Category: Politics

Sacked DhiFM journalists protest over unfair dismissal, editorial interference

Six journalists from private radio station DhiFM launched a protest outside the media company’s offices today, claiming unfair dismissal and editorial pressure for negative coverage of the government.

The journalists began protesting this afternoon outside Champa Guest House, which houses DhiFM and DhiTV, holding up placards that read: “Protect the rights of the journalists” and “Stop using media as a propaganda machine”.

“We are all protesting because our organisation terminated its staff in violation of the Employment Act and because it has also broken media ethics,” said one of the journalists. “Four of us here were sacked and the other two resigned.”

The journalist claimed that the sacked reporters were not given notice and were owed unpaid salaries.

“We cannot work freely. This is a very biased media,” he continued. “The management has a lot of influence on our work. We have to write stories the way that they want, according to their idea of politics.”

He added that the journalists did not accept the reason for the dismissals given by the management, which was reportedly to cut costs, as the station was presently hiring more staff.

Gufthaq Ajeel, 19, told Minivan News that he quit the station in protest after management allegedly leaked the source of a news report he filed about unhappy employees at the Hulhule Island Hotel (HIH).

“They went into my personal folder and leaked it,” he said.

As Article 28 of the constitution protects journalists from being compelled to disclose sources, Gufthaq said that he had filed a complaint with the police on Wednesday.

Moreover, he added, reporters at DhiFM were occasionally told to skew reports for an anti-government slant.

Following DhiFM’s coverage of a large rally in Male’ by the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in July, Qufthaq explained, the DhiFM newsroom was shut down and four of its journalists fired.

Response

The protesters called for the resignation of DhiFM CEO Masoodh Hilmy and other senior management.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Masoodh denied the claims of his former employees.

“We had to terminate three of them due to punctuality and disciplinary issues, and the other three resigned of their own wishes,” he said. “We provided all the allowances and salaries mentioned in the Employment Act for the staff we terminated.”

He added that prior warnings were given to the staff verbally before the decision to dismiss was made.

“Nobody can handle it when one is too much,” he said.

Masoodh further denied the allegations of bias and undue influence on journalists working for the private broadcaster.

“If you asked a staff here you will understand, we have no influence on the journalists,” he said.

President of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), Ahmed Hiriga Zahir, told Minivan News that one of the journalists had contacted the MJA this morning notifying him of the intent to protest, “but otherwise we know little about it. We have not yet spoken to DhiFM management to get their side.”

The MJA was willing to assist the journalists by lobbying DhiFM management if requested, he said, but noted that the MJA had yet to evolve into a  journalists’ union and was more focused on promoting issues such as media freedom.

Asked if the MJA was concerned about allegations from the sacked journalists of editorial interference, he observed that “media organisations have the freedom to decide whether they want to be pro or anti-government.”

“In countries like the US it is common for media [outlets] to even endorse political candidates, but that should not affect the [ethical] standards of their news reporting. Media’s role is still to keep the government accountable,” Hiriga stated.

Visiting journalism trainer Tiare Rath, Iraq Editorial Manager for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), last month identified resistance among senior editorial leadership in the country to evolve away from politically partisan media.

“I have been really impressed with news judgement here, and the understanding of the basic principles of journalism,” Rath said of her experience training young reporters in the Maldives.

“But on the other hand, one of the major issues all my students talked about is resistance among newsroom leadership – editors and publishers. Even if the journalists support and understand the principles being taught, they consistently tell me they cannot apply them,” she said. “This is a very, very serious problem that needs to be addressed.”

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DRP accuses MDP MP Mustafa of terrorism for intimidating former president

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) have accused Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Mustafa of violating the Terrorism Act with comments intended to “intimidate” former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

Mustafa had recently criticised the former president and DRP ‘Honorary Leader’ for deciding to take part in an official DRP protest, despite earlier claiming to have resigned from politics.

