Author: Ahmed Rilwan

MACL ordered to halt evacuation of portrait artists at INIA

The Civil Court has issued a temporary order to halt the termination and evacuation of space dedicated for Maldives Music and Arts Center’s (MMAC) live art portrait services at the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

MMAC had requested for a a halting order from the civil court until the ongoing court case against when Maldives Airports Company Limited for sending a termination notice in November 2013.

The Center filed a case to invalidate MACL notice for contravening an existing contract. The court order said MACL cannot implement the termination notice until the case is settled.

MMAC first started providing the live art portraits service at the airport in 2011, under an agreement with GMR Male’ International Airport Pvt Ltd and it was later extended till 21 December 2014.

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Tourism Ministry to introduce “guest house Islands”.

Ministry of Tourism is planning to develop “guest house islands” for middle income tourism where individual business will invest for different services provided on the Island, local media have reported.

“Developing guest house islands is onthe PPM (Progressive Party of Maldives) manifesto as well. This will create middle income beds,” Tourism Minister Adheeb said. Adheeb said that an island close to capital Male’ city will be chosen for this purposes.

He said the government intends to double the current 25.000 beds in the industry and will work to open ten tourist resorts each year.

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Education Ministry unveils detailed hundred-day plan

Ministry of Education has unveiled its road map for the first hundred days of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration, joining many other ministries and government institutions.

The nineteen-point plan was announced at a ceremony held at Sultan Park yesterday.

The four priority objectives of the plan are: introducing Quran as a subject for grades 1 – 7 in in all schools within the 2014 academic year, introducing civic education, giving an allowance equivalent to salary for professional staff who take leave for further training, and providing opportunities for students in Male’ to train in six different areas from ‘Maldives Polytechnic” – the Ministry’s training institute for technical and vocational education.

Among other objectives, the ministry has planned to set professional standards for teachers and assign health assistants for schools through island health centers and provide counseling at schools.

The ministry also plans to establish Special Education units in five schools, and two dedicated regional Special Education centers. A child protection policy is also set to be passed within the first hundred days.

According to the Ministry, the government will choose two islands to establish Arabic medium schools within 100 days.

Plans to provide higher education and training opportunities include a campaign to familiarize students with training and career opportunities. In addition to this, the government will be signing agreements with five companies to provide apprenticeship programs and will seek local and overseas higher education opportunities for students with minimum three A Level passes.

Regional campuses of Maldives Polytechnic will be established and a scheme for introducing ‘economically beneficial’ foreign languages will also be designed within this period.

Sociology is planned to be taught in a selected number of schools and a special program to make students more aware of Dhivehi language and culture will also be introduced.

As part of this plan the ministry is seeking to assign Quran teachers for all Schools before the academic year 2014. The ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr. Abdul Muhsin Mohamed said that the ministry is still short of 26 Quran teachers to achieve this this objective.

According to Muhsin the ministry will find teachers for other subjects as well within this period. He said priority will be given to local teachers even though a number of foreign treachers are on stand by to fill in for approximately three hundred vacant posts.

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Majlis passes Right to Information Act

The People’s Majlis has unanimously voted to pass the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The act – first introduced to the Majlis in 2009 – was passed as presented by the Social Affairs Committee with minor amendments with the support of the 67 MPs.

Introducing the bill to the floor, the committee chair MP Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed said the committee had sought assistance from local media and international experts in revising the bill

The bill was first sent to the People’s Majlis in 2007 but was rejected. It was reintroduced to the current People’s Majlis in November 2009, and underwent a complete overhaul at the Social Affairs Committee.

Local NGO TransparencyMaldives (TM) which has advocated for the act for a long time described its passing as “an important step towards increasing transparency of the state institutions, ensuring greater accountability of public officials, and fighting corruption”.

“Transparency Maldives hopes that President Abdulla Yamin Abdul Gayoom will expedite the ratification of the bill.We call on all actors and institutions to provide their full support towards successfully implementing the law once ratified” said the organization in a press released issued today.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Transparency Maldives’ Advocacy and Communications Manager Aiman Rasheed said the act was one of the best legislation  passed by the Majlis.

Once the bill is ratified, subsidiary regulations will need to be passed, an Information Commissioner will need to be appointed and a support structure will need to be implemented, Aiman said.

If ratified the act will bring about major changes to the Maldives access to information regime. Although the current RTI regulation introduced in 2008 through an executive decree applies only to government offices, the new act will apply to all state funded institutions including the parliament, judiciary and independent institution.

Other key features of the act include the establishment of an information office in all state institutions, instituting a seven day period of response for information requests and a thirty day period to proved the information or reason for failure to do so.

An independent Information Commissioner will also be appointed by the parliament from names proposed by the president. Issues with acquiring information can be appealed to the Information Commissioner.

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“Good response” to voluntary repatriation program

On average one hundred workers are registering for the Department of Immigration and Emigration’s ongoing voluntary repatriation program for undocumented migrant workers each day, the department has said.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Deputy CEO of of the department Abdulla Munaz said although response had been low initially, more workers are registering now with more than 250 workers requesting for registration by Monday afternoon.

