Day: May 12, 2011

Industry fears easing over impact of protest publicity on Chinese market

Industry concerns that last week’s protests and Hong Kong’s subsequent travel alert would affect the growing Chinese tourism market in the Maldives have eased.

Sources at the Arabian Travel Market held in Dubai last week expressed concern at a number of cancellations from tour operators in the Asian region following the issue of the alert, which placed the Maldives alongside Israel, Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.

A major Shanghai-based tour operator said today that despite 10 cancellations last week during the widely publicised protests, the situation had improved and bookings were improving this week.

However Minivan News understands that one major international airline operating to the Maldives suffered a 20 percent cancellation on booked and reserved tickets from several countries in the region last week, and expressed concern that communication with operators regarding future business had also suffered.

Locally, Manager of Traders Hotel Ester Marcaida said the hotel had received no cancellations as a result of the protests, “although it is possible it may have affected future bookings. So far so good.”

Traders is a bellweather as it accommodates many charter passengers from China transiting to seaplane after arriving from the Asian region – most international airlines arrive in the evening and passengers must overnight in Male.

“It’s a sizeable business for us,” Marcaida said, adding that “charters from Singapore and Malaysia haven’t been affected.”

The Maldives Ambassador to China, Ahmed Latheef, said he had been assured by Chinese tourism authorities that it did not intend to issue a travel alert for the Maldives, unless advised to do so by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It is true there was some effect from media coverage of the protests in Male’,” he said, “but it was not as bad as it could have been. The travel alert was only for Hong Kong – there was no alert for mainland China.”

There had been some concern expressed by travel agencies sending tourists to the Maldives, he noted, although the numbers were down as it was not high season for Chinese travellers.

“One tour operator called to say he’d seen a travel alert in Hong Kong and wanted to find out the situation,” Latheef said. “We did what we could and sent out a circular explaining that the tourist resorts were far from Male’ where the protests were occurring.”

Rise of the dragon

China is a major emerging market for the Maldives and is now the country’s leading tourism market in terms of arrivals, eclipsing the UK last year and offsetting a slump in the European market due to the economic recession.

The Maldives received 120,000 Chinese visitors in 2010, an increase of 96 percent on 2009.

Most tourists from the region stay relatively briefly – four nights is the average stay – and spend an average of US$2500: a gross input to the economy of US$300 million.

“If you look at the numbers they speak for themselves,” Latheef told Minivan News. “The Chinese market will be very important – there is so much interest in the Maldives.”

Latheef explained that the Chinese market was attracted to the Maldives not only because of the beach and the sun – a major drawcard for those trapped in the European winter.

“It also carries a lot of prestige in China to say you have been to the Maldives,” he said. “It carries status. A lot of people have increasing spending power, and have been to many European countries. The Maldives is much sought-after and very popular.”

Resorts had been slow to react and cater to the market, but had noticeably increased efforts to hire Mandarin-speaking staff, he noted.

“The Chinese have specific requirements of which we have to be mindful,” he said. “They prefer Chinese food, and they feel safer if there are staff who speak Mandarin as many only speak their own language. There are a lot of things that need attention.”

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Cabinet caps expatriate remittances, as blackmarket reaches Rf17

Cabinet will impose a limit on the amount of money that can be remitted by expatriate workers in the Maldives, in an attempt to increase the dollars circulating in the economy.

The government said the decision, reported in the government gazette and published in Haveeru, was intended to reduce the amount of money send overseas by those working in the country illegally. Previous estimates have put the number of illegal workers at up to half the total expatriate population of the Maldives.

Those that exceed the limit, and organisations providing the transfer facility, would face a fine.

Most banks already place a limit on the amount of rufiya that can be transacted into dollars and transferred out of the country.

Haveeru meanwhile reported that a blackmarket for dollars had resurfaced with prices reaching Rf16.5, as banks were still unable to meet demand for dollars. The highest amount permitted under the government’s band is Rf15.42 to the dollar.

“It’s difficult to buy dollars, even if you’re willing to pay Rf17 for it. Banks don’t issue dollars either,” a local businessman told Haveeru.

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Park Hyatt opens 50 villa resort on Hadahaa

The Park Hyatt resort on Hadahaa in Gaafu Alif Atoll has opened 50 luxury villas to visitors, emphasising privacy, comfort and environmental sensitivity.

A statement from the resort said services include a five star dive centre, Mandara spa and a “leisure concierge” offering excursions and activities.

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Bangladeshi scholar to deliver sermon for expatriate workers

Bangladeshi scholar Mufti Anwar Hussein has been invited to the Maldives by the Islamic Ministry to deliver sermons for the country’s large expatriate population.

