Category: Features & Comment

Comment: The Maldives today

Rozaina Adam is the member of parliament for the Addu-Meedhoo constituency. She is also deputy leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party’s parliamentary group.

It’s with intense sadness that I write this today. Maldives, my beautiful country, a country I was so proud to be a citizen of – while it still remains a paradise for tourists – is hardly a paradise to its citizens.

The democracy that our people hoped to enjoy with the ratification of the new constitution is dying a slow death. The separation of powers, which the new constitution proudly states, has been bundled up into the fist of one person, while the rest of the citizens gape in horror at the abominable unfolding of a dictatorship in front of our eyes.

We as the opposition party remain helpless to do anything as our rights, provided by the constitution, are ripped away everyday bit by bit. We struggle to remain heard, to relay our messages in a feeble attempt to bring check and balance to a lopsided state.

Our messages are met with resistance by the government, which threatens to cut off our voices by sending us death threats and terrorising us in the most horrifying and barbaric ways possible.

It’s been more than a month since a reporter, Ahmed Rilwan went missing. Nobody has any idea as to what happened to him. Has he been abducted or murdered or simply gone missing? Even the police has established nothing so far, but the evidence collected by his family points towards an abduction.

The police, as the paid protectors of the people, have done very little and as far as we can see have not attempted to solve this case at a serious level, as noted by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives. The president’s simple refusal to comment at all on the abduction of a reporter, about which the whole nation is concerned, came as a shock to the family of Ahmed Rilwan as well as the people of this nation.

A question hangs – why?

Questions without answers

On one hand, as Rilwan’s family and friends and concerned citizen’s struggle to solve the mystery of his disappearance, others face another horror on the streets as young people get stabbed, beaten, and gutted every other day. Everyday, the newspapers unveil the horror of violence on the streets and horrified citizens sit at their dinner tables discussing the terrible dilemma our nation faces. People are afraid to walk on the streets alone, to leave their house doors unlocked, to climb the staircases to their apartments.

And then there are others who demonstrate the need for Islamic Shariah in Maldives – which of course is how it should be, since we are a 100 percent Muslim nation. But how are we going to practice Islamic Shariah or any justice for that matter, in a nation where the judiciary has totally collapsed?

Isn’t it time we all came out to fight for our right to an independent judiciary? But the sad state of this nation is that, when the issue of a Judge Ali Hameed (a supreme court judge who is alleged of corruption and was also caught on tape having sex with a prostitute) was brought to the attention of parliament by the opposition, the ruling party kicked it out faster than one could say ‘Ali Hameed’.

Everyone wonders – where is the government that came into power through an election influenced by a corrupt Supreme court? What is their role in keeping the citizens of this nation safe?

The answer, sadly enough, is that, everyone is coming to the same conclusion; this is state sponsored terrorism. Parliament members with a constitutional mandate to raise their voices on behalf of the people, are terrorised with death threats to their phones, which, having been reported to the police on several occasions, have been conveniently ignored. The law requires that security be provided to MPs and any other citizen who has a life threat and yet the government refuses to provide security to MPs or such other citizens.

As all this goes on, rumours of corruption by government officials, especially at the ministerial level, spread like wildfire and the parliament which is the overlooking body for the government, of which the majority is the ruling party, turns its back on this. And as if this is not enough, they have rolled up their sleeves and set to work on amending bills and proposing new bills which will further empower the president, and pave the way for further corruption.

As this scenario keeps unfolding, it is worth noting that the Progressive Party of Maldives government which came into power as a coalition with JP no longer holds that status. Without JP, the ruling party now is one which held only 26 percent of popularity votes in the presidential election.

The question is, how long is this minority government’s terror tactics going to work? How long will the citizens continue to tolerate these new levels of corruption and violence? How long will these horror stories remain just dinner conversation? That is a question for tomorrow.

For now, from a Maldivian citizen’s perspective – welcome to the other side of paradise – hell!!

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Comment: Open letter to President Yameen regarding missing journalist

This open letter first appeared on shahadaahmed.blogspot.com. Republished with permission.

Minivan News journalist Ahmed Rilwan has not been since August 8 after neighbours witnessed a man being abducted outside his apartment building. Better known by his twitter followers as ‘moyameehaa’, Rilwan’s disappearance has prompted an outpouring of grief across the country.

One person influenced by Rilwan’s work, Shaha Ahmed, has written this open appeal to President Abdulla Yameen to do all within his power find the 28-year-old, missing for 19 days.

Dear Mr President,

I like you, I do. As a person I think you are a a good-natured person and I respect you a lot because I was brought up to respect elders, especially the people who are leading the country. Your brother is again someone I dearly respect and love. I remember writing letters to him on his every birthday when I was young and it would make my day to get that thank you letter back from the president’s office. My childhood was rather happy and I also did not know about any of the problems or anything because children are children and they are innocent.

