Category: Politics

Dhiraagu, the largest telecommunications company in the Maldives, has awarded Telecom Italia Sparkle – the wholesale global operator part of the Telecom Italia Group – one of its first international links via submarine cable.

The agreement means older satellite technology will be replaced by the Dhiraagu Submarine Cable Network – DSCN (being composed of the international cable system between Maldives and Sri Lanka and the inter-atoll domestic cable) to provide telecommunications services to the Maldives.

The circuit will be routed on the recently inaugurated Maldives – Sri Lanka cable which was built under partnership between Dhiraagu and Sri Lanka Telecom. It will then be connected to a cable system in Palermo, Italy.

“We are extremely delighted to have strengthened our good business relationship with Telecom Italia Sparkle. This will allow us to expand our worldwide connectivity, in a manner that will further improve our customer experiences, by taking advantage of the global reach and quality of service TIS has to offer”, said Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ismail Waheed.

Dhiraagu was set up in the Maldives in 1988. Like many big companies in the Maldives, it is majority owned by the government, who hold a 55% share. The remaining stake is held by the UK based company Cable and Wireless, which has worked in the Maldives providing telecoms services on behalf of the government since 1977.

Dhiraagu is a private company and does not publish its profit or other financial information.

The company held a monopoly on telecommunications services in the Maldives until 2004, when the authorities began issuing licences. Two other companies, Rajje Online and Kuwaiti company, Wataniya Telecom International, now also operate in the country.

Dhiraagu have come in for much criticism throughout their 18-year history. Throughout the nineties many complained of excessively high pricing. More recently, with the growth of an opposition movement in the country, the company has struggled to garner trust among users.

Many fear their SMS messages and internet activity may be seen by a third party and that phone conversation may be heard by government authorities due to the company’s close links to the Gayoom regime. Some have also accused Dhiraagu of cutting SMS messaging services during key protests by the opposition, which the company has denied.

Dhiraagu remains the only provider of landlines in the Maldives.

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British Tory MP, Gary Streeter, has arrived at Male airport for a five day visit to the Maldives to hold discussions with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the government.

He was received at around 10pm last night by a crowd of hundreds of cheering MDP supporters calling for the President’s resignation, chanting “Maumoon isthiufaa”.

During his visit, he will meet with the MDP’s shadow cabinet members, the Parliamentary Group and make an address to the party’s National Council. He will also visit the island of Thinadhoo, in Southern Huvadhoo Atoll to meet party members and speak at a meeting on Friday evening.

The MP for Devon South West will also meet with various government officials, including Elections Commissioner, Kaaf Dhaal Ahmed Maniku. He is scheduled to hold a round table discussion with members of non governmental organisations and journalists, and to make an address to the NGO Maldives Forum.

Streeter is Chairman of Conservatives Abroad, the Party’s International Office and the Conservative Human Rights Commission. He has asked a number of questions in the House of Commons about the pace of reform in the Maldives and is known to have a keen interest in Maldivian politics.

The purpose of his visit is also to discuss the possibility of greater cooperation between the MDP and the UK Conservative Party, with the help of the Westminster Foundation which works to promote democracy and help political parties with similar ideals around the world.

Part of the work of the Tories’ International Office is in building and supporting democracy in emerging countries, while the Human Rights Commission works “to champion the cause of people all over the world whose basic human rights are being abused”.

Streeter is a trained lawyer and currently sits on the UK Government’s Home Affairs Select Committee. He served as Minister in the Lord Chancellor’s Department in John Major’s government from 1995 to 1997. He has also been shadow secretary of state for International Development, Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and a Shadow Minister in the International Affairs Department.

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The Indian Home Secretary, V.K. Duggal, has left Male’ after a two-day good will visit focused on improving coastal security.

Secretary Duggal’s visit was primarily aimed at strengthening bilateral relations, and emphasised ways in which the countries could cooperate in tackling terrorism, organised crime and drug smuggling.

Duggal and a four-man delegation came to Male’ following recent claims by intelligence agencies which claimed the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba was planning to use uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean as a base for attacking ships along the Indian coastline.

In November, India’s Home Minister, Shivrai Patil expressed grave concern when he revealed that the coastal waters near India were “coming under increased threats from terrorist groups”.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the largest and most active Islamic terrorist organisations in South Asia, is currently based in Pakistan and has a history of carrying out major terrorist attacks against the Republic of India.

