda “of Zionist Jews”, alleges PA

The opposition’s coalition partner, the People’s Alliance (PA), has publicly accused the Maldivian government of trying to implement the agenda of “Zionist Jews”.

In a statement published in Dhivehi on the party’s website, the PA, led by the half brother of the former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Abdulla Yameen, claimed that “the UK, France and the US are selecting individuals from Islamic countries, whom they want to be the ruler, and are training them to implement Jewish policy.”

The PA claimed that “many influential figures in the current government are irreligious people and have shown ideas and actions that prove they were trained in the UK.

“This government commenced the work to pave way for other religions to disrupt religious unity,” alleged the PA. “When the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) came in to administration, they brought in foreign persons previously deported for conducting Christian missionary work, and gave them high positions in government.”

The PA also accused the government of attacking judges, disregarding the judiciary, trying to permit the sale of pork and alcohol on inhabited islands, introduce co-education, teach other religions, and attempting to build a church in the Maldives.

President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair condemned the party’s misuse of Islam for political purposes.

“Their remarks suggest that the PA interprets the government’s refrain from Jew-bashing as an agenda of hatred,” he said. “If they see the moderate Islamic policies of this government as anti-Islamic, then I have no further comment.”

He noted that the PA had boycotted the President’s address on the opening of Parliament, “but was then concerned enough about it to issue a statement in response.”

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CCHDC Dr Jamsheed resigns “due to lack of work”

Dr Ahmed Jamsheed, Director General for the Centre for Community Health and Diseases Control, has today announced his resignation from the post.

Dr Jamsheed confirmed to Minivan News that he had chosen to step down from the position over concerns about a perceived lack of work.

”I had to resign because I do not believe I am able to fulfill the responsibilities I was assigned and I do not have any work to do now,” Dr Jamsheed told Minivan News. ”I do not find any reason to remain in the position if I can’t fulfill those responsibilities.”

Dr Jamsheed did not wish to disclose further details of his resignation, adding that he simply did not believe his position was required if there was no work to do.

Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair praised Dr Jamsheed for his work when contacted about the decision.

”The government’s high priority for the time is to decentralise public health, which means the work of [Dr Jamsheed’s] centre will be divided in to seven province offices,” said Zuhair. ”Maybe the changes the government are making are not in line with Dr Jamsheed.”

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TMA Chief engineer arrested for alleged sexual assault

Haveeru has reported that the Chief engineer of Trans Maldivian Airways (TMA) has been arrested for alleged sexually abuse of a female pilot, also working for TMA.

TMA told Haveeru it had no information regarding the incident.

However police confirmed to Haveeru that the chief engineer had been arrested.

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Sheikh Fareed set to retire with farewell sermon on Friday

The Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) has announced that famous religious scholar Sheikh Ibrahim Fareed will deliver his ‘Farewell Sermon‘ this Friday night at the artificial beach.

”This may be his last sermon,” said President of Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) Ibrahim Fauzy.

”On Friday night he will announce whether he is retiring or not,” he said. ”As everyone know very well, Sheikh Fareed has a pending case in court, which could make him stay in prison for more than 10 years, if found guilty.”

Fauzy said that in the recent years as well as today religious scholars faced many obstacles to their work.

”Today also we do not have the real freedom – the culture of obstructing religious scholars is still alive,” he said.

On Friday night, Fauzy said Shaeikh Fareed will say his “last will and testament” to the people.

”He will refer to the Khuthbathul-Wadhaau (Last Sermon of Prophet Mohamed PBUH) and will also preach about the current situation,” said Fauzy.

Likewise, Sheikh Ilyas Hussein in his sermon told the attendees that it might be his last sermon he will deliver to the people.

Recently, in an interview with an Indian magazine ‘The Week’, unnamed government officials described Sheikh Illyas and Sheikh Fareed as “hate preachers”.

Sheikh Fareed will have been active in the religious field for more than 10 years, said Fauzy.

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Maldives celebrates the day it embraced Islam

The Maldives today celebrated the day it embraced Islam, a nation-wide celebration and public holiday.

President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed this morning inaugurated the first Islamic Bank in the Maldives in celebration of the day, the first such Shariah-compliant institution in the Maldives.

The main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has announced that it will host a special ceremony tonight at Dharubaaruge in celebration of the day, in an SMS message circulated by dismissed former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer.

The Maldives will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day with a special event at the Artificial Beach in Male’ this evening, from 9-11pm.

The event is being organised by UNFPA in collaboration with Thirees Nuvaeh, an NGO focused on promoting traditional Maldivian culture.

The legend of how the Maldives embraced Islam is taught to children studying in Maldivian schools.

It is said that long ago, an evil demon named ‘Rannamaari’ appeared from the sea on the first of every month, and the only way it would leave the islanders alone was through the sacrifice of a virgin girl.

Every month the islanders selected a girl to be sacrificed for the demon, only to discover her body on the beach the following morning.

This continued until one day a Muslim traveler named Abul Barakathul Yousuful Baru Bary arrived in Male’ and coincidentally stayed in the house of the next virgin girl selected.

As he saw the whole family weeping in sorrow he asked what was going on, and learnt about the incident.

He then decided to disguise himself as the virgin girl and go to the temple instead. The following morning, the islanders found him alive and reciting the verses of the Quran.

The King and his people were impressed that the demon never appeared after that incident, and decided to embrace Islam from that day onwards.

However, this story is dismissed by the young generation today as a myth. Many today believe that it was the King himself pretending to be the sea demon, allegedly raping and murdering the virgin girl every month and leaving her bod yon the beach.

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