Author: Minivan News

The Maldives must hold free and fair multi-party elections by 2008 or risk sliding into political ‘chaos’.

That was the stark warning from the Maldivian High Commissioner to London, Hassan Sobir, this week, during an exclusive interview with Minivan News.

The reclusive High Commissioner came out of his political shell to call on the constituent assembly, the Special Majlis, to speed up the process of reform to pave the way for the first competitive election in the Maldives’ history.

“People often ask me what would happen if the Special Majlis failed to pass the Constitutional Reform laws. I tell them it has no choice. The Majlis must enact the constitution reform before the deadline for presidential elections in 2008. It would be a great injustice to the people not to do so,” Sobir said.

“The slow pace of the Majlis is very disappointing. There is a lot of foot-dragging with points of order and delays, with people blaming each other. They have to see that it is in everybody’s interest, including the opposition’s, to get the constitutional reform through. There is no alternative.”

“The country would descend into chaos if it did not go through. That’s what I think and I don’t care who knows that this is my view.”

Removed from the day to day squabbles of Male’ politics, Sobir is something of an outsider. Viewing the reform process from afar, he is more reflective and able focus on the bigger, long term picture for the country.

Much of his day to day job involves meeting fellow diplomats and government officials here in London, at the European Union in Brussels and at the United Nations in Geneva.

In those meetings, Sobir represents President Gayoom’s government and defends its track record on human rights and democratic reform.

He gave his interview to Minivan News after what he said had been a ‘difficult’ year.

In 2006 the government missed a number of its own roadmap commitments, such as reforming the criminal justice system. For many, the varnish has started to come off Gayoom’s reform process.

“There are big challenges in my job of representing Maldives abroad. One, we are a small country, two it is a poor country, three it is an Islamic country and four, it has a government that has been in power for a very long time. It is a difficult time for me working in London,” he said.

Sobir is proud of his track record, however, and feels he has achieved much during his time in Europe.

“I came to London when Gayoom began his new term of office and had announced a programme of sweeping reforms. But there was turbulence at home. The European Union passed resolutions attacking the Maldives government, and I saw that these were in some ways biased and the government’s side was not well understood.”

“My main aim was to provide the other side of the story, to give European politicians a fuller picture. A lot of mistakes have been made [in the Maldives], I must admit, but a lot of good has been achieved also. We must accept that mistakes have been made and be willing to change.”

“It is significant that despite the negative attention that has been given to Maldives, no country has brought in a travel ban, as advocated by some European politicians. It is true that there is political trouble in Maldives, but we have not turned our back on reform.”

“It is also significant that partly as a result of my presence in the diplomatic community in Europe, we were able to mobilize huge resources for reconstruction aid after the Tsunami. The British Red Cross, for example, has done a lot to help and the European Investment Bank has provided at least 50 million euros. These successes are not down to me alone, but to the highly effective team I have at the Maldives diplomatic mission in London.”

To his critics, however, Sobir’s defense of the Gayoom government makes him nothing short of a ‘spin-doctor’, who is paid to excuse the ongoing human rights abuses in the Maldives with paper-thin promises that political reform is just around the corner.

How does Sobir square representing an autocratic regime while at the same time espousing the virtues of democracy?

“A transition period is always going to be difficult. Social and political change is more difficult to achieve than economic change. A resort can be built and operating within a year, but it takes many years to train doctors or lawyers. Constitutional reform is no cake-walk.”

The High Commissioner feels that despite the ‘foot dragging’ of some members of the Special Majlis, the government has made considerable progress on democratic reform and will turn the Maldives into a fully-fledged democracy.

“Politics is about giving and taking, sitting at a table and talking. It is not about violence and street protests. Even some sections of the MDP [opposition Maldivian Democratic Party] recognise this. It was very significant, for example, that the MDP members of parliament did not support the plan for a political demonstration in November last year. They are moderate, but are occupied with other things and should concentrate on pushing through reform in a democratic way.”