Lashkar’s agenda, outlined in a pamphlet titled “Why are we waging jihad”, includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of South Asia, Russia and China. The Maldives has vowed to do all it can to protect its northern neighbour from any type of terrorist attack.

The Maldives and India have a history of alliance. In 1988 India signed a defence and security cooperation with the Maldives, which resulted in New Delhi training the Maldives’ defence and police personnel and supplying equipment.

The Coast Guards of the two nations also conduct a biannual training exercise, and Indian Navy and Coast Guard ships regularly visit the Maldives on goodwill and operational turn round (OTR) visits.

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Minister of Education Zahiya Zareer has said “a lack of quality teachers and capable school administrators” is “the biggest challenge facing the education sector.”

In an interview with Television Maldives earlier this week, the Minister also said poor quality foreign teachers were jeopardising young people’s education.

“This has been the problem last year, this year and even now,” she said. But she promises 2007 will see some much needed changes.

Speaking at a ceremony in Male to mark the beginning of the new academic year yesterday, Zareer said that one of her Ministry’s primary goals was to strengthen the Maldivian education system in order to make it “more effective”.

She said she is committed to starting several new programmes aimed at improving the standards of teachers, which include building a ‘Teacher Resource Centre’ in every atoll and providing advanced teaching courses to educational staff.

Zahiya said one of her main priorities for the new academic year was to, “make sure that the foreign teachers hired have excellent qualifications.”

But without proper funding it will be impossible to hire any teacher of adequate calibre, says Shehenaz Abdulla, Shadow Education Secretary. She claims nearly all the country’s education difficulties boil down to lack of funding.

“The problem is that only 10 per cent of the budget is allocated to education,” says Abdulla. “We can’t pay descent foreign teachers a high enough salary to want to immigrate to the Maldives, so instead foreign teachers who are not good in their own country come to the Maldives to teach. It is a disgrace.”

Abdulla went on to say that another problem is the government can’t distinguish between quality and quantity.

“In 2000 during the government’s educational expansion a mistake was made,” said Abdulla. “The government would proudly say: ‘we trained 200 teachers,’ but in training them so quickly the standards were lowered. As a result, today, we have a lot of teachers who do not have the standards that we expect.”

A study conducted by the Ministry of Higher Education, Employment and Social Security, released last month, showed a significant increase in the number of expatriate employees.

“At the beginning of the year a lot of things are said, but you have to ask yourself: ‘why haven’t they started the academic year by implementing their proposals? Why wait until the middle of the year?…If they are really committed to what they say, then I would expect to see it by now,” said Abdulla.

But the Minister says her commitment is clear, and highlighted the work her department has been doing to improve standards of preschool teachers. She says the government is working hard to identify the problems would soon introduce a new plans.

She also promised all the tsunami damage would be repaired this year, saying several schools were already rebuilt and ready for teaching.

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Special Majlis MPs charged with forging the legislative framework of democracy in the Maldives have failed to agree on whether the constitution should be ratified bit by bit, or all at once.

The 26 opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs have called for the parliament to enact the separate parts of the constitution one by one, with each new article, amendment or chapter being ratified as they are agreed upon. They say this will speed up the pace of reform.

But the government’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) does not want the constitutional changes to be implemented incrementally, but all at once. It wants the constitution to be sent to the President for ratification only at the end of the drafting process.

But the government’s motion on the issue, which was proposed by Meemu member Moosa Nizar and seconded by Mohamed Sulaiman, also a member for Meemu Atoll, was defeated when put to the vote.

Only 45 members voted for the motion, out of 81 who attended. That meant the motion fell, as a total of 58 votes are needed, rather than a simple majority. 17 members voted against, with 5 abstentions. 2 members did not participate.

Five other motions to amend the constitution also fell and by the afternoon session, when the details of the referendum over a parliamentary or presidential system was being debated, 6 members walked out and the session had to be cancelled, as there were fewer than 57 members remaining.

Every session of the Special Majlis has been cancelled due to low attendance in 2007, adding to many people’s frustration at the slow pace of reform.

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President Gayoom said on Sunday he would like China to instruct the Maldives on how to build a “harmonious society”, reports Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Speaking to a visiting delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Male’, Gayoom expressed a desire for China to help the Maldives in speeding up development and strengthening its economy.

