A pregnant woman in a declining condition was brought to Male’ by the MNDF coast guard.
Azeeza Mohamed, 37, of Thaa Hirilandhoo, was on a boat travelling from Thaa Burunee to Male’ when her condition deteriorated so rapidly the captain requested help from the coast guard.
A vessel was dispatched with a doctor and two nurses from Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, IGMH.
The coast guard made contact with the vessel carrying Azeeza around 5.18am, and she was brought to Male’ at around 7.10am.
Welcome to a new decade. The first year of democracy has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. It saw a huge role reversal as government turned to opposition, and opposition turned to government.
This column is thus dedicated to the heterodoxy in the new political environment – for so long it was just about one man. Now, there are many different voices.
As this is a new year, Aboohéra will gaze into his crystal ball and see what the future holds in store. Here are some predictions for the year- in ascending order of likelihood.
Mohamed ‘Kutti’ Nasheed becomes leader of DRP
The MP for Kulhudhuffushi South wants to shake things up. But he does not appear to be sure how. For the past year he has been vacillating, unable to take a firm decision on how he will spend this parliamentary term.
Indeed, he has been unsure of his affiliation with the DRP. He first contested the seat as an independent candidate but did not leave the party. After waiting for several months, he left the party.
Winning the presidency in 2013 is said to be his ambition. He will realize that contesting the election on the DRP ticket is his best chance of success. He will rejoin the party before its Congress due in April, and will pull a surprise victory over the infinitely better funded and better organised Thasmeen.
The DRP congress delegates will shock the country by their decision, as they demonstrate that DRP members do care more about rhetoric than cash.
Adhaalath party declares a ceasefire in their war on discotheques
Last year the party that controls the Islamic Affairs Ministry took a tough stance on discos. They issued an edict against them and directed the police to clamp down on them during the last two New Years Eves.
They have also banned a barbeque that was to be held at Holiday Inn during the upcoming solar eclipse. This has led to some degree of unhappiness amongst young people who like to dance and eat grilled sausages (though not necessarily at the same time).
This year, the party will come to the realisation that there are far greater threats to the religious unity of the country than discos. They will also accept that young people need sources of entertainment.
The freedom to dance and be entertained is better than getting holed up in dingy little apartments and doing brown sugar. The minister will retain the title DJ Majeed, but no longer in an ironic sense.
Former president Gayoom wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Former president Gayoom did not have a good year. Apart from having to suffer the ignominy of being taken to the police for questioning, all his achievements on the environmental front have been forgotten. The international community has forgotten all about how Gayoom stood up to global warming and how well he handled the influx of aid after the 2004 tsunami.
The year 2010 will rectify all that. The international community will accept that the new government’s entire climate change policy was based on Gayoom’s vision.
It will be revealed that carbon neutrality was actually first laid out in the Vision 2020 document. They will recognise that the current MDP government was standing on the shoulders of a giant and they will belatedly award Gayoom the prize that had until now eluded him.
This accolade will quench the former president’s thirst for the limelight. He will gracefully retire from public life and assume the role of respected elder statesmen. He will turn down an offer to become the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Dr. Hassan Saeed makes a spectacular political comeback
The only politician that has had a worse year than Gayoom is Hassan Saeed. He resigned his position in government after a hundred days. His party only won two seats in the parliamentary elections. They ignored his whip on Dr. Shaheed’s vote of no confidence that resulted in an open split in the ranks.
In effect he no longer controls any seats in parliament. And to cap it all, President Nasheed has announced that he will not hold a mid-term election that Saeed had pinned so much hope on.
This year, the Gaumee Party’s relentlessly negative campaign will finally pay dividends as people come to the decision that it’s expose of government expenses on overseas trips are the real reason for the nation’s economic woes. As this realisation dawns, their support will extend from the current narrow base of middle-aged women in Feydhoo.
In 2010, Hassan Saeed will once again become a relevant force in Maldivian politics.
And so there you have it; some predictions for the New Year. Hopefully at least two or three will come true.
All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]
The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has accused Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MPs of interfering in police handling of MDP activists during a protest outside parliament on 30 December.
DRP and MDP protesters squared off outside parliament in response to the contentious decentralisation bill, debate over which had stalled four times.
The DRP claims MDP MPs Eva Abdullah, Mariya Didi and Mohamed Mustafa approached riot police and asked them to release an MDP activist who was being manhandled.
DRP MP Ahmed Mahlouf said he was close to the gate when Mariya and Mustafa allegedly asked police to release the activist.
Police restrain protesters outside parliament
“I’m not somebody who spouts rubbish. I saw this with my own eyes along with my colleagues,” he said.
“Police said [the activist] had attacked them and that is why he was handcuffed. The police are an independent body and should only be given orders by the police commissioner, not the president or the chairperson of the MDP,” Mahlouf said, adding that he would be filing a case with the police integrity commission.
