Author: Minivan News

Adhaalath Party reschedules congress over space concerns

The Adhaalath Party has reportedly postponed the date of a key congress set for July until later in the month after facing issues in securing a venue suitable in size to host the event.

The congress, which will see the group’s recently appointed new leadership take their oaths of office as well commencing elections for other senior posts, is now expected to take place between July 17 and July 20 at Dharubaaruge, according to the Haveeru newspaper.

The Party’s Registrar Dr Mohamed Muiz told the paper that the decision had been taken to postpone the event – originally scheduled to begin July 4 – after fears that refurbishments to the initial host venue would not be completed in time.

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Planned Maldives Islamic channel launch to be reviewed next year

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has said it will review the possibility of launching a Maldives-based Islamic television channel next year to ensure that the technical demands required for the endeavor can be met.

Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Mohamed Didi, told Minivan News that the postponement of plans to begin broadcasting an Islamic TV channel in the country were not so much an issue of budgetary limitations – but that of human resources.

“If we were to start this channel we would need human resources and the technical staff to support it,” he said. “We have spoken to the Maldives National Broadcasting Corperation (MNBC), who can supply this, so we have the technical capacity, but we need to think how we will move ahead.”

Didi said that broadcasting a new tv channel in the country was “not an easy task” and there were concerns that the project needed more extensive planning.

“If we rush [starting the channel], we might not be able to sustain it so that is why we are waiting until next year,” he claimed.

Didi added that the exact nature of how the channel would operate and the duration of its programming on a daily basis had yet to be finalised and would be a key part of any ongoing talks.

Meanwhile, Miadhu has reported today that Islamic Affairs Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Baari believed repeated postponements of forming the channel were related to low budgets and ongoing legal action regarding the control of state media.

According to the report, Rf2 million from the Zakat fund had been allocated to fund the proposed Islamic channel, but the money has now been transferred instead to a scholarship programme.

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MDP sets afternoon deadline for parliamentary group leader applications

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has set a deadline of this afternoon for accepting applications for the role of its parliamentary group leader.

According to Haveeru, the party has given potential candidates until 2.30pm today to register their interest in the role ahead of an election scheduled for Wednesday.

The MDP’s previous Parliamentary Group Leader, ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, resigned from his post after being selected as the party’s acting chairperson for a year during its 91st national council meeting held at Bandos Island Resort over the weekend.

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Maldives endorses war crime investigation in Libya

The Maldives, together with the UK, Qatar and Jordan have passed a resolution in the UN’s Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the international Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations in Libya.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem said he welcomed the “strong message” the resolution would send to Libyan President Muammar Gadaffi.

“Civilised nations around the world will not stand by as he kills and violates the fundamental rights of thousands of our Muslim brothers and sisters. He will, in the end, be held accountable,” said Naseem.

The resolution came in response to the inquiry’s preliminary report into the Libyan situation, which found evidence of arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence against women and children – violations it found represented war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Government targets regional “bridge” building through Addu SAARC summit

Plans for Addu Atoll to host the 17th summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) this year are said to be on schedule and will focus on the idea of “Building Bridges” between member states both in a physical and diplomatic sense.

At a meeting held today at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Male’, the government unveiled its main theme for the SAARC meeting: “Building Bridges” – both in terms of physical connectivity and figurative political dialogue. However, the ministry added that the notion of bridging differences would be represented as the overarching theme of the summit rather than any set diplomatic or development aims.

With the summit scheduled to run from November 10 to 11 later this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the Addu City convention centre currently being built to host the regional meeting was expected to be completed by September, with 90 per cent of the site’s concrete construction now in place.

In addressing members of the media today, President’s Office representative and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) youth arm president Shauna Aminath said that the Maldivian government – as part of SAARC – had been working with fellow member states to try and improve communication and collaboration throughout the region.

Shauna took the recent recommencement of ferry services between India and Sri Lanka after a thirty year hiatus as a physical example of the summit’s own aims to try and strengthen economic and diplomatic ties between different member nations for their mutual benefit and prosperity.

“The idea is to celebrate the differences that we have and use these to unite nations to build a better region. South Asia is specifically unique in that it is home to 100 different languages, ten different major religions and one fifth of the world’s population,” she said. “The Maldives is the lowest lying nation in the world, at the same time [fellow SAARC member] Nepal has the [planet’s] highest points. So these are differences, but we want to use these as an opportunity to celebrate as a united force to build bridges of friendship, peace and security.”

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Surfing champs descending on Maldives to contest Four Seasons prize

Some of the most revered names in competitive surfing are expected to convene in the Maldives later this year to compete in a special tournament being hosted at Four Seasons’ Kuda Huraa resort.

According to Four Seasons, six world champions including Australians Mark Richards and Layne Beachley will be among the surfers competing for US$25,000 in prize money as part of the Four Seasons Resorts Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy.

The tournament, which will be contested later this year from August 29 to September 5, will be hosted in conjunction with travel provider Tropicsurf and see three different generations of surf disciplines including Single Fin, Twin Fin and Thruster being contested.

According to the event organisers, the decision to host the tournament in the Maldives highlights the growing regard for the country as a major surf destination that it claims offers some of the “most impressive, consistent and warmest swells.”

Four Seasons said it will also be offering special packages for guests to visit Kuda Huraa and take in the competition from both land and sea.

More information on the tournament can be found here.

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MNSL appoints director to oversee closure of Singapore operations

Cabinet Secretary Abdulla Saeed has been appointed to manage the closure of the Maldives National Shipping Limited’s (MNSL) Singapore operations, according to media reports.