The DRP today said that Gayoom’s participation in protests “does not mean that he is involved in political events. We believe he can take part in the DRP events to strengthen the unity of the party,  as he is the DRP’s Honorary Leader,” the statement said. “We do not believe that those speaking against this have a valid point.”

Mustafa was recently arrested for allegedly bribing a Civil Court Judge.along with Deputy Leader of minority opposition Peoples Alliance party (PA) and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Ahmed Nazim.

However, the Criminal Court released both MPs due to lack of evidence when of police appealed at the court for an extension of detention.

The Statement said that the former president “deserves the protection afford him under the constitution”, whether other political parties liked it or not.

“That protection cannot be violated when one party dislikes it,” DRP said. “Therefore, the actions of MP Mustafa were to smear the respect of the former president, which violates the Terrorism Act. We will take legal action against him.”

Mustafa replied that DRP’s thinking was “still back in the ancient ages.”

“They are angry because I said that if a former president is becoming affiliated with protests and political events, I might have to take allegations that the person was involved in torture to the court,” Mustafa said. “I also said I will take those issues to the International Court of Justice.”

Mustafa said that to file a terrorism case against him for these comments was “impossible.”

“Maybe it is possible according to the constitution made before Maumoon’s blue constitution,” he said. “One no longer gets sent to the torture chamber for mention the name ‘Maumoon’.”

“There is no treatment or medication for people spoiled with communism,” he added.

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Comment: New regulation on strikes lacks legality and would wipe out resort workers’ constitutional rights

Citizens in Maldives have recently won important rights. The 2008 constitution guarantees fundamental rights, such as freedom of speech and association. The constitution also guarantees the right to strike, which is an extremely important right for workers. Without the right to strike workers are left powerless. In dictatorships like Saudi Arabia or Burma, the denial of the right to strike is a key weapon in suppressing democracy.

However, it seems that employers in the Maldives, unsatisfied with workers finally having human and labour rights, are doing their best to convince the government to effectively deny those rights.

This has come to light with regard to a draft Ministerial regulation on strikes dated August 11, 2010. The working draft looks to have been written as a birthday present for the resort owners, so one-sided it effectively nullifies workers’ constitutional right to strike.

Does the Minister have the authority to make a regulation on strikes?

Before examining the details of the draft regulation, there is an even more glaring error: it is doubtful that the Minister actually has the authority to make the regulation under the present law.

The first clause of the working draft notes that the regulation is made according to clause 89 of the Employment Act of 2008. That clause states: “Unless otherwise provided in this Act, regulations required to administer this Act shall be made by the Minister.”

What is crucial in this clause is the phrase “administer this Act”. That means regulations can only to be made for matters that the Act has defined, thus regulates and thus are in need of administering.

The Employment Act is concerned with the conditions and regulations of workplaces and the contract relationships for the provision of labour which exist between an individual (a worker) and an employer (which might be a person or a firm). The Act also covers the individual’s entitlements (such as maternity leave, working hours etc).

However, the Employment Act does not mention anything to do with the collective rights of workers in employment or their regulation (such as rules regarding trade union rights in the workplace or trade union recognition).

Chapter 4 of the Act (“employment agreement”) does not mention collective agreements which would be signed by a trade union and an employer. The entire chapter concerns the employment of individuals.

Article 30 of the Constitution of Maldives guarantees the right to form trade unions, yet nowhere in the entire Act are trade unions mentioned. The closest the Act comes is in Clause 21(b)(vi) where discrimination against a worker (as an individual) for membership or activity in a “workers’ association” is declared unlawful.

The Act does not mention fundamental matters related to workers’ collective rights and employment such as trade union recognition, collective bargaining, collective agreements or industrial disputes.

As such, a question must be raised: how can a strike, which like all forms of industrial action by workers is a collective act, be administered by Ministerial regulation when the Act does not address the collective rights and acts of workers or trade unions?

The proposed regulation actually has nothing to do with the Employment Act at present. It is almost certainly unconstitutional. The only way a regulation might be appropriate would be if there were already chapters and clauses in the Employment Act dealing with the collective rights of workers and trade unions.