I can’t even understand how much pressure you get from people far and near. Being the president must be hard. You are always trying to do the right thing but everything you do, you get picked on. You have always lived a public life and I can’t imagine how it must have been. Let’s not dwell on that. I just want you to know that I appreciate every good thing you do for this country.

Moving on, I met moyameehaa for the first time on twitter a couple years ago when the Maldivian twitter scene was first starting. Though I don’t know him enough to call him a friend, we have been aquaintances through some twitter meet ups and others. His love for the Dhivehi language has always been an inspiration for me. I have known him to be a good hearted, kind soul who always tries to make people happy, by sharing jokes and just being himself. The last time I met him in person was this February during the Shinzou Con where he and Juxyn commented on my TARDIS outfit and we shared a joke or two.

When I heard he was missing, I didn’t actually realise what it meant. I mean, we see kidnappings and things in movies and in real life, it just doesn’t add up. Somehow I always think that the police would find them before the episode ends, like in an episode of Criminal Minds but this episode is too long. It has been more than two weeks and this is a very small country.

Mr President, you hold on your shoulders, the responsibility of the population of Maldives and that is far too big for one person but alas you knew that when you applied for the post, you knew that when the majority of this country voted for you, you have known that growing up with your brother who carried that responsibility for thirty years. When there are so many problems going around, this missing human being might seem small but dear president, I have been taught that no person’s problem is too small or too insignificant.

The doctor, in his many years of travel has not met a person who was not important. You, moyameehaa, and I, we are all the same. We are human, we are Muslims and we deserve everything this world has to offer to us. Please do everything in your power to help him, to return a son to his mother, an uncle to his nephews and nieces, a friend to his friends and a citizen to this country. I hope, I dearly hope that police is trying very hard, looking through every nook and cranny to give us some good news.

We have not lost hope, at least I haven’t. I’m still that same girl who writes letters on your birthdays and the same girl who believes that at the end of this episode, Rilwan will be found and all would be right with the world. It’s not an easy thing being a dreamer when the rest of the country is so cynical and fighting with their brothers and sisters.

All I ask my dear president is to not let the people of this country down. Be the president this country deserves, be the kind of hero that the little children would happily write letters to, be the man those little boys will be inspired to grow up to be. If all fails, know that there is still one girl who trusted you, who believed in you when the rest of the world doubted you, who will stand by you through thick and thin not because you are the president, but because you are a human being and your deserve to have a cheerleader and I will always try to be that girl.

May Allah bless us with the truth and guide us in our journey to find Rilwan and also in everything we do to make this country better for the coming generations.

Sincerely,

Shaha

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Comment: #findmoyaameehaa

This article first appeared on Dhivehi Sitee. Republished with permission.

Thursday night, two weeks ago, was the last time anyone saw Ahmed Rizwan Abdulla, 28-year-old journalist, blogger, human rights advocate and all-round great person.

A lot—yet nothing—has happened since Rizwan was reported missing to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) on 13 August.

On 15 August Rizwan’s family and friends organised a search of Hulhumalé, the island neighbouring Male’ on which Rizwan lives on his own. Starting with the desolate, deserted areas—-of which there are many—-the search party combed the whole island. It was in vain.

On 16 August Rizwan’s friends and colleagues, who obtained CCTV footage from the Malé-Hulhumalé ferry terminal from the night he was last seen, identified him on camera buying a ticket and going into the waiting area to board the 1:00 a.m. ferry on 8 August. This footage has since been made public. For the next twenty minutes or so—-the amount of time it takes for the ferry to reach Hulhumalé—-Rizwan was on Twitter. Between 1:02 a.m. he sent out 11 (mostly re-) Tweets, beginning with this one, which said he had just boarded the ferry:

His last Tweet was at 1:17 a.m three minutes before the ferry would have reached Hulhumalé.  According to Rizwan’s employer, Minivan News, he sent a Viber message at 1:42 a.m. The newspaper further reports that according to Rizwan’s telephone service provider that his mobile phone was last used at 2:36 a.m. at a location in Male’. Since then, nothing.

There was a shocking development to the story a few days after the search for Rizwan began. On the night he was last seen, two witnesses saw a man being abducted from outside Rizwan’s apartment around 2:00 a.m. Minivan News, which withheld the information until it was made public by other news outlets, published details of the abduction on 18 August. The witnesses heard screaming and saw the captive, held at knife point by a tall thin man, being bundled into a red car which drove away at speed. The witnesses contacted the police immediately. They also recovered a knife from the scene. The police took a statement and confiscated the knife.

