Fuah Mulah airport would be operational by June 2011 if all goes to plan, reports Miadhu.
The company in charge of the airport’s development, Platinum Capital Holdings, said it has subcontracted Leem Company Pvt. Ltd. to clear the area for construction.
Once the area has been cleared, the company has said, the main contractor, Aima Construction, will begin the construction.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation said Dash-8 planes, which can accommodate 38 passenger, will be able to land in the new airport.
The journey from Fuah Mulah to Malé will be shorter and easier, as the closest airport to Fulah Mulah is Gan.
Islamic speaker, Zakir Naik, will address Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, reports Miadhu.
Organisers said they expect around 50,000 people, adding many Maldivians living in Colombo will attend.
Naik, a medical doctor trained in Mumbai, will be transported in a helicopter and his lecture will be opened by Governor of the Western Province, Alawi Wauluana.
Organisers said the Colombo lecture will run for about four hours and the Sri Lankan government is providing security in the stadium and surrounding areas.
Thirteen members of Afghanistan’s parliament, an Afghan governor “and a variety of political parties and armed groups” have held the second in a series of meetings in the Maldives, according to news network Al Jazeera.
Press Secretary at the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, on Thursday confirmed that the peace talks were taking place and all involved in the talks had valid passports and visas.
The Maldives is one of the few countries to provide Afghan nationals a visa on arrival.
“None of the representatives involved are listed in UN or other international travel blacklists,” Zuhair said, noting that the MNDF was aware of the meeting. The Al Jazeera report observed that US and NATO were not represented at the talks and that while it was interested the discussions, Afghan government had not officially endorsed them.
Al Jazeera’s report contained footage of the talks and of man the network said had arrived at the last minute “claiming to be a member of the Taliban.”
The representatives told Al Jazeera that their presence at the meeting, which the Maldivian media speculated was being held at Paradise Island Resort, was not official.
The event was organised by Almayoun Jarir, the son in law of former Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is one of the three key leaders of the armed opposition in Afghanistan.
Topics of discussion included the need for fresh elections, and the future of foreign troops in the country. The report noted that one of the Afghan MPs who attended was female.
Besides the ease of visa issuance, the Maldives was chosen as the venue for the three day talks “because it is considered neutral ground for all countries [involved]” Al Jazeera said. “It is also an example of what peace can bring to an islamic country.”
The Maldives is hosting a second round of talks between Afghan lawmakers and “groups opposed to the Afghan government.”
Press Secretary at the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, confirmed the talks were taking place and said the Maldives government had “no involvement”.
“We cannot disclose the location of the talks, although we can confirm that they are not being held in Male’ or other population centres,” he said.
In late January Al Jazeera reported that a group of seven men allied with the Taliban had met in the Maldives on January 22 to discuss an ambitious plan to bring peace to the war-torn country by offering cash, jobs and incentives to Taliban fighters in exchange for laying down their arms. Taliban fighters are reportedly paid US$10 a day, a considerable sum in an embattled country with 40 percent unemployment.
One of the Taliban’s representatives told Al Jazeera the Maldives was chosen as a venue for the talks because “we feel safe.”
Photos of the meeting at Bandos Island Resort and Spa were later leaked to the press.
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, Siyamak Herawi, later told news agency Reuters the visiting group included “Hekmatyar loyalists along with some former Taliban members who are now sitting in the parliament. It happened in January in the Maldives and they decided to hold more talks,” he said.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who was the country’s prime minister from 1993-1994, and is considered by the US to be one of the three main leaders of the Afghan insurgency. He was a key figure in the insurgency against Soviet occupation, reportedly receiving millions in CIA funding, but is now labelled as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ by the US.
The last secret meeting in the Maldives coincided with the International Conference on Afghanistan, held in Lancaster House in London on January 28, where discussions revolved around a national council for peace, reconciliation and reintegration to be set up by the Afghan government.
The programme was to channel development funds towards luring fighters away from the insurgency into alternative livelihoods, with US$140 million in international funding earmarked for the first year.
While many elements of the Maldivian government were oblivious to the first meeting, Zuhair said this time “Maldivian security and intelligence agencies have been fully informed of the talks.”
“All the representatives involved in the talks are holding valid passports and visas. None of the representatives involved are listed in UN or other international travel blacklists,” he said.
