Day: October 29, 2010

Police arrest ‘celebrant’ as President expresses disgust over false wedding ceremony

The Maldives Police Service have arrested two men involved in the infamous ‘wedding’ ceremony at Vilu Reef Resort and Spa, in which the ‘celebrant’ and up to 15 complicit members of staff degrade and humiliate a Swiss couple in Dhivehi.

One of the men arrested was identified as Hussein Didi, a food and beverage assistant at the resort who acted as celebrant and who was filmed unleashing a torrent of hateful abuse at the oblivious couple.

Under Maldivian law non-Muslims are not permitted to marry in the Maldives, but many resorts offer ‘renewal of vows’ ceremonies.

“The court decided yesterday that [the men] should be kept in police custody during the investigation,” said Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam.

The men have not yet been formally charged, “but this is a very serious issue related to our economy,” Shiyam said. “Once we complete the investigation the Prosecutor General’s Office will decide the charges.”

President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed has meanwhile announced that the government will introduce strict guidelines for the conduct of tourist wedding ceremonies.

Speaking during his weekly radio address, President Nasheed said he was “disgusted” by the incident and described the behaviour of those involved as “absolutely disgraceful”.

He called on staff working in tourist resorts – indirectly responsible for 80 percent of the country’s economy – to be “vigilantly professional”, as such behaviour could cause “enormous damage to the country´s tourism industry.”

The government would leave “no stone unturned to ensure that an incident like this never happens again,” Nasheed said.

Meanwhile Maldives Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed issued a state apology to the couple, who have not been identified but are believed to be from Switzerland.

“The Maldives is a world-class tourist destination famed for its warm welcome and excellent customer service. Episodes such as that captured on video have no place in our tourism industry or in our society more broadly; and are alien to our cultural and religious values,” Dr Shaheed said.

The Maldives is grateful that the couple in question chose to renew their vows in one of our resorts and we cannot escape the fact that, on this occasion, because of the disrespectful and unacceptable actions of a few individuals, we have let them down.”

The Maldives Diplomatic Service had been instructed to contact the couple “and issue a face-to-face apology,” Dr Shaheed said.

“We will also be compensating them for any distress caused by this unfortunate incident. The Foreign Ministry will also be writing to our counterparts in Switzerland to offer our intense regret and to indicate the steps that the Government is taking to deal with the situation.”

Furthermore the government was seeking to hold talks with the Maldives tourism industry “in order to have assurances that this was an isolated incident,” the Foreign Minister added.

“If we do not receive such reassurance, we reserve the right to take all remedial steps necessary, legislative or otherwise, to ensure that episodes such that which occurred in Vilu Reef Resort never happen again, and do not tarnish the positive image of the country built up over so many years.”

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Letter on democratic culture

For democracy to prevail over the ominous threat of the return of tyranny to the Maldives, it is imperative that enough politicians and Maldivian people take seriously this notion that democracy really does start from the heart through the cultivation of what one may call a democratic ‘culture.’

Etymologically, culture simply means something which has been cultivated.

Structural approaches to democratisation which have not vigorously attempted to cultivate an attitude of tolerance, compromise, willingness to listen and work for the people, have failed.

In the seventies and eighties, the US Government supported right wing dictators all over the world preparing these nations for “liberal democracy.” (Commonly termed the top down democratisation approach.)

The dictators main job was to secure the economic interests of the rich and control the poor with both religion and brutality until the poor were rich enough to be trusted with freedom.

However, wealth did not always trickle down the way it was supposed to. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Dictators did not simply step down once an economy was ‘ready’.

Amartya Sen’s idea of bottom up democratisation, seemed to have more success, as so many struggled and suffered at a grassroots level to bring down dictators through activism. Many freedoms were won. Yet can they be maintained without the cultivation of a democratic culture?

Some would suggest that once people are economically developed and free, a democratic culture would emerge naturally.

Karl Marx, offering an inversion of Ludwig Feurbach’s application of the Hegelian thesis on Consciousness, said that consciousness does not determine one’s economic well being and life, but that ones economic situation determines ones consciousness. This seemed to be taken for granted in much of this bottom up democratisation theory. It was thought that if people were poor, they could not be reasonable, and if they had wealth, they could be reasonable and moral.

So, instead of teaching people to be reasonable in the voting arena or anywhere else, if you helped them become economically self determining and independent, then reason and moral consciousness would be created as a natural response to the economic development. Therefore, you don’t have to teach people critical thinking and morality, it grows by itself with economic self realization.

At least, that was the theory.

However, many radical Islamists who push for Jihad are educated and wealthy. Education and wealth does not often stop those inclined to support gangsters from supporting gangsters. It just makes them support the gangsters with wealth and more power.

For corruption and tyranny to be eradicated, people’s hearts need to be changed, and, only a combination of suffering and compassion, can teach people compassion, reason and a sense of true humanitarian moral justice.

I am advocating old fashioned ideological determinism, but something more, that nothing can change, unless the heart is changed, and the heart can be only changed through self sacrificial love.

Perhaps the first change that needs to take place is that the hegemonic super-structural cultural capital of a Maldivian society (I am using the word hegemony in Gramsci ‘s sense rather than the conventional sense meaning ‘power’) needs to promote compassion and tolerance rather than prejudice. That’s right; I am talking about your Islam.