“It is the responsibility of everyone to see that change takes place with stability. We cannot become a mini-Iraq.”

In light of the attention the Maldivian reform process is beginning to receive in Britain and throughout Europe, Sobir feels that political reform is also necessary for the further development of the tourism industry.

“We have a successful tourism industry. It is healthy tourism, clean tourism. People who visit Maldives have traveled a lot and are a very informed group of travelers. Many of them are repeaters – they come year after year because they like it so much. Yes, they come for sun and sandy beaches, and luxurious resorts, but they see also that political development is occurring.”

“Maldives specialises in a relatively exclusive category, with medium to high-end resort facilities. We do not have mass tourism. The people who visit Maldives want to be associated with a democratic country, which respects human rights. The workers in the Maldives tourism industry want a functional democracy too. It is important to promote ethical tourism. Tourism development and the political reform process go hand-in-hand.”

For Sobir, there are also other threats to the tourism industry other than political turmoil. He is concerned about the high levels of heroin addiction among Maldivian youths. He is also worried about the rise of a new, pugnacious form of Islam, which threatens the traditional Maldivian way of life.

“There are signs that Islamic fundamentalism is creeping in. It is difficult to quantify but there are people who have started introducing extreme views. This is a matter for concern, and people should not ignore it.”

“We want Maldives to be a moderate Muslim country, where we have women working in industry and they have a strong role in politics and economics. This must continue.”

“It’s fine for girls to wear the veil if they wish, as has been noticed by Maldivians and visitors alike. This is not a problem. But there are people with extreme Islamic views and they should not impose their values on others.”

Sobir works hard in London to promote the Maldives as a moderate, progressive Muslim country.

“I often take part in three-faith events, where Muslims, Christians and Jews meet to discuss things of shared interest. It is interesting that recently a Jewish leader in London spoke positively of Islam as a noble religion. When it is possible to be so tolerant, it baffles me why there is so much misunderstanding about Islam.”

“An Australian couple had an opportunity to meet the President on a recent visit to Maldives. They were asked what was most striking. They said they had heard so much that was bad about Islam, but now they could see that Islam can be good for a country and it is a noble religion.”

“Once we achieve democracy, Maldives can be a good role model for the rest of the world, especially the Islamic states. We could be a small island Muslim state with a thriving tourism industry and respect for human rights.”

As for his own plans, Sobir insists he does not have political ambitions.

“I have no intention of standing for the Presidency, if that is what you mean.”

“There are a lot of qualified younger people in Maldives who should come forward and throw their hats into the ring. My boss, the Foreign Minister, Dr Shaheed, for example, is a very able young man who is very good in negotiations.”

“One day I will return to Maldives but I do not wish to do anything big. Certainly, I would not want to be a politician.”

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Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital stood accused of “failing to exercise due care” in diagnosis and of “failing to give appropriate treatment” to nine-month old Ali Zakwan, who died of kidney failure last July, in a hearing at the Civil Court in Male’ on Sunday.

“After the child was admitted to the hospital the doctors failed to exercise due care in diagnosing Zakwan’s condition and to give the patient appropriate treatment,” said Husnu Suoodh, lawyer for the prosecution. The child’s mother, Wazna Ibrahim Majdhee, filed a medical negligence case against IGMH, claiming that her son’s kidney failure resulted from the negligence of doctors and staff at the hospital.

“On 13 July 2006 when Ali Zakwan was taken to hospital, Dr. Shafqa failed to diagnose Zakwan’s condition and therefore the child went into severe dehydration just two hours thereafter,” Suoodh said in a statement given to Minivan News.

“When Ali Zakwan was taken to the hospital at 5 pm on the same day,” Suoodh continued, “the doctors and staff at the hospital casualty room failed to attend the patient and to give any treatment until after 6:05 pm,” Suoodh added.

Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) argued it was not responsible for the death of nine-month old, Ali Zakwan, who died last July while in the hospital’s care.