“Afghanistan’s stability affects the peace and security of our region. The Government of the Maldives supports efforts to bring a resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan,” Zuhair said.
MP for Fares-Maathodaa Ibrahim Muttalib has announced that he will file a no-confidence motion against Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy over the ministry’s steering committee’s recommendation to make Islam and Dhivehi optional subjects for grades 11 and 12.
Appearing on Television Maldives’ ‘Q&A with Miqdad’ programme last night, the independent MP argued that the decision would undermine respect for religion and language among youth.
Muttalib claimed that Luthfy told him that students of Arabbiya School, which was shut down after a wall collapsed, would be transferred to other schools.
“We now believe that national education matters will not go well because of the attitude and thinking of the Education Ministry, especially Mustafa Luthfy,” he said. “So [Luthfy] should either make amends or resign.”
Muttalib, former treasurer of the religious conservative Adhaalath party, said he had drafted the motion and hoped to secure 10 signatures from MPs needed to submit a motion of no-confidence.
The decision
“Now the education minister is saying it was not his decision to change the two subjects to optional,” Muthalib said today. ”I want the minister to tell us whose idea was it then.”
Muthalib claimed that Luthfy told him last week that there was “no way” the decision could be reversed.
”If the education system implements a curriculum like this, students would be moved away from religion and mother tongue,” he said. ”I would not support such a curriculum that discourages the use of our own culture and language.”
While he could not predict how MPs would vote on the motion, Muttalib said “there are many MPs who respect religion.”
Curriculum
Education Ministry team
Luthfy told Minivan News today that while he had watched the TVM programme, he did not think Muttalib “was serious.”
He added that he did not want to comment on the no-confidence motion.
“It’s not true that I said in a meeting last week that there was no way the decision could be changed,” he said.”It’s not my decision. It’s only a suggestion by the ministry’s steering committee.”
Luthfy has stressed that the decision of making Dhivehi and Islam subjects elective has not been finalised.
An angry crowd protested outside the minister’s house on Tuesday night following the Adhaalath press release.
Sheikh Hussein Rasheed Ahmed, president of Adhaalath party, said today that did not wish to comment on the no-confidence motion.
”It is not our concern,” he said. “Our problem is that Education Minister is misbehaving.”
The State Minister for Home Affairs said the party had discussed the issue with Luthfy on several occasions.
“This is a national issue.” he said. “He cannot solve a national issue on his own. He has to discuss with the cabinet, parliamentarians and senior government officials.”
Senior officials at the Education Ministry has stressed that the steering committee’s recommendation would only be implemented following cabinet deliberations.
Main parties
Opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Abdulla Mausoom told Minivan News today that it was imperative that Maldivians “try to save their identity.”
“The school curriculum should also be designed in a way that would help save the country’s identity, which is religion and language,” Mausoom said. ”Dhivehi and Islam are both very important subjects.”
He added that the state had a responsibility to preserve and protect national identity and culture.
“The main reason why I do not like this government is that they never prefer to discuss any issue -and even if they did [want to] they rarely they do it- but they never would accept the recommendations and suggestions,” he said.
The MP for Kelaa said that the DRP parliamentary group will discuss the issue and decide its stance.
Meanwhile, ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Alhan Fahmy said the time had not yet come to take up the issue at parliament.
”It would be a very big issue if they were removing the two subjects from the school curriculum,” Alhan said. “But if it is optional that means any student who wishes to study it can study it. Students have the opportunity. I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
Alhan said the issue was being blown out of proportion to serve political purposes, adding that the MDP parliamentary group had not officially discussed the matter yet.
Statistics of the Education Ministry show that of the 7,137 students who sat for the GCE O’Level examinations last year, only 32 per cent passed in five subjects, while 2,284 students qualified for higher secondary education.
President Mohamed Nasheed addressed the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, outlining the links between Islam and trade and expressing hope that the forum, and commerce between Muslim countries, will grow in the future.
The forum, which was held from 18-20 of May, was a platform for governments of Muslim and non-Muslim nations, and business leaders, to meet and discuss trade and economic issues.
This year’s theme, Gearing for Economic Resurgence, focused on the role of Islamic banking and financing, and how it can play a role in building a more stable global finance system.