The Ministry’s Director General at the ministry, Ahmedulla Jameel, told Haveeru that the sermons would be in the Bengali language and would focus on the social problems that are on the rise among the Bangladeshis living in the Maldives.

The sermons will be delivered on Thursday and Friday at mosques in Male’, Hulhumale, Villingili and Thilafushi.

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DRP considers legal action against Z-DRP, dismisses faction’s presidential ambitions

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has raised the possibility of legal action against the Zaeem-DRP (Z-DRP) faction formed by some of its members last month, claiming it had infringed opposition party’s rights to its name and logo and threatened to “confuse” supporters ahead of the 2013 election.

DRP Deputy Leader and spokesperson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef told Minivan News that although he believed the Z-DRP had acted in a manner that would put off voters looking for a change to the current government, he was concerned about possible confusion among voters over the identity of the opposition’s leadership.

He claimed that after repeated requests to try and require party members aligned to the Z-DRP to work within the main party’s constitution and avoid criticising and attacking its leadership, party heads were now considering how to deal with what they see as dissent in the ranks.

Formed amidst an ongoing dispute between serving DRP leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali and his predecessor and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the Z-DRP aims to represent the former national leader and his supporters. The faction includes serving MPs including Ahmed Mahlouf and dismissed deputy leader Umar Naseer, who led seven days of protests in the capital last week.

The Z-DRP and its supporters have been critical of Thasmeen and his role in opposing the government of President Mohamed Nasheed.

Referring particularly to what he said were party concerns about the by the Z-DRP of the party’s name and imagery, Shareef said he did not rule out the possibility of legal action being taken against registered party members belonging to the faction backing former President Gayoom over allegations they were infringing on the DRP’s image.

“The DRP council has recently met and passed legislation to give authority to the party’s leader [Thasmeen] to deal with the situation and protect the party’s name,” he said. “If it is deemed that matters warrant legal action then we will take it through the courts.”

Umar Naseer and the Z-DRP leadership had not responded to Minivan News at time of press.

After officially beginning work as the Z-DRP last month, Umar Naseer who is a prominent figure in the factional group, was yesterday reported claiming the faction was near to announcing its own presidential candidate for general elections scheduled for 2013, according to the Miadhu newspaper.

Speaking yesterday to assembled journalists, Naseer was reported to have said that the faction represented the “real DRP” for party supporters and had a strong chance of winning the presidential elections in two years time.

Along with working to try and form a parliamentary council under the Z-DRP banner, Naseer claimed that the faction would reveal its presidential candidate following a primary he expected to be held at a congress next year.

Shareef denied that the announcement of a Z-DRP presidential candidate would be a concern to the coutnry’s main opposition party, claiming the public were now becoming used to democratic processes.  However, he accepted that there was a danger that some people were becoming confused as to who the DRP’s leader actually was.

“I don’t believe [a Z-DRP presidential candidate] is a concern.  After what will be five years of democracy in the country, I believe people are more aware and will not vote for people who are unable to follow their own party’s constitution,” he claimed.  “I don’t think we have to fear about the impact of the Z-DRP.”

Speaking earlier this year regarding a possible split between different factions in the DRP, MP Ahmed Nihan, who is among the members of the Z-DRP, said that he had been the designer of the DRP’s sailboat logo and under recently passed intellectual property laws, he held the rights to the image.

“I designed the logo, which received over 700 votes to be adopted as the symbol of the party on 21 July 2005,” he said. “If anyone tries to make a big deal of the issue then we can claim it. They have never paid me for the use of [the logo].”

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JSC abolishes complaints committee in name of efficiency

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has abolished its Complaints Committee citing “efficiency”, with complaints against judges now being forwarded for review by the legal section and Commission head Adam Mohamed.

Last year the JSC received 143 complaints concerning the conduct of judges. By its own statistics none were tabled in the commission, and only five were ever replied to.

Chair of the former complaints commission, the President’s Member of the JSC Aishath Velezinee who was stabbed in the street in January this year, said the complaints committee had been unable to operate as the chair had persistently scheduled meetings “during the same days and hours as the committee meetings, and it came to the point where it was impossible for the committee to meet and work.”

“Several members including Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Afrashim Ali also boycotted the meetings making it difficult for the committee to function,” Velezinee said, claiming that no procedure had been followed in abolishing the committee, and intention was to stop complaints against judges from being investigated.

“The JSC recently adopted house rules, which gives extraordinary powers to the chair. The chair decides whether to table complaints, routinely withholds information from the Commission and responds [to complaints] himself,” she said.

The JSC has failed to table or even acknowledge receipt of a report on the judiciary produced by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which questioned whether the JSC’s possessed the technical ability and knowledge to investigate complaints and hold the judiciary accountable, as well as its independence.