And that was that.

It is mind-boggling that there were no searches in Hulhumalé after eye-witness reports of an abduction, no sealing off of exits to and from the island, no investigation in and around the area of the abduction to at least ascertain who had been bundled into the car. If the police had done any of this, Rizwan’s family would have been aware of his disappearance so much sooner. Two weeks on, the police still don’t seem to have managed to locate the red car—-this on a 700 hectare island with the total number of cars totalling around fifty, if that.

Outrage at police ‘incompetence’ has grown steadily as days turn into weeks without news of Rizwan’s whereabouts. MPS’ reaction to the criticism has been petulant, like an offended prima donna. It issued a long statement demanding that the public stop criticising police given how brilliant they obviously are; and, unbelievably, proceeded to hold a press conference about Rizwan to which all media outlets bar his own Minivan News was invited.

Speculation that MPS does not want Rizwan found is becoming fact as time passes with no leads. How incompetent does a force have to be to remain clueless about how a person was abducted from a small island? How many red cars can be hidden on such a small piece of land, surrounded by the sea? How difficult would it be to locate the individuals caught on CCTV following Rizwan at the ferry terminal in Male’? It is common knowledge that life in Male’ is now governed by an ‘unholy alliance’ of ‘born-again’ fanatically ‘religious’ gangsters and thugs controlled by politicians and fundamentalists.

Whatever the police is driven by—fear, complicity, support—it is certain the government shares its ‘could not care less’ attitude. President Yameen’s callous response on 20 August to news of Rizwan’s disappearance confirmed this: ‘I cannot comment on anything and everything that happens, can I? The police are probably looking into it.’

It is as if the disappearance of a young man, a journalist and well-known human rights advocate—the first incident of its kind in the Maldives—is as routine as a mislaid shopping list. The President, who campaigned as saviour of the youth population, had not a word to say about the abduction and disappearance a young man of vast potential. Yameen chose, instead, to wax lyrical on his success at begging in China, having procured a 100 million US dollars in aid money for building a bridge between Malé and Hulhumalé, the island where Rizwan is feared to have been abducted from.

Who wants a bridge to an island that is so unsafe? An island where women are raped in broad daylight and young men disappear without a trace? Where gangsters and violent extremists rule, where the police turn a blind eye to crime and where the streets have no lights?

It is quite extraordinary that a president of a country sees no need to express concern for a citizen whose sudden disappearance has led to statements from international bodies ranging from the UN Human Rights Commissionerto media associations such as Reporters Without Borders, CPJ, IFJ and South Asia Media Solidarity Network as well as news outlets and human rights advocates in the region and across the world.

In some of this week’s news coverage, Rizwan’s name is on top of the world’s missing journalists’ list. According to Minivan News, many foreign diplomats based in Colombo have made the time to listen to its concerns about Rizwan’s abduction.

Perhaps prompted by diplomatic concern, over a week after Rizwan’s disappearance became public knowledge, the Maldives Foreign Ministry finally issued a hastily put together statement yesterday, full of factual and other types of mistakes, expressing a perfunctory concern hard to accept as sincere.

While the politicians, the gangsters and the religious fanatics with their support of Jihad, beheadings and other forms of killing trip over each other to ignore, laugh about, cover-up and prevent knowledge of what has happened to Rizwan, friends, family, and admirers of his deep humanity, are unflagging in their hopes and efforts to find him safe and sound.

It is on social media, where he is known as Moyameeha, that Rizwan has made his widest impact. The Maldivian Twitter community is especially bereft without his presence. It is not surprising. The off-line Maldivian society has been largely taken over by gangs, zealots and bigots. There is no safe place for people like Rizwan—with bold ideas, open minds and creativity—to come together in real life. So they gather on Twitter—the most free of modern media platforms—exchange thoughts, discuss politics, make poetry and music, argue, joke, laugh, and cry, become friends and form the kind of free, liberal and tolerant public sphere they cannot have off-line. Rizwan is a shining star of that community, one of its well-liked and giving members. The community wants him back.

Close friends have set-up a website, findmoyameeha.com, where everything that is officially  said and done in relation to Rizwan’s disappearance is gathered in one place. It also counts every passing second since he went missing. Friends have also set up Facebook pages dedicated to finding Rizwan while existing Facebook pages that support him have created a repository of online tributes:

Bloggers, who look up to him as one of the first to make an impact in the sphere, have been paying homage, re-finding and sharing some of his most moving posts. Rizwan’s friends discuss his poetry, his love of music (and obsession with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), his enthusiasm for Dhivehi language, folklore and history, and most of all his never-ending good nature and empathy. Even the deeply divided and highly politicised journalistic community appears to be waking from a deep slumber, and putting their differences aside to demand that efforts to find Rizwan be stepped up.