Wiping out the right to strike

As for the details of the regulation itself these would effectively mean that workers would have no ability to conduct a legal strike. Workers would be completely at the whim of the employer.

Clause 6 of the draft regulation would make it almost impossible for workers to reach a stage where they could go on strike. The regulation provides only an example of a Grievance Procedure, thus making the procedure voluntary. How such a Grievance Procedure is to be put in place and how it would work is left completely undefined. Employers are under no legal obligation to include good faith mechanisms or rights protections.

Given current employment practices in Maldives, workers could simply be dragged endlessly through a procedure which is designed not to produce a result and thus not arrive at any point where a strike could be called.

The regulation contains a stunning contradiction. The regulation defines a strike as “stopping work” yet Clause 8(c) forbids strikers “from disturb[ing] the services they provide or should not create any kind of difficulties in the mean[s] of strike.” This clause actually means workers cannot stop work, since by definition, when workers strike, they are withholding their labour and thus disturbing the services of the workplace.

Take the resorts: would a striking front-desk worker still required to check-in guests? Would a striking chef still be required to cook meals? Would a striking house-cleaner still be required to make beds? With this the employer could easily claim any strike is a disruption and thus the strike would be illegal.

This same vagueness is repeated in Clause 11(iv) of the regulations which forbids workers from “interfere[ing] with customers”. This is extraordinarily vague and would allow any employer to simply claim: by going on strike workers are “interfering” with customers and the strike would be deemed illegal.

Clause 9 of the regulation includes a number of professions who are excluded from the right to strike. International labour standards as governed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are quite clear that with the exception of police and military, all other professions should retain the right to strike. It is doubtful that a regulation excluding so many professions would be acceptable under international human rights norms.

What to do?

It seems that this regulation, even if the Minister were to sign it, despite its clear breach of most international norms regarding workers fundamental rights, would have to ultimately be declared unconstitutional.

The Employment Act, does not give the Minister any authority to make regulations for matters not covered by the Act. Since strikes are a subset of workers’ collective rights and regulations to these rights are not mentioned in the Act, the Minister has no authority to make regulations to administer non-existent sections of the Act.

It is time for a serious rethink. Resort and hotel workers, in fact all workers, in the Maldives need a proper law which protects their collective rights to participate in trade unions, to collective bargaining and to industrial action. It solves nothing when short-cuts which must ultimately be found unconstitutional are tried.

Moreover, this regulation tramples on workers constitutional right to strike to such an extent it could become an international issue, placing Maldives in breach of its human rights commitments and the conventions of the International Labour Organisation.

The real reason that this regulation is being rushed through at this time is the resort owners in Maldives have consistently refused to recognise the collective rights of resort workers. Low wages, lack of transparency with distribution of the service charge, overwork and the high costs of living all remain unresolved problems for most workers.

Instead of engaging in genuine negotiations to resolve these matters with the Tourism Employees Assosiation of the Maldives (TEAM) – the resort workers union – the employers seek to rebuff TEAM at every opportunity.

TEAM is systematically denied recognition by the employers. The employers refuse to negotiate collectively and threaten workers. Workers are arrested and placed in jail at the behest of employers when they strike. Blacklists of known supporters of TEAM are maintained and distributed among employers. Despite these threats workers continue to exercise their constitutional right to strike because this is the only choice they have to resolve their interests. All other avenues are closed by the employers.

The best solution would be for the Government of Maldives to call for tripartite negotiations including TEAM and MATI, designed to reach an agreement for amendments to the Employment Act regarding trade union recognition, collective bargaining and industrial disputes. Or to produce an Industrial Relations Act regarding these matters. This would protect workers’ rights and produce clear and transparent mechanisms to allow for proper negotiations between TEAM and the resort owners and thus go a long way to resolving the root cause of strikes in the resort industry.

But a regulation with dubious constitutionality that effectively erases the right strike is in no one’s interests and will only harm Maldives’ international reputation in regard to democracy and human rights.