The prosecution has blamed Dr. Fathimath Shafuga, Dr. John George and Dr. Amir, who the boy’s mother said, “failed to exercise proper care”, while treating her child. The prosecution lawyer, Suoodh said one of the most important points he wanted to raise was the fact that on the morning of 13 July 2006, Dr Fathimath Shafuga did not pay proper attention to Zakwan.

Suoodh said this was clearly negligent as Dr Mahaputra from Imperial Medical Centre gave specific instructions to IGMH doctors on how to attend to the child. The lawyer for the prosecution added because the doctors at IGMH didn’t follow these instructions, delays in the patient receiving treatment occurred.

During Sunday’s hearing, Suoodh provided a list of witnesses he would be calling to the court. He also requested that IGMH produce the records of inquiry conducted by a committee appointed by the hospital management.

The trial continues.

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There is confusion over who is in control over the referendum after a number of contradictory messages from the government and Special Majlis. The doubt focuses on whether Elections Commissioner, KD Ahmed Manik, has issued a regulation to the parliamentary committee organising the referendum over the future system of government.

An 11 member parliamentary committee in the Special Majlis has issued a report with its recommendations for the referendum. The committee, which is made up of 10 MPs from the government Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and one independent MP after the opposition MDP boycotted the group, proposes to hand control of the referendum to the Elections Commissioner whose work falls under the remit of the President’s Office.

Article 3 of the Committee’s report, which was recently distributed to MPs, says: “The referendum shall be carried out by the Elections Commissioner in accordance with Article 132 of the Maldivian Constitution. The Commissioner shall pursue this task in accordance to the regulation on public referendums by secret ballot 2006, issued by the Commissioner of Elections’ office on …2006”

The date when the Elections Commissioner’s office issued the regulation is not included in the document. Many MPs believe that is because KD Ahmed Manik has not yet issued the regulation, despite telling pro-government newspaper Haveeru this month that he had drawn it up and had sent it to the 11-man committee.

So far, only the committee claims to have seen the document, and they say it is “incomplete”. Nobody outside the committee and the Elections Commission seems to know what the ‘regulation on public referendums by secret ballot 2006’ says, or what it recommends for the referendum.

The Special Majlis rebelled against the wishes of the President on June 18 last year, when it voted to carry out a referendum instead of carrying out the reforms without public consultation. As a result, five committees were set up to arrange the vote on July 3.

Arrangements made by parliament originally planned the referendum for September 16 last year, but parliamentary wrangling caused considerable delay and it is still not clear when it will finally take place.

The five original committees did not last long, and were soon replaced by the DRP-dominated committee which now sits. On August 13 last year, the speaker of the Special Majlis announced that there were too many disputes within the five committees. He then sent the issue of how to conduct the referendum back to the floor of the Special Majlis.

In the debate which followed, the President’s appointee in parliament, Mohamed Saleem, proposed that instead of a committee system, it would be wise to entrust responsibility for organising the poll to Elections Commissioner, KD Ahmed Manik, whose department forms part of the President’s Office.

This effectively handed control over the referendum to President Gayoom under article 42 (f) of the Constitution, which says: “the President shall have the power to execute…(f) Holding public referendums on major issues concerning which the President requires to obtain public opinion”

Gayoom now has the power to decide the question, date and format of the vote.

Mohamed Ibrahim Didi of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) argued that since the Special Majlis had initiated the referendum, it could not be taken over by the President, but his argument went unheeded.

Soon after, the government’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP – Maldivian People’s Party) was arguing the five original committees were illegal, despite many of the government MPs having been part of them. On 24 August, a vote of no confidence for the 5 committees, called for by the DRP, failed. 35 voted in favour of the committees, 18 against, with 15 abstaining.

But by 10 October in the 114th sitting of the Majlis, a motion was passed setting up a new committee which would cooperate with the Elections Commissioner in order to conduct the referendum, taking precedence over the five defunct original committees.

The MDP, angry that the referendum committees had been hijacked, boycotted the new committee and the opposition is not represented within the group. Despite the MDP’s boycott, the committee pushed ahead with its work with 10 DRP members and 1 independent.