Over the past few years the Maldives Police Service has become highly adept at being ‘incompetent’, at being ‘unable’ to solve the crimes they don’t want solved while putting all their efforts into hunting down bootleggers, cannabis smokers and petty criminals. If they catch any major offenders, the corrupt judiciary lets them go; so why bother? This being police ‘best practice’, a majority of the Maldivian population now choose to ‘forget’ unsolved crimes, stop asking questions, and carry on as nothing happened.

Not this time. Rizwan’s family, friends, supporters and like-minded journalists are not going to stop asking questions and looking for answers. Because if they do, it is the last nail in the coffin of Rizwan’s vision—shared by those looking for him—of a tolerant Maldivian society in which people are free to think, embrace diversity and difference, be creative, live safely and have the right to peace and happiness.

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Comment: The scramble for the Maldives

This article first appeared on Dhivehi Sitee. Republished with permission.

The political changes that marked Maldives’ transition to democracy have not translated into equal distribution of wealth or access to basic public services such as clean water, health care, electricity, waste-management and sewage systems, throughout the country.

The rapid political changes and crises experienced in the past decade has done little to confound the popularized image of the Maldives as a hedonistic paradise for tourists, despite being considered ‘one of the most miserable countries in the world’ for its own citizens.

Continuing this story of two Maldives: the real and the represented, the Yameen government has submitted the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Bill to the People’s Majlis. In doing so, the government is attempting to sell the illusory tale that liberalisation of trade by autocrats – granting incentives to multinational corporations (MNCs) – trickles wealth down to ordinary citizens.

President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom, brother of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, announced plans to develop SEZs in April 2014 at an investor forum held by the Maldivian government in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Notable investors such as US company Blackstone (which acquired a controlling interest in Maldivian Air Taxi “MAT” and Trans Maldivian Airways “TMA” in February 2013), Singapore-based HPL Hotels and Resorts, China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), the Carlson Group of Companies, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, United Bunkering and Trading Group, and Singapore Enterprise were present at the forum.

The SEZs bill entails demarcation of specific geographic areas into zones where special customs regime and laws apply for investors and developers. Developers’ Business Profit Taxes (BPT) can be exempted, and Goods and Services Taxes (GST) are exempted initially for ten years, and can be withheld or exempted for additional years if the SEZs board allows.

Shareholders are exempt from paying BPT on their dividends, and tax relief can be afforded to developers through special procedures by the SEZs board. The SEZs board can also lease land in the Maldives to foreign companies for up to ninety-nine years and Maldivian companies are exempt from tax when acquiring ownership of land.

The SEZs defined under the bill include the following: Industrial Estate, Export Processing Zone, Free-Trade Zone, Enterprise Zone, Free Port, Single Factory Export Processing Zone, Offshore Banking Unit, Offshore Financing Service Centre, and a High Technology Park (Articles 9-18).Government officials have echoed Singapore, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar and Dubai as examples of SEZs stimulating foreign direct investment.

China and India have been touted by the World Bank as proof of economic growth through introduction of liberal economic policies and legislations such as SEZs. Gradually, China and India began to structurally transform its economies in the 1980s and 1990s respectively, with its GDP growing at an annual average rate of 10% and 6% over the past two decades. In the case of China and India, although SEZs are associated with trade liberalization, studies have shown that it does not always result in human development, economic growth or liberalization of domestic markets (Leong 2013).

Speaking to the media in June 2014, the Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed likened existing tourist resorts to SEZs, possibly to suggest how potentially profitable these policies could be.

Contrastingly, the recently published second Maldives’ Human Development Index report by the United Nations Development Project affirms that despite being lucrative and effective at enabling economic growth, the luxury tourism industry has not alleviated socio-economic inequalities, but rather contributed to it.

Speaking to local news website Minivan News, Tourism Minister Ahmed Adheeb defended the bill claiming that it is in line with decentralization, and that it will shift the focus away from the densely populated capital Malé.

However, a Facebook Community named The Maldivian Economist – a forum where economic and financial policies are discussed – has published a detailed refutation of the notions put forth by the government regarding the SEZs bill. The Maldivian Economist notes that the bill takes power away from the people – local government and elected officials, concentrating wealth under a “centralized autocratic government.” Although the bill purportedly aims to limit Maldives’ reliance on tourism income, it provides additional import duty, tax and foreign labor concessions specifically for hotel, tourism-related, and real estate businesses.

Primarily, the Bill aims to run nine types of SEZs. But the 17-member SEZs board called ‘the Board of Investments’ – made up of unelected government officials, including two presidential appointees – decides how many zones, and of which types would be set up across the Maldives (Article 22).