Dr Jasper Goss is Information and Research Officer with the Asia/Pacific regional organisation of the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), the global trade union federation which represents resort, hotel, food and agriculture workers.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]


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Letter on bias

Dear Sir,

Being much interested in the Maldives, I read your internet newspaper quite often. However, I want to let you know that I was recently quite disappointed with your publication regarding two recent articles, both of them about events in Noonu Velidhoo.

The first one, about the arrest of a certain Abbas, because of the illegal possession of alcohol.

You write:

“Deputy leader of DRP, Umar Naseer, said Abbas was not the leader of DRP’s Noonu Atoll wing.

“He’s just a normal DRP member, an activist,” said Umar.

”I have idea how this happened, but I know he did not drink, because his breath-test results were negative to alcohol.”

Umar said there were no alcoholics in the opposition DRP, and claimed that there “were only alcoholics in the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).”

Well… if you had checked other sources in Velidhoo, and there are many, you would have heard that this Abbas is for sure, and still is today, one (if not the most prominent) of the leaders of the local DRP indeed.

Not up to me to judge about his political activities, but the facts are there.

But more disturbing to me is that you publish that last sentence, where Mr Umar says that alcoholics are only within the MDP. Again I have no judgement as such on this, but as far as know, there has never been anyone from the (local) MDP in Noonu Velidhoo who has been involved in anything to do with illegal alcohol, nor the use of it, or the illegal trade of it.

I have also not said that DRP are alcoholics. The fact remains is that Abbas [allegedly] got caught with alcohol and he is very much involved indeed in the local DRP. A simple Google search shows enough of that.

I cannot understand that you just publish such a political, and very much insulting, statement from a DRP leader about his opponents. I do not understand that you don’t even ask the people who are obviously accused by such a statement, the MDP, that you don’t even ask them for a reply on such statements.

It’s far from objective writing, its more like a political manifesto. Neutral journalism requests to her both sides, to check sources.

The second article is about the suicide of a 24 year-old man in the same Noonu Velidhoo.

There you quote an island official as saying:

“According to what most of the islanders are saying, he had this problem with his girlfriend’s father; he had not been accepted by him. He lived together on the island with his girlfriend from Male’ and they were about to get married, but her Dad sent a letter to the court saying he would not give the consent for the marriage to take place.”

Well well …. “most of the islanders are saying …. “, you give impression, by quoting the official, that you have done a kind of survey even … “most islanders”?

I am very close to the family involved… and NONE of them would ever agree that the disagreement of the father of the girl was the reason of his suicide.

The facts are: indeed the guy had a relationship with the girl, and indeed her father did not approve of that at all. Which happened already TWO months ago. But the couple, though feeling bit sad with that, had already decided last July to approach the court about this and their marriage was approved already!

Again you published an opinion without even asking the people who were involved. It would have been piece of cake to ask the opinion of the family themselves.

It’s such a pity in the ongoing process to a real democracy in our country.

Sincerely,

Aiminath

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter piece, please submit it to [email protected]
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Maldives takes on UK in high seas legal drama

The Maldives government looks set to lock horns with the UK Foreign Office over the Maldives’ long-running claim to 160,000 square kilometres of British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

The Maldives wants an extension of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which impedes on a 200 nautical mile EEZ that the UK claims extends from the island of Diego Garcia.

The island is presently occupied by a US naval base, under an agreement in 1966 whereby the UK received favours including a US$14 million discount on submarine-launched Polaris missiles in exchange for use of the island until 2016. The base is now among the largest US naval bases outside the country, and has reportedly been used as a stop-off point for the CIA’s highly-controversial ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights to Morocco and Guantanamo Bay.

More recently, the UK has declared the Chagos Archipelago in the BIOT a marine reserve – an area larger than France – theoretically making it the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA). Funds to manage the MPA for the next five years have been provided by Swiss-Italian billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

The matter is further complicated by the existence of an indigenous population, the Chagos, who were forcibly evicted after the British bought the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius for £3 million (US$476,000) in 1965. The then-Mauritian Prime Minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam subsequently received a knighthood that same year.