The MDP now says it is willing to vote with the committee’s proposals for the referendum to speed the process up, but the question remains, what does the ‘regulation on public referendums by secret ballot 2006’ say?

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The British Red Cross has permanently withdrawn from a major tsunami reconstruction project on Kolhufushi Island (Meemu Atoll) due to lack of agreement over rebuilding between the government and the people.

The decision was taken on January 16, and a statement released to Minivan five days later said it had “not been taken lightly.” Funds totalling $3.7m will now be reallocated to other Red Cross projects and the statement says options for where the money is reallocated are currently under discussion with the government.

The British Red Cross cited, “persistent and unresolved constraints as well as our donor deadline of having to spend tsunami funds by the end of 2007” as the primary reasons for their decision to abandon the Kolhufushi project. The aid organisation says experience shows it takes one year to build 50 houses, and with 55 planned for Kolhufushi, it had become clear they could not complete their work by the end of 2007.

“While the government has made serious efforts to address various constraints it has become impossible to reach agreement to date, particularly between the communities living on Kolhufushi and the Government on both the number of houses to be rebuild and importantly the allocation of land – where to build houses.”

The Red Cross has agreed to leave all building materials already on the island, thought to be worth around $200 000, and a generator. The organisation has said it will now provide technical support to the government, which will take over the tsunami recovery effort.

The government’s plans for rebuilding the island involve combining two settlements, one in the north and one in the south, into one large village in the middle of the island on land that was previously used for cultivation.

But having filled in the marshy ground and cut down many trees, the governments plans were frustrated by the objections of a handful of families in each settlement whose houses had not been destroyed by the tsunami. They said they wanted to stay where they are.

But the government insists that cannot happen. They say all residents must move to the new site and that the houses of the objectors are in the way. The ensuing postponement of building work on the island has frustrated many residents, who are currently stuck in tiny temporary shelters with very poor facilities such as basic sanitation.

The stalemate has led to some conflict on the island and a number of protests. Earlier this month the Island Office was blockaded with tree branches as residents protested about the government’s inability to come up with a viable compromise.

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The Maldives tourist industry has participated in several travel trade fairs in a drive to promote its resorts in European countries.

Over the past two weeks the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board organised stands at shows in the Austrian capital Vienna, the Dutch city of Utrecht and the city of Oslo in Norway.

The Reiseliv travel trade fair in Oslo is an important trade event in the Norway, targeting the travel trade and consumers in Scandinavia who want to make well informed decisions about their next long haul holiday trip.

Event organizers estimated that over 40,000 consumers and travel trade visited the fair.

Scandinavians are relatively wealthy and spend a lot of money on holidays to up-market destinations in the sun, to counteract the bleak cold winters they experience in northern Europe.

This is a difficult market to crack, however, because of the lack of direct air routes to the Maldives, and strong competition from more accessible destinations in the Mediterranean.

In conjunction with the Oslo event, Maldives Tourism Promotion Board held a news conference for media and travel trade to provide more information on the Maldives and in specific areas such as environmental initiatives and their impact on the Maldives economy and tourism trade.

In 2006 Maldives also welcomed 8,000 tourists from Netherlands. This is an increase of over 25 per cent compared to the year 2005, so a presence at the Vakantiebeurs travel fair in Utrecht was important for developing this growing source market.

Vakantiebeurs is one of the most important travel trade events in the Netherlands targeting tour operators and the general public. It is a popular annual event which last year attracted over 140,000 visitors. This year 19 representatives from ten private companies represented the Maldives tourism in Utrecht.

Austria is also considered to be a rapidly growing market for Maldives tourism, with a large number of citizens with high disposable income and easy accessibility to the Maldives. In 2006 Maldives attracted over 14,000 tourists from Austria, an increase of over 50 per cent compared to the previous year.

A significant number of people visited the Maldives stand at the Ferien Messe Fair in Vienna to gather more information on holiday opportunities in Maldives resorts.