The bill affords the SEZs board the discretion to extend incentives, such as tax relief or increase the allocation of expatriates and migrant workers upon request. If the bill is enacted, it will prevail over existing laws (according to Article 80(b), 14 existing legislations to be exact) and regulations made prior to it.

Only special SEZ ‘facilitating’ regulations made by relevant governmental authorities, decisions and regulations made by the SEZs board, obligations cited under the developer’s permit, and terms and conditions stipulated under the investment agreement or concession agreement would be applicable within any SEZ (Article 33(b), Article 70).

Although the bill states that discussions shall be made between councilors, and that the Chairperson of the SEZs board and the Minister of Economic Development shall be answerable to the parliament, it does not afford government oversight any decision-making powers.

All the decision-making powers with regard to which investors attain development projects and which areas are designated SEZs is vested with the SEZs board and the President. The SEZs board also decides which existing tourism related businesses could be relocated into an SEZ. (Article 74(c)).

Under an authoritarian government, the SEZs board would end up assuming overwhelming wealth through developers, and in the absence of competition laws invisibilize local fishermen and entrepreneurs who call these SEZs home.

Once the President demarks an area as an SEZ, even if it currently belongs under the authority of a local council, its authority is transferred to the Ministry of Economic Development, as per Article 33(a) of the Bill. The Maldivian Economist states that this allows “all the revenue to bypass local councils and go into the state budget.” Article 37(b) of the bill states that if a development project aims to relocate island communities to the area being developed, the SEZs board has the discretion to grant the developer additional incentives.

The concession agreement with GMR Malaysia Airport Holdings consortium and the Nasheed administration signed in June 2010 to develop and run Malé international airport, was the largest foreign direct investment in the Maldives. The coup regime of Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, which included members of the current government expelled India’s GMR citing ‘void ab initio’, but used religious rhetoric and an ultranationalist anti-India campaign to drive home the now debunked legal argument.

Due to the xenophobic GMR fiasco, it seems as if an entirely different government has submitted the SEZs bill, ready to embrace the globalized world economy.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party has dubbed the bill, “the Artur Brothers bill”, invoking top government officials’ links to famous Armenian gangsters, and possibility of increased money laundering due to offshore financing.

Resonating sentiments of SEZs critics, Salma Fikry, one of Maldives’ foremost experts on decentralisation and development, told Minivan News last week that, “it [SEZs bill] is not sustainable nor empowering for the Maldivian population.”

Canadian author Naomi Klein’s book “the Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” is a literary indictment of the radically liberal free-market policies introduced by economists trained at the Chicago School of Economics.

In her view, policies espoused by Milton Friedman and his protégés world-over have historically exploited crises: “wars, terror attacks, coups d’état and natural disasters” in the developing world.

Post-tsunami opportunism during Gayoom’s dictatorship is also mentioned in Klein’s well-researched hypothesis. Following the 2004 Tsunami, with funding from the World Bank and other international bodies, the Maldivian government announced the Safe Island Program in order to relocate island communities.

Klein argues that the regime was merely “freeing up more land for tourism.” This argument is convincing as she notes, “in December 2005, one year after the tsunami, the Gayoom government announced that thirty-five new islands were available to be leased to resorts for up to fifty years.”

To a certain degree, the SEZs bill is similar to the Safe Island Program; it glorifies “the blank”, a country with special privileges and policies for MNCs and foreigners, void of its inhabitants. As the Maldivian Economist has noted, in the Maldivian context of escalating socio-economic disparities, and corruption within the judiciary, government and parliament, this bill will not enable the human development it envisions. Instead, it solely empowers the government and corporations associated with it.

These policies will do more harm than good to a small economy such as the Maldives, which does not have any existing legal barriers to foreign direct investment.

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New beginnings – The Weekly Review

June 21st – 27th

This week saw a number of fresh starts – in particular for Supreme Court judge Ali Hameed who was cleared of misconduct charges.

With the police’s investigation of the judge in relation to his alleged appearance in multiple sex tapes already suspended, the Judicial Services Commission’s decision appeared to close all investigations into the issue.

JSC members past and present called the decision a contravention of Islamic principles, suggesting that the commission had clear grounds to remove the controversial judge.

The Supreme Court this week also ruled that sitting judges can vote in the appointment of a lawyer to the vacant position on the JSC – overruling current regulations prohibiting their involvement.

After a previous request from the Supreme Court, the Home Ministry this week dissolved the Maldives Bar Association – the single largest lawyers’ group – for failing to change its name.

Meanwhile, the government’s legislative agenda seems poised to begin in earnest after the People’s Majlis reached a compromise on the composition of standing committees this week – an agenda that will no doubt be assisted by the defection of another opposition MP to the government’s camp.