Speaking at the forum, President Nasheed said he believed it was “appropriate that modern day Muslim nations meet to trade and invest with one another.”
He added it was important to “forge ties with nations of other faiths, just as Muslims have done over thousands of years.”
Nasheed noted that “it was through trade and commerce that Islam was introduced to many parts of the world.”
The spice trade brought Islam to Central and South East Asia, China, and Sub-Saharan Africa, he continued, and it was trade that brought Islam to the “then Buddhist Maldives.”
Arab merchants were attracted to the Maldives in the 12th century when they found out about the “abundant supply of Cowry shells…[which] were used at the time as an international currency. “
Because of the islands’ geographic location, said Nasheed, many merchants also stopped in the Maldives during their travels from the Spice Islands to the Middle East, and waited for the monsoon.
President Nasheed noted that the famous 14th century explorer, Ibn Battuta, also came to the Maldives during his travels and was “impressed by combs made from turtle shell, as well as rope and fibres, which were exported abroad.”
Nasheed reiterated that Islam and trade have always been closely tied, as “in the past, trade brought Islam, and Islam brought greater trade. To my mind, Islam and commerce are synonymous.”
Moreover, he said, “Muslim people have a strong culture of commerce” and the Qur’an was “explicit about correct terms of trade and commerce.”
President Nasheed said although “some people belittle Muslims and Islam—they like to portray Muslims as backward and impoverished people,” he believes “the signs of growing Muslim prosperity are everywhere: from the glittering desert cities of the Arabian peninsula, to the vibrant export economies of Malaysia and Indonesia.”
He added that, “as Muslims, we can be confident in trading and investing with one another.”
Open economy
Although the Maldives’ economy was once “relatively closed”, the president told the delegates, the current administration had “introduced a radical programme of privatisation and public-private partnerships.”
“We believe that the free market is the most efficient and effective mechanism to deliver goods and services,” he said. “We are offering investment opportunities across the board: from housing to hotels; from energy to education.”
The president said historically Maldives “exported cowry shells and provided respite for sailors. Today, the mainstays of our export-oriented economy are tuna and tourism.”
He added that Maldivian tuna is “caught sustainably” by pole and line, making it “some of the best tuna available on the market.”
A ruling made in March by the Cabinet has now allowed long-line fishing for Maldivian vessels, which is more harmful to the environment. Although the government has defended its decision, there are still concerns from the fisheries industry and environmentalists that long-lining will adversely affect the industry and the environment in the Maldives.
President Nasheed ended his address by saying Maldivians and other Muslims have “always been entrepreneurial people” and the “dynamism and creativity of the Muslim peoples” should be harnessed and built upon.
President Mohamed Nasheed met Kosovan President Dr Fatmir Sejdui yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, as part of his official visit to Malaysia for the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum.
Dr Sejdui thanked the government of the Maldives for being one of the first countries to recognise Kosovo’s independence.
Maldives extended full diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Kosovo in February 2009.
The country declared its independence in February 2008.
The two presidents also discussed the strengthening of bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of trade and culture.
As part of his official visit to Malaysia for the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum, President Mohamed Nasheed met with leaders of the Islamic world.
The president met with the Chairman of the Forum’s Foundation, Tun Musa Hitam, yesterday.
President Nasheed spoke about expanding the forum, and assured Maldives’ assistance in doing so.
He thanked Hitam for his work as Commonwealth Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Maldives, which he began in 2005 and assisted in the democratic developments of the country.
President Nasheed then met with the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah.
The president thanked Brunei’s government for its support and assistance to the Maldives, especially in education.
Sultan Hassanal assured Brunei’s continued assistance to the Maldives and hoped to enhance bilateral relations.
President Nasheed also met with Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dató Sri Mohamed Nahjib bin Tun Abdul Razak.
They discussed ways of furthering bilateral relations and the close friendship and cooperation the two countries have shared.
President Mohamed Nasheed has decreed the establishment of Felivaru Fisheries Maldives Limited and Kooddoo Fisheries Maldives Limited, two limited liability companies with one hundred percent government shares.
The companies aim to develop further the Maldives fishing industry in a sustainable manner. They aim to do this while providing maximum socio-economic benefits for the people.
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