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An event aimed at showcasing the Gayoom government’s “commitment to press freedom” ended in farce on Monday when Foreign Minister Dr Shaheed and Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed both inexplicably failed to turn up, while Fisheries Minister Abdullah Kamaluddeen slept through most of the meeting.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the event, inviting journalists from across the political spectrum to come to Darubaruge in Male’ at 1:30pm. In addition to reporters, Maldivian Democratic Chairperson Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) also attended.

“We were told that Dr Shaheed and the Information Minister would be present. It was rumoured that they would announce a raft of new press regulations,” said Minivan News correspondent Will Jordan, who was at the event.

Jordan and other participants were disappointed, however, when advertised keynote speakers failed to appear, leaving only Chief Government Spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu) to represent the regime’s views on press freedom.

Fortunately, the British High Commissioner to Colombo, Dominick Chilcott, was also on hand and spoke about the value of a free media from the perspective of a successful democracy.

Despite the best efforts of the two featured speakers, they nevertheless failed to engage the assembled press corps, who were perhaps understandably wary after hearing several unfulfilled promises of increasing media freedom over the last year.

When Mundhu opened the floor to questions from the assembled journalists, “There was an uncomfortable silence, and unimpressed journalists stared blankly at the government spokesperson,” Jordan reported.

In typically blunt fashion, Anni broke the silence, announcing, “The ministers haven’t turned up, this clearly isn’t going to plan. We might as well break for lunch.”

Mundhu explained that the ministers had been “tied up on business,” while Dominick Chilcott tried to reassure the skeptical audience that Shaheed and Nasheed were not “trying to pull a fast one” and deliberately evading journalists. Nevertheless, members of the press had already begun to leave. The meeting was not reconvened.

Had the meeting yielded an announcement of improved press freedom legislation or even a healthy debate on the state of the media in Maldives, it may have proved a badly needed publicity boost for the government, currently under fire from some quarters for continuing a crack-down on press freedom.

On Friday, Maldivian immigration officials deported Minivan News journalist Phillip Wellman, a US national, and banned him from returning to the country for two years.

The government claimed Wellman did not have the “proper authorization” to visit the country, while Minivan News assessed that the government made a politically motivated immigration decision against a journalist.

Wellman’s expulsion is the latest in a series of attacks on press freedom, including the continued prosecution of reporters under old, draconian regulations.

While the government has verbalized a commitment to press freedom on many occasions, there is minimal evidence to date that legislators have taken any concrete steps to protect journalists.

Today’s “Press Freedom Seminar” did not even proffer the standard rhetoric, sadly echoing instead the silence that plagues oppressed journalists in the Maldives.

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President Maumoon Gayoom advised Singapore’s top entrepreneurs to invest in the Maldives during a keynote speech he delivered at the Maldives Business Symposium on Friday.

During his speech, Gayoom said that the Maldives offered a “very attractive and stable environment” for foreign investors and stressed that the commercial ties between the Maldives and Singapore have not reached their maximum potential.

Singapore is currently the Maldives’ largest trading partner with over a quarter of the total imports to the Maldives coming from the country. The annual value of the imports is over US$ 200 million.

In his speech, Gayoom stressed that the Maldives had over US$100 million worth of foreign direct investment from Singapore and said he was confident that more Singaporean companies would invest in the Maldives due to the country’s current expansion in tourism.

Gayoom delivered his speech during a three-day, state visit to Singapore, which began on 18 January.

Speaking at a banquet welcoming Gayoom, Singapore’s President, S. R. Nathan, noted that his country’s investments in the Maldives have nearly doubled from the year 2000 to 2004. He also pointed to the fact that Singapore Airlines was one of the few airlines to have daily flights to and from the Maldives.

The Minister of Economic Development and Trade in Singapore, Mr. Mohamed Jaleel, also said he was convinced that Gayoom’s visit would boost trade and investment ties between the Maldives and Singapore.