Elsewhere in the Majlis, Housing Minister Dr Mohamed Muiz was called to answer questions regarding developing plans for Addu City.

Speaking with Minivan News this week, Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb defended the government’s first legislative proposal – the special economic zones bill – against accusations that it will do little to alleviate regional disparities in development.

Adeeb argued that giving the government flexibility in negotiating relaxed regulations for new investors would be the best way to bring quick developments to the atolls.

The government also promised a new options for the tourism sector, with the launch of the country’s first guest house island – though critics questioned the real benefit of the scheme to local communities.

The enactment of anti human-trafficking legislation was acknowledged this week as the US removed the Maldives from its watch list, while local employers of undocumented workers in Laamu Gan were also given a second chance as the government’s removal of illegal migrants continued.

As the administration announced its intention to seek US$600 million from China or Japan for assistance with the new start for Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, the Maldivian Democratic Party revealed its decision to sue former President Dr Mohamed Waheed for his role in the termination of the previous development deal.

While Sri Lankan leader Mahinda Rajapaksa made an official visit this week – offering assistance in a number of areas – former President Mohamed Nasheed suggested India ought to assist Maldivians by helping the MDP remove the current government.

MDP MP Imthiyaz Fahmy suggested that sometime government ally Gasim Ibrahim’s candor regarding judicial and security service pressure in his political decisions further supported the MDP’s coup theories.

Theories of a health service in crisis were given additional support this week by the death of a 31-year-old pneumonia patient en route to Malé as well as angry protests outside Kulhudhuffushi Regional Hospital.

Finally, Malé City Council this week revealed the extent of the littering problem blighting the streets of the capital, while experts revealed hopes for resurrection of the country’s reefs after in the face of a potentially devastation el nino.

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Settling disputes – The Weekly Review

June 14th – 20th

The government’s legal and political tussles grabbed headlines this week, with past, present, and future disputes all making the news.

This week’s biggest story came courtesy of spurned Indian infrastructure giant GMR, who revealed a Singapore arbitration court had deemed their terminated airport development deal “valid and binding”.

Being requested to pay US$4 million in procedural costs while the court determines the amount owed to GMR, the government interpreted the outcome as a success, predicting that the damages owed would be far less than the US$1.4 billion sought.

After the issue of a warrant to enforce the appearance of Home Minister Umar Naseer at his disobedience to order trial, the minister appeared at the Criminal Court of his own volition upon his return from his official trip to Europe.

Naseer promptly refused to cooperate with the trial until his procedural objection – already rejected by the judge – had been appealed.

The government’s disputes in the political arena also continued this week, with ejected coalition partner, the Jumhooree Party (JP), striking a conciliatory tone after the recent break-up.

The JP maintained that the coalition agreement had not been breached, while the party continued to haemorrhage members to its former ally the Progressive Party of Maldives – the economic development minister and two more MPs being the latest to switch allegiance.

The Progressive Coalition’s fast-growing majority in the Majlis resulted in what the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) interpreted as excessive representation in the Majlis’ standing committees, leading to the cancellation of sittings and threat of street action.

While taking pains to distance his party from such maneouvres, MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed suggested President Abdulla Yameen’s fate would likely be the same as his – predicting his eventual removal in a future coup.

Brigadier General Ahmed Nilam this week submitted a case to the Human Rights Commision, suggesting his suspension and subsequent dismissal were linked to the events of Nasheed’s chaotic departure from office in February 2012.

The second UNDP Human Development Index report raised questions as to how equitably economic growth was being distributed, with research revealing glaring disparities opening up between progress in the capital and the atolls.

Phase two of expansion of Malé’s suburbs continued regardless, with a US$50 million dredging contract awarded to a Belgian company for phase two of the Hulhumalé expansion project.

Despite expressing continued reservations about the Maldives’ public account imbalances, the World Bank this week anticipated continued development of the economy with 4.5 percent GDP growth predicted.

Meanwhile, Hope for Women this week predicted unwelcome growth in the workload of female civil servants during Ramadan after the alteration of working hours for the month of fasting.

The World Cup in Brazil – for which the government has already allowed extended trading hours – was suggested as a possible reason for the adjusted working times, though the President’s Office maintained that the change was intended to facilitate late night prayers.

This week also saw the Islamic Ministry hold a closed conference with scholars to discuss reports of Maldivian jihadis journeying to Syria, while Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon called on the Umma to assess the persistent association with terrorism and intolerance.

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Human rights and wrongs – The Weekly Review

June 7th – 13th

A series of attacks and abductions in the capital Malé this week brought concern and condemnation from politicians and human rights stakeholders.