The British attempted to resettle 1000-odd Chagos in the Seychelles and Mauritius, which demanded an additional £650,000 (US$1 million) to settle the refugees.

The Chagos were known to Maldivians in the southern atoll of Addu, as they occasionally rescued a stranded fishermen who had strayed too far south and sent him home. The islands themselves were never settled by the Maldivians, although they retained the Dhivehi name of Feyhandheebu.

Dispossession and the courtroom

The Chagos won a high court victory in the UK in 2000 enabling them to return to archipeligo, but the decision was extraordinarily overruled by the Queen’s royal prerogative. In 2008 the House of Lords overturned the high court verdict, forcing the Chagos to appeal in the European court of human rights.

The Maldives contends that as the islands are uninhabited, according to the Law of the Sea Convention the UK had no right to claim a 200 nautical mile EEZ.

“We will send a delegation to the UN in February and the UN will question us as to our claim, which we believe we have according to the Law of the Sea Convention,” said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem.

“Sri Lanka has also filed claims, and we need clarification of them,” he added.

The Maldives’ interest in the area extends to fishing and potential exploitation of mineral resources, Naseem explained.

“We are saying that since there is no population benefiting from the area, the British government cannot claim it as their territory. We feel the [original] claim made by the British is not legally valid [under the Law of the Sea Convention],” Naseem said.

Were the Maldives – or any other country – to succeed in its claim, it would be indirectly benefiting from the homelessness of the Chagos by claiming the territory from which they were forcibly evicted.

“That’s not our issue – the fact of the matter is that there is no native population on the island,” Naseem explained.

On Tuesday the Chagos community in the UK, who live in Crawley next to their arrival point of Gatwick airport, expressed surprise at the UK Foreign Office’s apparent opposition to the Maldives’ claims on their homeland.

In an interview with the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Roch Evenor, chairman of the UK Chagos Support Association, said the Foreign Office “seems to be more interested in defending the seabed than the interests of Chagossians. Why did [politicians] give us all that sweet-talking before the elections and then afterwards we are back to square zero? We feel emotionally drained.”

Second Secretary at the British High Commission in Colombo, Dominic Williams, insisted on Wednesday that the UK was not protesting the submission by the Maldives to extend its territorial waters, but was rather making “an observation” to the UN’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).

“The UK observed that the Maldives’ submission had not taken into full account the 200 nautical mile Fisheries and Environment Zones of the British Indian Ocean Territory,” he said. “We are satisfied that the CLCS will be able to consider the Maldivian submission without prejudice to the position of the United Kingdom.”

Williams said that the UK believed that a Marine Protected Area (MPA) “is the right way ahead for furthering the environmental protection of the Territory.”

The decision to establish the MPA was, he added, “without prejudice to the current pending proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights. As such, there is no need to wait for a decision from the European Court of Human Rights before implementing the MPA.”

“The establishment of this MPA has doubled the global coverage of the world’s oceans benefiting from protection and gives the UK the opportunity to preserve an area of outstanding natural beauty containing islands and reef systems rich in biodiversity.”

He noted that once the area was no longer needed for defence purposes, “the UK is committed to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius.”

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Failing to make Hay in the sunshine

Despite the lineup of international literary luminaries, ticket sales for October’s Hay Festival Maldives, the first Dhivehi ‘Woodstock of the mind’, are so dismal organisers are reluctant to divulge the exact figures. Less than ten were sold on the first day the tickets went on sale, and the daily sales figure has remained unchanged since.

The national and international line-up is impressive, the venue is Aarah, and the tickets cost a Rf100 for two days of literature, music and intellectual discussion. It is billed as a celebration of the ‘world’s most hopeful new democracies and oldest island cultures’ bringing together international and national artists for ‘a festival of ideas’.

“As a new democracy, the Maldives is the logical setting for the vital debates that affect us all,” President Nasheed said of the Festival.