Haveeru reported that Saeed, who also serves as chairman of the Maldives National Oil Company (MNOC), will work as a director alongside a staff accountant in order to settle any outstanding debts and return company assets to Male’ ahead of the office being shut.

The decision to close the group’s Singapore office has reportedly been taken as the company’s cargo carriers were not operating in the country.

According to Haveeru, the former office head of the MNSL’s Singapore operations, Mohamed ‘MM’ Moosa Manik, had been offered the director post but had opted to leave the company instead.

Saeed is himself already based in Singapore, according to the report.

The MNSL operates as the Maldives’ flagship freight transportation group.

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Bangladesh embarrassed by Maldives’ decision to deport workers: Financial Express

Dhaka-based newspaper the Financial Express has published an editorial stating that the decision of the Maldivian authorities to deport illegal Bangladeshi nationals “should be considered quite embarrassing for Bangladesh.”

“However, the incidence of deportation of illegal Bangladeshi workers from the countries of the Middle East, South East Asia and Europe is not infrequent. It does take place within or beyond the knowledge of the authorities concerned in Dhaka. But the issue of deportation is neither taken seriously nor does it give rise to any feeling of embarrassment here.

“According to the Maldivian foreign minister, the number of Bangladeshis in his country is around 50,000 now and one-third of them are either working or staying there illegally. The minister has urged Dhaka to take appropriate steps to stop illegal migration to the Maldives, which, he said has become a thriving business for unscrupulous manpower recruiting agencies.

“Remittances coming from such illegal workers has been not without a cost. The illegal workers, who generally enter carrying tourist visas and overstay, are not liked by the authorities of the countries where they are employed. This has created a sort of image problem for Bangladesh in the outside world.

“The issue of illegal Bangladeshi workers loudly indicates two factors – lack of employment opportunities at home and highhandedness of the unscrupulous manpower agents.

“The government, however, if it desires so, can, at least, deal with rogue manpower agents who lure unsuspecting unskilled workers and send them abroad with false visas or work permits. Such illegal workers do always remain vulnerable to police torture and many other dangers.

“Death stalks them while they try to enter countries in Europe or Southeast Asia illegally using sea or land routes. But the authorities here other than cancellation of a few licences have done nothing to mete out strong punishment to evil manpower agents. Exemplary punishment, it is felt, would help curb the sending of workers abroad with forged documents, to a large extent.”

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Chinese-Indian rivalry strikes Maldives: Jakarta Post

The May 28-31 visit to the Maldives by the most senior Chinese official ever to visit the Islamic archipelago-nation went largely unreported in the Western media, writes Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe for the Jakarta Post.

“The significance of the visit by Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, underscored the increasing importance of the Maldives to China’s regional strategic calculations.

China and the Maldives first established diplomatic relations in 1972. Since then, relations have gradually developed. More recently, Indian policy analysts referred to China’s soft power rise throughout South Asia as a “creeping expansionism”. They went so far as to accuse China of harboring ambitions to set up a submarine base facility in the Maldives.

For instance, in 2005, Indian commentator, A.B. Mahapatra, asserted that: “China has engineered a manner of a coup by coaxing Maldives’ Abdul Gayoom government to let it establish a base in Marao”.

Marao is one of the largest of the 1192 coral islands grouped into atolls that comprise Maldives and lies 40 km south of Male, the capital.

[Minivan News unsure to which island this is referring, as no such island is listed in the Maldives]

Scientists warn that global warming is pushing up ocean and sea levels. They fear that most of Maldives will be submerged by year 2040. Marao may be one of the few large islands that may survive.

“And even if it goes under water”, said a naval official, “it will be ideal for submarines.”

In February 2001, a small delegation from Pakistan visited Maldives to boost cultural ties. “The Pakistanis put pressure on Male to facilitate Chinese plans for a naval base,” said an official. “China used Pakistan to play the Islamic card with Maldives. But the Marao base is not expected to be operational until 2010.”

President Gayoom ruled the Maldives for around 30 years. Following his election defeat in November 2008, his successor, President Mohamed Nasheed, has shown greater willingness to accommodate Indian interests.

As reported widely in the Indian media in late 2009, the Maldives acceded to India’s request to deploy 26 coastal radars to monitor its territorial waters.

“India is not trying to influence us. We wanted the radars. A lot of biomass poaching (poaching of fish and corals) happens in the area. So does a lot of illegal commercial fishing,” President Nasheed said.

Latterly, it transpired that India’s coast guard and naval vessels would patrol the Maldives’ territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, and a private Indian company was contracted to refurbish the former British Gan Island air base for use by Indian reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.

Trade in minerals and energy, worth many billions of dollars annually, passes near the Maldives, which is strategically located astride the major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. It is hardly surprising therefore that former Indian diplomat Kuldeep Sahdev mentioned: “It is a country of immense strategic importance to us.”

Historically, India has long seen the islands as within its sphere of influence and has sought to underwrite the security of the Maldives.

This was demonstrated in November 1988, when heavily armed ethnic-Tamil militants staged a coup to oust President Gayoom, but were rapidly intercepted and neutralized by expeditionary forces dispatched by India.

More recently, in February 2011, President Nasheed made a tour of India to enhance cooperation in trade, investment and security, and chose to use the opportunity to reiterate his pro-India stance.

“Maintaining balance in the Indian Ocean is very important. There is not enough room in the Indian Ocean for other non-traditional friends,” he said. “We are not receptive to any installation, military or otherwise, in the Indian Ocean, especially from un-traditional friends. The Indian Ocean is the Indian Ocean.”

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