The incidents, understood to have been part of a vigilante campaign against supporters of atheism and homosexuality, have yet to provoke a response from the government.

Reports emerged of groups having previously expressed their concern regarding the publication of content offensive to Islam.

While the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) voiced concerns at the reports of the physical assault and threatening of multiple individuals last weekend, the vice president of the Human Rights Commission urged the state to reassure the public of their safety.

Minivan News spoke with previous victims of online threats turned into physical violence, asking how fearful Maldivians should be of online attackers.

Meanwhile, the Maldives representative on the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva pressed the case for greater consideration of religious intolerance, as well as the plight of Palestinians and Syrians.

Maldivian involvement in UN peacekeeping operations was again criticised by local NGO Jamiyatul Salaf, which expressed concern that troops would become embroiled in action against fellow Muslims.

Other foreign entanglements this week were less controversial and potentially more lucrative, with the vice president continuing the search for foreign investors in China while customs officials signed a cooperation deal with UAE authorities.

Home Minister Umar Naseer travelled to the Netherlands this week in order to procure sniffer dogs as part of his anti-drugs campaign – missing a second successive court hearing in the process.

Details of government attempts to provide a welcoming environment for prospective investors were revealed as details of the recently introduced special economic zones bill emerged – featuring nine largely tax-exempt areas across the country.

One group not be welcoming foreign investment, however, was MATATO which argued that moves to award an exclusive deal to a foreign group would harm both its member businesses and tourists – whose numbers continued to grow last month.

Plans to develop a new airport on Farukolhu Island in Shaviyani atoll were blocked by the Environmental Protection Agency, while environmental NGOs expressed skepticism that the government had the capacity to enforce newly protected ray species.

In the far north, Udha waves – a uniquely Maldivian phenomena – flooded large parts of Haa Alif Dhidhoo while Bluepeace called for the empowerment of local councils across the nation to deal with waste management issues.

Another uniquely Maldivian story was explored by Hulhevi Media, who launched a documentary researching the realities behind the traditional romantic epic ‘Buruni Ballad’.

The power of Malé City Council continued to decline meanwhile as both City and Fini parks were reclaimed for the use of Housing Ministry, while President Abdulla Yameen defended his party’s use of the official residence for political events.

Yameen’s government proposed amendments to a number of laws to align them with the constitution, while Adhaalath Party MP Anara Naeem proposed raise the monthly disability allowance from MVR2,000 to MVR5,000.

The opposition MDP this week restarted political activities after a post-election hiatus, with the opening of a new party haruge in Malé.

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Political adjustments – The Weekly Review

May 31st – June 6th

Following the break-up of the Progressive Coalition, this week saw a resulting adjustment of party affiliations after an initial purge of Jumhooree Party (JP) appointees.

After the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) followed through on threats to remove JP members – the most notable being Transport Minister Ameen Ibrahim – Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim announced his decision to switch to the PPM.

After having picked up three of the five MPs elected as independents since the March elections, the PPM rounded off their new signings this week with Nilandhoo MP Abdulla Khaleel.

This addition brings the party’s parliamentary group up to 38 MPs, giving it a simple majority alongside its remaining ally, the Maldivian Development Alliance.

A final report from the EU’s Majlis election observers this week called for adapted legislation to clear up the issues of jurisdictional overlap and campaign financing which blighted recent polls.

While the Majlis made preparations for the assembly of its standing committees this week, former President Mohamed Nasheed told diplomats in Colombo that a constitutional adjustment to a parliamentary model of governance would resolve the perennial issue of failed coalitions.

Nasheed also made known his intention to stand for the Maldivian Democratic Party leadership in August, prompting senior member ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik to reiterate calls for new leaders to emerge.

The Syrian civil war continued to force itself onto the agenda, literally in the case of an anti-war hacker who infiltrated over 100 hundred government websites in what experts saw as a result of poor security measures.

Less direct threats to the country were depicted by Home Minister Umar Naseer during Martyrs’ Day, suggesting that the country ought to be prepared for “invisible” threats to its nationalism and its faith.

The government’s rhetoric and response to recent news of home-grown jihadis prompted accusations that it was tacitly supporting such activity, as did the invitation of controversial  Sheikh Ibrahim Shameem Adam to the police force’s Martyrs’ Day event.

The jihadi Bilad Al Sham Media group continued to reveal details of Maldivians fighting in Syria – mocking the police’s attempts to investigate, while an MoU signed with the UN will see Maldivian troops deployed in peacekeeping missions over the next two years.

Elsewhere, the police launched a special operation to crack down on a spate of robberies while the Supreme Court upheld a prior decision to reinstate an officer dismissed in relation to a rape case.