Reading habits and local education levels suggest the logic maybe flawed.

What do Maldivians read?

Although the international authors lined up by the Hay Festival are all relevant to the emerging democracy of the Maldives, none of their books are available in any of the bookshops in Male’.

Enthusiastic Maldivian volunteers organising the event told Minivan all the books will be available from Aster’s bookshop before the Festival begins. For the moment, none of their work can be bought in a Maldivian bookshop. The National Library is currently closed, and Minivan could not check whether it stocks the books.

Without getting into a debate over what can and cannot be classified as ‘serious literature’, a random sample of bookshops in Male’ reveal their shelves to be almost entirely bare of any fiction at all, let alone any great works of literature or the works of the authors participating in the Festival.

The Minivan survey revealed the most recently opened bookshop in Male’ to be its the most well-stocked in terms of literature – it had a copy of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Harper Lee’s classic ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ as well as a few children’s classics, a few Roald Dahls, almost all the Harry Potter books, and a vast collection of Enid Blyton.

American teenage sensations Hannah Montana and Mary-Kate Ashley filled the remaining shelves, along with copies of four books on Maldivian law written by the proprietor.

The one and only bookshop in Hulhumale’ carried one book of fiction for adults written in English – ‘Three sexy tales: Playing Hard to get’ by Grace Octavia – according to the blurb, a ‘chic tale’ of three New York ‘It Girls’ and their lives.

There too, was a collection of Enid Blyton and the same American teenage fiction as the previous bookshop.

None of the local authors billed at the Hay Festival – Abdulla Sadiq, Habeeba Hussain Habeeb or Fathimath Nahula – featured on its shelves. The only Maldivian literature were religious publications promoting spiritual guidance.

What can Maldivians read?

Only one percent of all Maldivian students are interested in the arts. Less than a quarter have shown an interest in science, while more than half pursue commercial subjects, according to 2008 O’Level exam figures published by the Education Ministry.

If less than one percent of Maldivian students are interested in the arts, it indicates that only a minuscule number of Maldivians will grow up to be interested in literature, music, art, film, poetry or any of the activities that the Hay Festival celebrates. Had science had a stronger pull, perhaps the line-up of world-class environmental writers may have drawn a bigger crowd.

Although 90 percent of students sat the compulsory subject of English as a Second Language, only 0.1 percent took the English Language exam. The number of students who took the literature exam was marginally higher at 0.2 percent.

Of the 90 percent of students who did study English as a second language, only 20 percent passed. It was also English as a Second Language that received the most number of ‘U’s meaning ‘Unclassified’ or ‘Ungraded’ in 2008. In the same year, over 24 percent of students who sat the O’levels did not pass any subjects at all.

The ‘logic’ of choosing Maldives as a venue for the Hay Festival, a celebration of some of the best international and local literature, appears less than clear cut in view of local reading habits and education levels.

Full schedule of the Hay Festival Maldives

Day passes are on sale at the Olympus Theatre in Male’, and available online for non-residents.

For more information call 991 1429 (residents), +44 1497 822 629 (international), or email [email protected]

Minivan News is a media partner of the Hay Festival Maldives.

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MNDF denies threatening DRP MP and head of FAM

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has denied threatening to set fire to the car of DRP MP and Football Association head Ali Azim.
The media reported allegations by Azim that the MNDF had threatened him after the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) decided not to allow any of the Force’s teams to participate in their tournaments.
“It is false to say MNDF threatened him, I am totally sure that MNDF would never fall to such a low level,’’ MNDF spokesperson Major Abdul Raheem told Minivan News. “All the telephones here are easily accessible to almost all the staff, so it is possible that a staff member working here called him and made the threat.’’

He said that did not mean that it was an “official call” from the MNDF.

‘’It is very difficult to track down the person who called, but MNDF and the police are trying to figure it out,’’ Raheem said.

“Although we were all demoralised by the decision of FAM to disallow our participation in the tournaments, we would not do something like this,” he said. “We eagerly want to take part in the FAM tournaments and we are still trying for it.’’