The voluntary repatriation program was designed to provide an opportunity for undocumented migrant workers to return to Maldives within six months and arrange their travel documents with ease.

If undocumented workers are deported they would not be allowed to return for ten years.

The program started on 23 December and will continue till 31 December 2013, and will reopen from 5 – 6 January 2014. Registration will go on from 0900hrs – 1700hrs on these days at Dharumavantha School, Male’.

Workers will be sent back to their countries within two days of registration. Repatriation under this program is voluntary and on the workers’ own expense. The government expects to repatriate between 5,000 – 10,000 workers.

Munaz said there are some undocumented workers who are in that situation because they were mistreated by local employers, and the department will start more rigorous monitoring and taking action against locals who employ and harbor undocumented workers.

“Our goal is not to take action against as many people, but this is a national issue and we will do whatever it takes to tackle this.” Munaz said.

He said that starting from January 2014, action will be taken against employers who are reported for not paying salaries for two consecutive months.

Instead of blacklisting agencies for malpractices, the department will start to ban the person responsible for such activity from future recruitment and will work with the Labor Relations Authority and Maldives Police Service to take all necessary action against such individuals.

The Immigration Act empowers the department to fine anyone who contravenes the act with an amount not exceeding MVR 50,000/- and the Controller of Immigration is given the authority of with \holding such a person’s passport.

Under the “Work Visa Regulation” the Controller of Immigration and Emigration has the authority to deport all migrant workers employed by an employer who contravenes the regulation. And with the Anti Human Trafficking Act coming to power, agencies and employers involved in acts of trafficking, exploitation and debt bondage will face criminal charges.

A connection between increasing number of undocumented migrant workers have been suggested by the Human Right Commission of the Maldives and the US State Department who have put Maldives on their Tier Two Watch List for Human Trafficking for the fourth consecutive time this year.

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives earlier this year expressed concern over a mass repatriation program, saying that the state should provide such workers with their due wages and compensation before sending them off. A Labor Relations Authority and a Employment Tribunal was established under the Employment Act created to address such issues.

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MDP will empower local councils: Nasheed

Former president Mohamed Nasheed has said the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will not allow the Maldives to become a “unitary state” and will empower local councils.

Speaking at an MDP rally held last night at Alimas Carnival area in Male’, Nasheed said that if MDP wins majority of the seats in the parliament, the party will arrange an uninhabited island for every council and provide councils with the means of making an income.

He said MDP will work within the parliament to ensure councils are given the authority to utilize land, and with that councils will fulfill the pledge of providing citizens with housing.

He noted the importance of allowing the councils to have the funds they earn in their own accounts.

Nasheed said the MDP accepted the presidential election result knowing that it was achieved through a court, and will work twice as hard to win the upcoming local council and parliament elections.

He announced his plans to visit every inhabited island of Maldives before 22 March.

“Maldives is clearly proving that a coalition government have no place under the constitution, President Yameen cannot rule except with the twenty six percent he won.” Nasheed said, reiterating his criticism of coalition governments.

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom won 25.35 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections held on September 7. The Supreme Court subsequently annulled the election and ordered a revote. Yameen’s Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) won in the second round with 51.39 percent of the vote after third-placed candidate Gasim Ibrahim backed the PPM.

People’s Majlis Speaker Abdulla Shahid also echoed Nasheed’s concerns over the state of local governance in the Maldives.

Describing decentralization as the biggest changed brought about by the 2008 constitution, Shahid accused then opposition parties of confusing the meaning of the decentralization act.

MDP candidates for local councils were announced at last night’s rally. The local council elections will be held on January 18 and Parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 22.

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Hulhumale’ rowhouse fire leaves 14 families homeless

A fire that broke out at Hulhumale’ rowhouse ‘Mashi 3′ second floor at around 11:30 hrs on Friday has left fourteen families homeless.

The government has pledged to house all fourteen families.

While no one was harmed in this incident, a  total of fourteen apartments from ten different buildings sustained various degrees of damages.

The damaged apartments were the second floor of Mashi 1, 2, 3, 4 5, 6, 7 and Sandhura 6, 7, and 8. The first and ground floor of Mashi 1, 2 and 3 were also affected. People living in nearby apartments attempted to save as much property as they could as the fire spread slowly across the rowhouses.

The first responders to the scene were the staff of Housing Development Corporation (HDC), Maldives Police Services and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) firemen stationed at the adjoined Hulhule Island. The HDC is responsible for development and management of the island.

A small fire truck and a few MNDF officials in plain clothes worked with help from members of the community for nearly an hour using a basket crane and a single hose to put out the fire.

Firemen from Maldives Airports Company Ltd’s Fire and Rescue Services came with bigger fire trucks and equipment, and started working with MNDF firefighters and member of the community. They managed to control much of the fire by 12:45pm.

MNDF reinforcements from Hulhule’ reached the scene around 1:00pm with more equipment and manpower.

Firemen at the scene were unable to use any equipment at the buildings, which the HDC blamed on vandalism.