Asked for her version of events, Eva replied that the MDP MPs “were just trying to find out what was going on.”
“A group of MDP activists outside brought a megaphone with them,” she said. “Police tried to disperse them and there was some kind of skirmish. I was looking on when police tried to get a bit physically tough on them and one of my constituents was hit and fell.”
The police did not respond to her, she said.
“If you look at the police records he was detained for several hours, so reports he was released are not true.
“We were not involved, we were just standing there during the Majlis break. We know what police brutality is like and went to see what was happening before it could get out of hand.”
The Maldives Police Service (MPS) released a statement claiming that rumours of police releasing protesters on the request of MDP MPs were incorrect, adding that such claims “undermine the trust people have in the police” and “should not be made for political gain”.
Videos aired on DhiTV appeared to show the three MDP MPs communicating with the police officers.
Astroturfed?
Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed claimed that MDP had astroturfed the protest and that furthermore, MP interference with police work was nothing new.
“This is the third time the MDP have engineered a protest outside parliament,” he said. “The first was the bill over benefits to previous presidents, the second was the no confidence vote against the foreign minister and the third was this decentralisation bill. They are very organised and bring loudspeakers and umbrellas. The modus operadi is for MDP MPs to meet the protesters and brief them on what to say and how to do it. It’s a very normal thing for MDP; I’ve seen senior MDP members making calls to the police at the station asking for the removal of barriers. On occasions when the barriers have been removed, [MPs] haven’t even been enable to leave to go to lunch – it’s not a good idea to walk through a mob.”
MPs watch the protests from behind the gates of the Majlis
Eva claimed there was no need for MDP MPs to engineer protests “as protesting is grassroots MDP and the activism in the party is still quite strong.”
“The MDP created space for peaceful protests in this country – we put the concept in the Maldivian vocabulary,” she said.
Nasheed said he did not personally witness the MDP MPs interaction with police during the latest protest, “all the MPs were talking about how Mariya had intervened with a protester being taken away. I don’t think it is becoming of MDP to interefere with police discharging their duties.”
The DRP had exploited the situation very effectively, he noted.
“I think they already had the video. Mahlouf spoke about it to the media and the following day, probably on instructions from higher ups under intense pressure, the police issued a statement denying [they had released the activist on MP request). The video was not released initially because [the intention] was to trap police. They fell into it and now it’s obvious to everyone – I think it’s sad it happened.”
The coast guard has given up its search to find the man who was lost at sea last week.
The Bangledeshi man, who was around 22 years old, fell off a fishing vessel on 7 January north of Ari Atoll Thoddoo.
The coastguard said their vessel ‘Iskandhar’ had covered an area of 533 nautical square miles in an attempt to find the man.
The coastguard again urged all vessels in the area to keep an eye out for the man, who was last seen wearing a red shirt, and urged anyone with information to contact them on 191, 3395981 or 3398898.
The athletics association have announced that they will participate in the fourth Asian Indo Athletics Championship to be held in Tehran from 24 to 26 February.
According to Haeveeru, the association will have time trails on the 23 and 24 of January to select athletes for this tournament. The trails are for 60m, 400m, 200m and 800m.
Havveru reported that athletes currently training in Malaysia for the upcoming SAAF championships would most probably not participate in these trails.
Workers at Male’ seaport staged a demonstration after claiming that the Maldives Ports Authorities (MPA) had minimised the amount of goods that could be loaded onto a single lorry.
The MPA said this was a rule implemented for safety reasons.
Although the demonstrations caused inconveniences for parties loading and unloading goods at the port, normal service has been resumed.
The stretch of sand on the tip of the island serves as the landing spot for visitors. The island has no jetty.
Overgrown bushes cover what used to be a cleared road. A bit farther off on either side one can make out rows of palm trees which must once have been the edge of the road.
The thick foliage abruptly gives way to a clearing. An enclosure with a building is right in front. Nearby a set of measuring scales, tall and imposing.
It is not difficult to imagine the old days when adults and children, balanced on one side of the scale while the other side was loaded with food items.
This is the uninhabited island Haa Alifu Atoll Matheerah, or as its often referred to, Matheerah Fulhu. Until the 80s Maldivians used to travel from near and far to a shrine on the island to fulfill promises.
Folklore
Fathimath Abdulla, 73, a native of another nearby abandoned island called Hathifushi, recounts a story passed down from generation to generation.
“Fisherman from Hathifushi on their way back from fishing trip saw a wooden box bobbing up and down in the ocean,” he recalls.
Legend has it that one of the men hit the box twice with his oar, but on the third try he found he couldn’t lift his hand.
They hurriedly rowed back and told the islanders. A larger crowd then set sail on a wooden raft to look at the box.
“When they came they saw the wooden box was now buried in the sand and only the name written on it was visible.”
The name was ‘Shareef Ali Al Makhi’, the only thing in the recorded history of Matheerah.