During the delegation’s discussion, which was led by Liu Yandong, Vice Chairwoman of China’s top advisory body, Gayoom also said that his party, the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) wanted to develop its relations with the CPC.

Yandong said the Chinese Government would be pleased to work with the Maldives in “pushing forward” the exchange and cooperation of the two countries.

Critics, however, have said that the way forward for the Maldives is not by modeling China. While the country has experienced unprecedented economic growth in recent years – its gross domestic product (GDP) growing at rate of six per cent annually – it has been slow to liberalise politically.

Similar to its Maldivian counterpart, the Chinese Government has received much criticism from international NGO’s over its human rights record. This fact has led some of Gayoom’s critics to believe that the President’s vision of a “harmonious society” is one in which the country becomes rich, but the government maintains a firm grip on power.

Not so says Maldivian Foreign Minister, Dr. Shaheed. “We have been on the record to make clear our mission of a liberal democracy,” he told Minivan News.

In a similar move as Gayoom’s “Roadmap” for reform, the Chinese government made an amendment to their Constitution in 2004, which said the “State respects and preserves human rights.” It was hoped the amendment would bring about a change in the way China treated its citizens, but subsequent violations of human rights demonstrated it had not worked.

The Chinese Government is also well known for its lack of tolerance of political dissent. Just as the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) claims it has been treated inhumanely by the Maldivian Government, oppositional figures in China say they are routinely arrested, imprisoned, and often left for long periods of time without trial. Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour have also been widely reported.

Gayoom’s Roadmap has been drawn up to lead the Maldives away from its current wrongs. But by looking to China for guidance, some fear little will change. During Sunday’s meeting Liu Yandong thanked both Gayoom and the Maldivian Government for their support over the issues of Taiwan and human rights.

Liu Yandong also held talks with Ahmed Zahir, speaker of the People’s Majlis on Saturday.

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The Indian External Affairs Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, has made a quick visit to the Maldives and offered India’s “help and cooperation” with democratic reform.

He also called on Maldivian support for a regional free trade pact, the South Asian Free Trade Agreement or SAFTA.

His visit was nominally to invite the Maldives to attend the 14th The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit, but he took the opportunity to make statements about democracy and free trade.

“We congratulated the President for taking initiatives in the reform process: multi party democracy, amending of the constitution, establishment of various institutions to strengthen this democratic and reform process. We also extended our help and cooperation if it is required in any of these fields,” Mr. Mukherjee told state channel TV Maldives.

He went on to ask for support for a regional free trade agreement. “I requested particularly the President…should take a special role and ensure that the SAFTA is operationalised and our objective of providing benefit to all SAARC member countries is achieved.”

The Maldives and India have enjoyed good diplomatic relations for some time. “Maldives is one of our dearest and oldest friends. Our relationship is totally tension free. We have the best of relations amongst ourselves. And both of us agreed that we should try to make SAARC a thrust so that it can achieve its mandate,” Mr. Mukherjee said.

But some have criticised India for its continued support of President Gayoom’s regime, and especially its military aid. Many believe President Gayoom and his party, the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), are only superficially committed to democracy and that India’s support of the regime is actually hindering reform.

One Maldivian commentator, Ali Siraj, recently wrote an article published in Fiyes magazine and on this website entitled, “The Indian Congress Party is the Biggest Obstacle for a Democratic Maldives.” In it he argued: “Since Congress party took control the support given by India to establish a democracy in Maldives came to a halt.”

There is considerable distrust among many Maldivians over President Gayoom’s assumed democratic ideals.

Ibrahim Hussein Zaki, the Acting President of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which campaigns for the end to dictatorship in the Maldives, reacted to news of Mr. Mukherjee’s visit by saying the Indian government: “will be with the people of this country, regardless of who is in power.”

He has stated that the MDP is keen to work with India and says the country has also had to deal with a dictatorship, so the two countries have a shared experience.

Mr. Mukherjee left yesterday evening without meeting with the MDP.

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The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) says a large part of its budget for 2007 will be spent on strengthening branches of the party in the Atolls.

According to Ibrahim Shaafiu, DRP Registrar, this year’s party budget will be used to help raise awareness in the Atolls of the referendum to decide on a presidential or parliamentary form of government in the country.