Speaking to Minivan News, an HDC official said the the fire safety equipment at all buildings are set up to meet standards set by the MNDF, but were later on vandalized.

There are no routine inspection and maintenance of fire safety equipment, however the HDC has revealed plans to establish an MNDF Fire and Rescue Unit on the Island in 2014.

According to the HDC 14 families will be provided shelter at the newly built flats under the Veshifahi Male’ project. Twelve of the fourteen whom were relocated last night with help from MNDF. All families were provided immediate temporary shelter at Lale’ International School in Hulhumale’.

A cost estimation for rebuilding the row houses will be made by next week, an HDC official told Minivan News.

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MDP reveals candidates for parliamentary primary

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has announced the names of candidates competing in parliamentary primaries for 72 out of the 85 People’s Majlis seats.

Candidates for the 13 Male’ City constituencies will be announced on 31 December. Party primaries are scheduled for January 24.

Of the 72 announced today, only a single candidate applied for 22 of the constituencies, therefore winning the party ticket without an election.

They are:

  • Hanimaadhoo constituency -Ahmed Adil (Minister of State for Home Affairs in MDP government)
  • Nolhivaram constituency – Ubaidulla Muaz Kendhoo (Former Secretary General of Jumhooree Party, and ran for Kendhoo seat in 2009)
  • Komandoo constituency – Ahmed Nashid ‘ADK Nashid’. (Former MP and member of constitutional assembly)
  • Funadhoo constituency Abbas Mohamed, M. Aa’alimas
  • Alifushi constituency – Mohamed Rasheed Hussein (Ran for the same seat with an MDP ticket in 2009 as well)
  • Eydhafushi constituency – Hisaan Hussain (MDP legal director)
  • Kurendhoo constituency – Abdul Bari Abdulla (MDP Minister of State for Health and Family)
  • K.Guraidhoo constituency – Ali Shaahin Hussein (Kaafu Atoll councillor representing the same constituency)
  • Mathiveri constituency – Hassan Zareer, A.A.Himandhoo
  • Dhangethi constituency – Ibrahim Rasheed Abubakr, Adh. Maamiligi
  • Mulaku constituency – Ibrahim Naseer, M.Mulak
  • F. Nilandhoo constituency – Ibrahim Khaleel, F.Nilandhoo
  • Th. Guraidhoo – Ali Najeeb, Male’ Dhafthar
  • Isdhoo Constituency – Umar Abdul Razzaq, H. Hiki Finifenmaa Ge
  • Gahdhoo Constituency– Ibrahim Ameer, Gdh Gahdhoo

Among the 22, seven are sitting MDP MPs.

  • For Shaviyani Milandhoo Constituency – MP Ali Riza (Milandhoo MP)
  • Kulhudhuffushi North Constituency – MPAbdul Ghafoor Moosa
  • Kendhikulhudhoo Constituency – MP Ahmed Easa
  • Holhudhoo Constituency – MP Ali Mohamed ‘Alibe’ (Currently representing N.Velidhoo constituency, joined MDP in 2013)
  • Hinnavaru constituency – MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih (ibu)
  • Thoddoo constituency – MP Ali Waheed
  • Kaashidhoo constituency – MP Abdulla Jabir

Out of the 174 candidates competing in the MDP primaries, only nine are women.

With the exception of three, all incumbent MDP MPs are competing.

MPs who did not submit their names for primaries are Hoarafushi MP Ahmed Rasheed, Komandoo MP Hussein Waheed and Gaddhoo MP Zahir Adam.

Parliamentary elections will be held on March 22 to elect the 18th People’s Majlis, the second since the democratic transition in 2008.

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State failed to follow majority of February 8 recommendations: HRCM

Independent institutions and the government have failed to implement the majority of the recommendations given by following a investigation into human rights violations during a brutal police crackdown on opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) protesters on February 8, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has said.

Even after one and a half years, only three of the 17 recommendations regarding systemic issues have been fully implemented, HRCM President Mariyam Azra said at a press conference today.

The commission has not yet revealed which of the recommendations were implemented fully, or how much of the other specific recommendations have been implemented.

The report dated 28 May 2012 contained a total of 28 recommendations, 14 involving the Maldives Police Service (MPS) and seven involving the Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Other institutions that the HRCM had proposed recommendations to were Maldives National Defense Force MNDF), the Department of Judicial Administration, Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) and Ministry of Education.

HRCM recommended the the MPS and PIC investigate the “disproportionate” use of force in violation of police regulations . The report also stated that legal action should be taken against the officers responsible for such offences.

Both the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) set up to investigate the transfer of power and the PIC had made similar recommendations regarding the police service.

Members of the PIC have labeled actions of some police officers on February 6, 7 and 8 as crimes and have asked the Prosecutor General to prosecute officers  and recommended Ministry of Home Affairs suspend them.

Meanwhile, more than hundred protesters are being charged with terrorism and obstructing police duty in connection to incidents that took place on the same day.

MDP has called the charges “politically motivated” and demanded they be dropped immediately.

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