It is believed that the tomb inside the island’s enclosure is his, although no other information about him exists.
Also inside the enclosure is a huge wooden mast, roughly the size of the big flagpole in republic square in Male’.
Islanders say most of the buildings found in the enclosure were created with things that washed up on shore, including the mast.
“The story goes that the mast rose upright on its own, when locals came the following day,“ says Fathimath.
On the right side of the enclosure is an intricately-designed doorway leading to the shrine. Even to the inexperienced eye the design looks similar to the 18th century Kandhuvalu mosque found in the island of Utheemu.
However neglect has lead to discolouration and only trace amounts of the coloured lacquer work are still visible.
The gateway to the shrine
A sacred site
Islanders considered the place sacred, but feared it as well.
Fathimath spent four months collecting and cooking toddy on Matheerah Fulhu in the 50s.
“The men would collect toddy during the day, but they would finish collecting from the palm trees near the shrine before sunset. Nobody ventured there after dark,” she says.
Fathimath and another girl stayed inside the makeshift hut after nightfall. She remembers that islanders believed they found traces of human movement on the sand at daytime.
Ancient traditions
“From far and wide people used to come to visit Matheerah Fulhu,” Fathimath remembers.
“It was common to get around two or three dhonis of people on some days. The island chief of Hathifushi became defacto caretaker of the shrine.”
People would come to weigh their babies using the scales, she says, “or after having made a promise along the lines of ‘if such and such happened’, they would distribute food items equivalent to their own weight.”
The shrine enclosure
The visiting dhoni would first go to Hathifushi, where a local islander would hop on it. That person would act as a facilitator and take the visitors to the shrine.
Kadhi or bonidbai (porridge type Maldivian desserts) in huge ceramic pots, bananas, grains would be weighed against a person’s weight to fulfil their ‘promise’.
Sometimes the offerings included Maldivian crepes, silver and gold threads to the equivalent of someone’s height.
Fathimath laughs when she recalls how even then Maldivians were very conscious of hygiene.
“If it was crepes, the person would have to stand on a mat, put a white cloth over themselves, and the first crepe would be placed on top of his head, the next one touching it, and you drop the first one to the mat, and so on it would go until his length was covered.”
The the food was taken back to Hathifushi, poured into a huge basin and the pots washed and given back to the visitors.
“A person would come out and call to all the islanders, who would come to collect the food,” Fathimath recalls. Depending on the number of people in a family, each person would get a ladle’s worth of food.
Old scales used to weigh 'promises'
Gold and silver thread was also given the length of someone’s height, but its fate is unknown. It seems for a long time it was kept in a box in the island chief’s house – Fathimath says she saw it in her youth. But rumour has it that upon the island chief’s passing; the box was stolen by a scheming family member.
In the eighties, the practice of fulfilling promises at shrines was banned.
“It was considered bid’ah (innovation) and stopped,” Fathimath says.
Ahmed Tholaal, assistant director of the department of national centre for linguistic and historical research, says there is no budget for conservation of the place.
“Even if we do get budget, Matheerah Fulhu is not on the priority list,” he says – unsurprising since there are historical places on inhabited islands that need conservation.
Once one of the most visited islands, Matheerah Fulhu’s historical relevance is now left to ruin.
President Mohamed Nasheed has met with Chief Hydrographer of India Vice Admiral B R Rao.
According to the president’s office, the President sought assistance from the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department to claim for an extended continental shelf.
In October 2009, the Maldives decided to see if it could claim for an extended continental shelf.
Once the continental shelf is determined a country can exploit the minerals, natural resources, and sedentary species in that area.
A speedboat that ran out of fuel and was drifting with the currents in Baraveli Kandu last night has been rescued by MNDF Nothern Area Command.
The boat was travelling from Raa Alifushi to Lhaviyani Hinnavaru carrying six people and a child. According to MNDF they left Alifushi around 10:45 pm.
The speedboat, ‘Zaako’, belonged to Mohamed Ismail of Lhaviyani Hinnavaru, Jambuge, and ran out of fuel around 1.40 am.
The MNDF dispatched a coast guard launch to find the stricken vessel, eventually discovering it at 3:00 am, two miles west from Lhaviyani Madivaru.
The speed boat was towed into Lhaviyani Hinnavaru harbour at 3:40 am, and all on board were reported to be fine.
Speaking to Minivan News about the incident, Lieutenant Abdul Ali of the MNDF said such incidents were becoming “more and more common.”
“Those in charge [of vessels] hould realise how long the journey will take, and if ensure they have sufficient amounts of fuel,” he said. “It is important to be cautious before travelling at sea.”
When asked about what actions the coastguard had taken to try and reduce the number of incidents, Ali claimed the authority continuously gives advice and holds many awareness programs.
MNDF urged all sea travllers to contact the nearest MNDF area command if an incident should occur, or if that number is not known, to dial the toll free emergency number 191.
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