The opposition-majority parliament has meanwhile yet to back the government’s request that the Maldives join the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which half the world’s nations are members. Velezinee has previously accused certain opposition MPs of manipulating the judiciary through JSC in an attempt to retain control of the legal impunity provided them under the previous government’s Ministry of Justice.

Central to the International Criminal Court’s mandate “is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes,” the ICC’s international NGO coalition said in a statement.

“Perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity must be held accountable. Greater support for the ICC in Asia is needed in order to increase the region’s commitment to the fight against impunity. The Coalition therefore encourages Maldives to assert its commitment to ending the culture of impunity by acceding to the Rome Statute of the ICC.”

Parliament has meanwhile been deliberating on an amendment to the Clemency Act whereby death sentences issued by judges would be acted upon when all appeals failed. The last person be judicially executed in the Maldives was Hakim Didi in 1953, who was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder using black magic.

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Suspect in Sheereen murder case sentenced to 10 years on drug charges

A suspect in the murder case of 30 year-old Maryam Sheereen has been to sentenced 10 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of drug offences by the Criminal Court.

The court verdict read that on January 8 2009, police officers arrested Mohamed Najah and found illegal narcotics in his possession during a search of his person.

Najah’s urine also tested positive to benzodiazepine and opiates, the court stated, sentencing him to five years for possession of illegal narcotics and five years for use of illegal narcotics.

Sheereen’s murder case is still pending in the Criminal Court and will soon conclude. If found guilty, Najah will likely face the death penalty.

Heirs of Sheereen were recently summoned to the court to ask if they had any objections to the execution of Najah if he was found guilty, none of whom did.

According to the Penal Code if a person is found guilty of murder, Shariah law must be applied and the murderer must to be sentenced to death if no heir of the victim has an objection.

Evidence including video footage, phone recordings, DNA samples and testimony from both the taxi driver who unwittingly carried a suit case containing Sheereen’s body and a man who lived in the same apartment as the pair has been presented to the court by the prosecution. Sheereen was found dead under a stack of cement bags a construction site in Male’.

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Civil Court orders MNBC to transfer assets and staffs to MBC

After months of dispute between the opposition and the government over control the state media, the Civil Court has finally ordered the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) to transfer all assets and staff to the newly-established Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

The tug-of-war began last year when the government transferred the assets and staff from Television Maldives (TVM) and Voice of Maldives (VOM) to the 100 percent government-owned corporate entity MNBC.

The opposition-majority parliament subsequently created MBC and order the government to transfer MNBC’s assets and staff. MNBC has been labelled pro-government by critics, while proponents argue that as most other mass media is owned by senior opposition political figures and favours the opposition, the government had no alternative voice.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government will appeal the Civil Court’s ruling in the High Court.

“The MPs and the judiciary should consider that the MNBC is operated by a board and all of its assets are properties of the MNBC,” he said.

Zuhair contended that there were resorts belonging to MPs that were operated under the same structure as MNBC, and questioned whether they wished to set a precedent for the court-ordered transfer of all their assets to another person’s company made for the express purpose.

MBC was formed by the parliament last year in April and its board was also appointed by the parliament. The board is answerable to parliament which makes the MBC board politically influenced, the government has claimed.

After the parliament passed the legislation to ”free” the state media, expecting the government to transfer the frequency and assets, the government bluntly declined to transfer the assets.

”MNBC was re-branded and changed its name after two board members of Television Maldives (TVM) proposed their names for the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) board, but were dismissed from the parliament,” said opposition MP Ahmed Nihan at the time.

Nihan alleged that he was “certain” there was “a secret deal” made between MNBC and the government.

The opposition also held a series of protests for the freedom of state media before the issue was taken to the court.

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Health Ministry raises private clinic charge concerns

The Maldives Ministry of Health could be set to reprimand certain private medical clinics that are claimed to have increased their consultation charges without its permission as the value of rufiyaa falls against the US dollar.

Haveeru has reported that the ministry has raised concerns that some clinics had failed to seek permission from the country’s health officials before increasing their consultation prices from the previous rate of Rf200 by up to 50 percent in certain cases.

According to the paper, Director General of Health Services, Dr Ibrahim Yasir, said that the ministry would be investigating these consultancy costs and could potentially move to fine and revoke licenses from certain private clinics that were deemed to not be working within their remit by hiking prices.

Despite the criticisms over charges, the ministry was said to accept that the cost of imported medical consumables had risen on the back of a changing dollar exchange rate.

Yasir claimed to the paper that in light of amendments to the exchange rate, it would be reviewing submissions by private clinics that are seeking to increase their charges accordingly.

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