Shaafiu went on to say that although the party’s budget had not been finalised, it was near completion.

The DRP’s announcement to pay for government-awareness programmes comes at the same time as the party announces it will begin preparations for the upcoming referendum to determine the future form of government in the Maldives.

Speaking at a DRP rally in Male’ on Sunday, leader of the party and the government, President Gayoom, said his party must ensure victory over the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) during the referendum, which could take place as early as March this year.

The DRP is firmly committed to a presidential style of government and hopes to persuade voters to choose the system.

The MDP is advocating a parliamentary style of government.

According to Information Minister, Mohamed Nasheed, who also spoke at the DRP rally, the party’s parliamentarians unanimously support a presidential system.

Nasheed said the parliamentary group has come up with numerous reasons to support their claim that a presidential system is the best model – the main one being that only a presidential system will ensure fair representation and a meaningful democracy, according to the DRP.

Nasheed also said that in a parliamentary system elections are costly and can sometimes set back a country’s economy by three or four years.

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Hundreds of islanders on Kolhufushi, Meemu Atoll have begun protesting around the Island Office after the government issued new proposals for tsunami recovery works.

Eyewitnesses say that around 200 locals gathered outside the office this morning and barricaded the Deputy Island Chief, Ismail Shakir, inside, throwing leaves and branches into the building. Protesters have also refused to let the Island Chief, Yusuf Sidqi, into the office, according to the reports.

According to Sidqi, who was left stuck by the island harbour, unable to get into his office, the protesters have raised the flag of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and cut down seven coconut trees.

The government issued a notice to islanders early today saying it would rebuild 55 houses damaged or destroyed by the tsunami on their original site, instead of a new site that had been proposed.

“We want to settle on the new zone. The zone is very close to the Island Office and the Health Centre…the old houses are very far away from these places,” said one protester who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.

The government’s statement also said it would only offer compensation payments for repairs to another 132 houses, rather than repairing the houses themselves. That means residents would have to do the renovations on their own.

Controversy & Coconut Trees

The current disturbances are the latest in a long line of problems in Kolhufushi. Since the tsunami struck in December 2004, conflict between residents has caused serious setback for authorities trying to repair damage to the island.

Many people are still living in temporary housing and much of the repair and reconstruction is only partially completed. Most of the work is currently suspended and residents are getting increasingly fed up with the situation.

“Nothing has been done so far…because the government was unable to settle the land dispute, the Red Cross had to focus on other islands…We are very dissatisfied with how things are going on,” said the resident.

Many islanders complain bitterly that agricultural land has been destroyed and many coconut trees have been felled, depriving them of a local food source.

It is still unclear exactly how many trees have been cut down. Atoll Chief for Meemu, Mohamed Naeem says all 1376 coconut trees have already been felled and the government has replanted 411 already. He says compensation had been paid for a further 460 mature trees, with a little less money given for 505 immature trees.

But Island Chief Sidqi says Naeem is “just a robot” and has got it wrong. He claims 600 trees have been felled, with a further 776 to be cut down if and when building restarts.

There is further confusion over the number of people who live in Kolhufushi. According to the preliminary results of last year’s government census, which some island administrators say is unreliable, the island has a total population of 811. But Island Chief Sidqi told Minivan today the population is 1 276.

Slow Recovery

There has been a lot of disagreement between islanders and the government over where houses were to be built. Most residents said they were happy with plans to move all settlements to the centre of the island, bringing them closer to health facilities. The scheme would replace two existing villages on the north and south sides, with a settlement in the centre of the island.

But those plans were halted after five families objected. Since then the recovery work on the island has ground to a halt and the government has struggled to find a solution.

The British Red Cross pulled out of the island in June last year, halting all their activities in Kolhufushi. They gave two principal reasons for leaving. “1) lack of agreement within the community and between the communities and the Government on repair and reconstruction beneficiary lists and, 2) lack of community and Government consensus on the location of the new zoning plan and who will live there.”

It is still uncertain whether the Red Cross will be able to resume work, or if it will be forced to withdraw funding. The Head of the British Red Cross Mission to the Maldives, Jill Clements, has described the situation on Kolhufushi as “very sad and very frustrating.”

The plight of the people of Kolhufushi has been a high profile issue ever since the tsunami, with ex-Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan and President Gayoom both making visits.

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