The Business Symposium, which was attended by over 100 top entrepreneurs and investors, was jointly organised by the Maldives Government Trade Centre (MGTC) in Singapore and the Foreign Investment Service Bureau (FISB).

It was the first time the event had occurred.

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A military dictatorship could seize control of the Maldives if the country’s media do not become neutral and a “good constitution” is not installed warned former leader of the Human Rights Commission, Ahmed Mujthaba, on Saturday.

In a speech given at an Open Society meeting in Bandos Island Resort, Mujthaba urged politicians to create an appropriate constitution as soon as possible.

He said this was important due to the fact that it will take “many years” for democracy and a respect for human rights to become part of Maldivian culture even after the constitution’s completion.

Mujthaba pointed out that the Maldives had never been a democracy and that presently, the country was at a delicate crossroads where a wrong turn could end up throwing the entire democratisation process in chaos.

“Do we want the country to move back into a subsistence economy?” Mujthaba asked listeners. “Do we want a strong man to emerge to finally control the situation and install a military dictatorship or an Iranian style theocracy or a Saudi type kingdom? If the answer is no, the state radio and TV must become liberal and neutral in reporting news and facilitate public debate on various issues.”

In addition to a neutral media Mujthaba also said that, “the politicians in power must stop trying to cling onto the power and those in the opposition must stop trying to take power. The two must work together to ensure a better life for future generations through a good Constitution.”

According to Mujthaba the present constitution, which took 17 years to construct, is no better than the one that came before it as government regulations and practices and acts of Majlis can still be changed “whimsically”.

“I learnt more about what was wrong with the country that I was born in and I call home in the one year and nine months that I was in the Commission than I did my entire life,” Mujthaba added.

He went on to say that he had been specifically disturbed over the fact that the Human Rights Commission received media coverage only when one of its members resigned on grounds that the Commission was not functioning in accordance with the Constitution and Islamic Sharia.

“The state media gave no assistance in the dissemination of information on human rights,” said Mujthaba.

He said that for the sake of the entire country the media need to start focusing on serious issues, such as human rights abuses, and need to report them objectively.

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The Minister of Gender and Family, Aishath Mohamed Didi, faced tough criticism on Friday over Maldives’ ban on the election of women to the presidency and vice-presidency

She described the prohibition as “odd” and “an anachronism” as she presented reports to the UN General Assembly’s Committee in New York on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

One expert said Luxembourg was the only other country with such a prohibition, but it was a monarchy where the Head of State, regardless of gender, had little political power, whereas the opposite was true of the Maldives President. The ban merely reinforced gender stereotypes and justified discrimination on the basis of gender.

Echoing that sentiment, another expert noted that Islamic countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh had elected female leaders, pointing out that neither Sharia nor the Koran prohibited women from holding political office. The Maldives’ next country report should show that the country’s reservations regarding political and public life, as well as marriage and family life, had been lifted.

The Minister said the government was considering the withdrawal of the reservations and had proposed to remove the constitutional provision barring women from holding the country’s highest political office. Committee members were invited to discuss the matter with Maldives legislators and to push for those changes before the nation’s Parliament.

Other questions discussed today focused on why women could not become judges, and the level at which debate was taking place to change that; the legal implications of gender discrimination in the absence of a women’s rights law; and the changing mandate of the high-level Gender Equality Council.

She said there was a provision for a quota permitting the President to appoint eight parliamentarians, including four women and four men, adding that she had advocated for the quota as a necessary temporary measure but had met resistance, with political factions claiming that women were not fit to hold the presidency, ministerial or parliamentary positions. Others claimed that quotas discriminated against men.

The Minister said the question of eliminating the gender barrier in the judiciary was under consideration by ministers and judges. Debate was also ongoing at the community level and in the media, according to another delegate. The Justice Minister had announced the Government’s intention to appoint female judges under the mandate of the Judicial Service Commission.

However, the Minister acknowledged that judges and magistrates had not been sensitised to gender issues, partly because their heavy case loads made it difficult for them to participate in programmes run by the Ministry of Gender and Family. New training starting in

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