As Islam is the heart centre of Maldives’ cultural capital, it is imperative that a tolerant, compassionate form of Islam is promoted.

Religious identity is at the centre of a person’s subconscious being. What one believes about the ultimate nature of the universe will determine their attitudes in all other areas. If ones ontological foundation is an intolerant, unreasonable deity, such will not be able to be politically open minded enough to be able to have and sustain a democracy.

Other factors are also involved. One needs to be disciplined enough to overcome personal hatreds. One issue which makes politics difficult in Maldives is that things so very easily become personal seems Maldives is such a smal society. This needs to be overcome.

If Maldivians are serious about democracy, and in fact in harmonious existence altogether, respect for diversity and tolerance has to be promoted vigorously before it is too late!

Kindest Regards

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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JSC members ‘too busy’ to meet and adopt Standards of Procedure

The need to spend quality time with family, party political duties, and other outside commitments has prevented the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) from meeting to adopt its Standards of Procedure, now overdue by 10 months.

According to the JSC Act, the Standards of Procedure should have been adopted by January 26 this year.

The Standards of Procedure, or House Rules, are required to set the rules and regulations according to which the JSC should carry out its Constitutional responsibilities.

The JSC is an independent body constitutionally mandated to oversee the ethical standards and principles of the country’s judiciary.

Without the Standards of Procedure, the Commission is run on ad-hoc basis, often according to the discretion of the chairperson.

The day-long meeting in which members were to work on adoption of the Standards of Procedure was scheduled for Saturday.

It was also decided that the meeting would be held outside of Male’ from 9:00 in the morning till 8:00 pm.

JSC Chairperson, Supreme Court Justice Adam Mohamed, excused himself from the meeting citing court work and family commitments on Saturday.

Dr Afrasheem Ali, Deputy Chair and Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), could not attend the meeting as his Saturdays, he told the JSC, are reserved for party political work.

Majlis Speaker Speaker Abdulla Shahid and Civil Service Commission President Fahmy would not be in the country on Saturday.

For Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Didi, the reason for being unable to attend was the location of the meeting. He was unwilling to travel outside of Male’.

The venue of the meeting had not been finalised when the meeting was cancelled. JSC Interim Secretary General Moomina Umar told Minivan News that it would have been a place where members had access to full conference facilities, allowing them to focus on the urgent issue at hand fully.

Moomina also said that subsequent attempts by her to move the meeting to Male’ to facilitate objections had not received a positive response, forcing the meeting to be cancelled.

The ten member JSC needs six members present before a meeting can be held.

On 21 October, JSC Chairperson Justice Mohamed walked out of a meeting in which some members pushed to have adoption of the Standards of Procedure put on the agenda as a matter of urgency.

Judge Abdulla Didi, who excused himself from Saturday’s meeting because it was to be held outside of Male’, also walked out of the meeting with Justice Mohamed, making it impossible for members to put the Standards of Procedure on the agenda of its next meeting.

Justice Mohamed, speaking to media, blamed his decision to desert the meeting on the ‘vulgar behaviour’ of the President’s Member at the JSC, Aishath Velezinee.

Velezinee, along with Attorney Ali Sawad, JSC Lawyer Ahmed Rasheed and JSC Member of the General Public had objected to the continued and systematic manner in which the JSC Chair avoided making adoption of the SoP a matter of top priority.

The JSC released news of Justice Mohamed’s desertion of the meeting immediately, an act which he has claimed is against JSC Regulations as communications with the media cannot be done without prior majority consent of members.

The claim, however, is inaccurate.

A unanimous JSC decision dated 2 September this year (JSC-B1/10/200), authorised Media Officer Hassan Zaheen, Deputy Legal Officer Abdul Fatthah Abdul Ghafoor and Moomina Umar to speak to the media on its behalf.

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HRCM condemns police attack on media

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has condemned the police reaction towards journalists who were injured while attempting to cover the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) led protest on Monday night.

Several journalists from different media organisations have reported violent police attacks on journalists covering the opposition protest.

A journalist from Miadhu, Three journalists from DhiTV, two journalists from VillaTV, one from newspaper Miadhu and a photographer from Haveeru reported they were attacked by the police.

The two journalists from VillaTV were also arrested, handcuffed, and released the same evening.

‘’As the media is a pillar that plays an important role in democracy, the freedom of media is a right guaranteed under the constitution which cannot be restricted under any circumstances,’’ said the HRCM in a statement. ‘’Persons active in the media have to be given freedom and protection.’’

The HRCM claimed some of the journalists working there were obstructed from conducting their work by using force, and ‘’therefore we condemn these actions.’’

The freedom of gathering shall also be conducted peacefully in a way that it would not be an obstacle for other peoples’ rights.

The commission advised the protesters to pay attention to these issues and  “to keep their actions in accordance with the rules and regulations.”

“And in a situation where gatherings have to dispersed for security reasons, the chance of causing disruption narrows if it is conducted in accordance to the established procedures,’’ the commission said. ‘’We are now investigating the concerning issues raised after the riot.’’

The HRCM called on the police to use methods “that will not injure people and cause disturbance to citizens” when dispersing riots in the future.

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