Everything the MNDF did to regain access to the tournament would be conducted in accordance with the laws.

Azim had told local newspapers that a number belonging to the MNDF contacted his brother and threatened that his car will be set on fire.

‘’The phone call was made from an MNDF number to Mohamed Shiyaz [brother of Azim]. The caller said they had been trying to get in touch to me, and told him to tell me  they will set fire to my car,’’ Azim told the media.

Haveeru called the number and found it belonged to the MNDF’s communication department.

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DRP plans ”Crafty Government” protest

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) will be holding a “Crafty Government” protest at the Artificial Beach tonight, after two protests were cancelled over the weekend due to rain.

Deputy leader and spokesperson of DRP Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef said the protest will begin at 9pm.

“The objective of this gathering is to protest against the government for misleading and deceiving the people,’’ Shareef said.

The ‘Crafty Government’ protest tonight is sanctioned by the party’s council, unlike the ‘Government for Sale’ protest announced last week by Deputy Leaders Umar Naseer and Ahmed Ilham and MP Ahmed Mahrouf that last week led to speculation that the party was facing internal factional difficulties.

The issue was taken to the party’s council, which voted in favour of placing Umar Naseer before the party’s disciplinary committee. In a subsequent press conference, Naseer predicted this would lead to his dismissal from the party’s leadership.

Mahlouf and Ilham questioned at the time why they had not also been asked to appear before the disciplinary committee. Naseer’s rescheduled protest was to clash with the council-sanctioned protest on Saturday, but both were ultimately postponed because of the rain.

Shareef said today that Ilham, Naseer and Mahrouf would be allowed to join the protest.

“It is open to everyone, all our supporters can join,’’ he said.

Ilham told Minivan News today that all three would join the “Crafty Government” protest this evening.

“We fully support the event and we will be present there,’’ Ilham said. “But we might not be delivering a speech at the event as the microphones are reserved.’’

Miadhu meanwhile reported DRP leader Ahmed Thasmeen as accusing the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of trying to split the ranks of the DRP.

“MDP is attempting to divide DRP’s leadership as the ruling party stands to benefit from a weakened opposition,” he claimed.

Umar Naseer meanwhile last week questioned Thasmeen’s “sincerity”, alleging that “some of our senior officials are known to be involved in secret deals with the government.’’

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Letter on powerlessness

Dear Maldives,

The kind of grandiose, egomaniacal, demagogic display one sees in many Maldivians may appear to be a case of too much self-love. But in fact, it is not love at all. It is hate. It is sadness. It is self loathing. It is an aggressive reaction to rejection. No genuine self love there at all.

When one feels powerless to turn this hatred against another, to vent it outwardly, it is turned inward and becomes depression. Then it is seen for what it really is. Emptiness, sadness, hunger for true love, a desparate craving for a sense of genuine self dignity.

So, I would like to tell you that every Maldivian, the mentally insane, the lonely and rejected, the victim of abuse, the aggressive power hungry politician, all, each and every Maldivian is special, unique, and sacred, for one reason, YOU are deeply precious to the Creator as the pinnacle of a Creation done out of the purpose of Self-Sacrificial Love.

When I read about a young man from Velidhoo committing suicide, and about children being killed in gang warfare, I know that that the angel’s grieve for you Maldivians, because they feel how special you are.

I am sorry to get on this website and quack on and on but I have seen too much sadness in your paradise, sadness expressing itself mainly as hatred, yet I can see that underneath it is sadness. I have too much caring for your ppl, because I can see how sensitive and intelligent, how beautiful Maldivians are, and it aches my heart to see people so sacred dying. I can’t help it.

Not enough respect for the sacredness of human dignity, not enough compassion for the mentally challenged and for the victim of sexual abuse because not enough genuine self respect.

I can’t wait to meet the young man from Velidhoo who committed suicide in paradise because there he will know how sacred he really is…

Ben Plewright

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter piece, please submit it to [email protected]

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