After investigations into the police’s handling of the Anbaraa, Amnesty International called for an investigation into allegations of brutality, and Hope for Women expressed outrage at the publication of an article in local media which suggested underage girls were voluntarily engaging in prostitution.

The government this week rejected claims of negligence at Fuvahmulah Hospital after a series of disturbing mishaps within a few days.

Responsibility for the failure of Laamu Gan’s sewerage system was also deflected by government departments after the local council accused it of offering on assistance in what it labelled a “health disaster”.

In Malé, the city council revealed it was relying on private donations to pay for pre-Ramadan mosque repairs after the government had failed to provide the required funds.

In other news, the President’s Office assured that asylum seekers breaching Maldivian law abroad would be assured of prosecution upon their return to the country.

President Abdulla Yameen’s promise to create a more business-friendly environment for foreign investors moved a step closer with the introduction of the special economic zones bill.

Yameen pledged respect for the local ecosystem during any prospective development projects during a speech to mark World Environment Day.

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Syrian fighters, Majlis speakers, and soccer – The Weekly Review

May 24th – 30th

The Syrian civil war hit the headlines here as the  Bilad Al Sham Media media group reported that two Maldivian nationals had died in Syria while fighting pro-government forces.

Local media identified the individuals as Hassan Shifaz from Galolhu in the capital Malé, and Ali Adam from Shaviyani atoll – the latter reportedly dying in a suicide attack.

The government’s response to the reports has been muted and subsequently criticised – though the Islamic minister opined that Maldivians should not be fighting foreign wars in the name of Islam.

The government may well have been preoccupied with the predictable fracturing of its ruling coalition, with Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim’s attempt to secure the Majlis Speaker’s role enough to see its agreement with the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives dissolved.

After President Abdulla Yameen warned the JP leader that his candidacy must be withdrawn, Gasim’s refusal to defer resulted in the PPM’s announcement that its 15-MP ally was no longer part of the Progressive Coalition.

The fragility of the coalition’s remaining advantage in the new Majlis was indicated by the narrow victory of the PPM’s Abdulla Maseeh – beating Gasim by just four votes. Meanwhile, the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik edged out his PPM opponent to take the deputy speaker’s chair.

At the start of the week, the MDP had set eight areas any prospective Majlis speaker would need to focus on in order to receive the backing of its 25 MPs, including judicial reform, income tax, and the empowerment of local councils.

Prior to the appointment of his successor, former Speaker Abdulla Shahid told Minivan News of his fears for the Majlis’ future as the institution’s independence and oversight functions continued to be eroded by conservative forces.

Despite the government’s now wafer-thin majority in the legislature, Vice President Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed assured that the work of government would be unaffected as the clearout of JP ministers began.

The AFC Challenge Cup made up the third major theme of this week’s news, beginning with the Afghan team’s bus crash in Addu City last weekend.

While the police commissioner gave credence to conspiracy theories surrounding the crash in which ruled a number of Afghan players out of their semi-final match, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced it would be looking into potential wrongdoing in the sale of tickets.

Adding the sea-sickness of his players to his list of grievances, the Afghan team coach advised the Asian Football Confederation to reconsider holding further tournaments in the Maldives, while the AFC itself advised the ACC that investigations into ticketing would stray onto its turf.

The Afghan team were subsequently knocked out by eventual winners Palestine before losing the third place play-off to the Maldives – themselves exiting the tournament in a dramatic semi-final against the Philippines.

Elsewhere…

Vice President Jameel began the week by assuring the government’s commitment to press freedom, and finished it with the announcement of plans for 26 sea-ambulances by the year’s end.

Home Minister Umar Naseer meanwhile revealed his plans for correctional reform, with the division of detainees into open prisons and work gangs, with others released after being electronically tagged.

Current inmate Hussain Humam – convicted of the murder of MP Dr Afrahseem Ali – appealed his death sentence at the High Court this week.

President Yameen journeyed to India for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration – reaffirming bilateral ties – while staff of the MMPRC went down-under to convince more Australians to holiday in the Maldives.

MDP MP Imthiyaz Fahmy saw his contempt of court case dismissed, while the auditor general’s preliminary investigation into the tourism minister’s alleged corruption appeared to falter as the ports authority refused assistance.

The discovery of the body of a new-born baby in Maafannu – and the subsequent arrest of its 18-year-old mother – prompted Hope for Women to suggest that social and religious stigma was damaging the sexual health of young women.

The Health Protection Agency explained how it hoped to alleviate some of these issues with the introduction of a health education programme in Hulhumalé later this year which is to include sexual health guidance for 10 – 24-year-olds.

Finally, Minivan News this week profiled the Rajjetherey Meehunge Party – an online group aiming to highlight the continuing income disparities between those from the atolls and the Malé elite.

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