Maldives High Commissioner to the UK Dr Farahanaz Faizal has presented her credentials to French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace.
During the ceremony President Sarkozy congratulated Dr Faizal by the President for her accreditation as the first non-resident Ambassador from the Republic of Maldives to the French Republic.
16 ambassadors presented their credentials to Sarkozy during the collective ceremony.
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(0)Parliament has accepted a request from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to discuss the removal of opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Afrasheem Ali from the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
The MDP sent a letter to the parliament in March requesting the removal of Afrasheem, claiming he had disregarded JSC procedure, and showed insincerity towards the responsibilities of the commission.
In the letter signed by MDP’s Parliamentary Group Leader and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, the party alleged that Dr Afrasheem had violated articles 10/2008 Section 20[a] and [b] of the JSC’s Act, which states that a meeting of the JSC can be held only if more than half the total number of members were present, and which requires a majority vote of present JSC members to make any decision.
Moosa referred to the incident where Dr Afrasheem allegedly phoned JSC member Fahmy Hassan – also head of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) – to ask whether he was fine with Dr Afrasheem speaking in the Supreme Court on behalf of the JSC. The matter concerned a trial conducted after a Criminal Court Judge filed a case against the JSC’s appointment of judges to the High Court.
”Records of the JSC show that Dr Afrasheem Ali made that decision against the JSC’s policies,” Moosa said in the letter.
The JSC had sent a letter to the Supreme Court, with the same date, saying that “a majority decision had been taken by members who participated in the meeting on February 6” to appoint MP Afraasheem as JSC’s representative to the higher courts. This was despite taped phone conversations indicating that he had called members separately.
Furthermore, Moosa said, “although Article 164 of the constitution very clearly states that persons appointed to the JSC who are nots member of parliament shall receive allowances and salary as decided by the parliament, records of the JSC shows that Dr Afrasheem Ali has been paid such allowances.”
Dr Afrasheem had played a role in the unlawful and unconstitutional activities the JSC had conducted, and he has been insincere in carrying out the responsibilities of the JSC, Moosa claimed.
”Therefore, [we] find Dr Afrasheem is not an appropriate person to represent the parliament in the JSC, and [we] hereby present this complaint according to article 165 of the constitution and request his dismissal,” Moosa said in the letter.
Dr Afrasheem did not respond to calls at time of press.
(0)Dislikes(0)Parliament yesterday rejected amendments presented by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf narrowing some of the rights guaranteed in the constitution, as well as extending the Gang Violence Act to encompass all persons charged with criminal offences.
Out of the 52 MPs present only 15 MPs voted in favor of the amendment, while 34 of them voted to dismiss the amendment proposed to Gang Violence Act.
Under the amendment, persons charged with criminal offences stated in the Gang Violence Act do not have the right to remain silent and the right not to be detained during investigation.
The amendment assumes that any person charged with offences mentioned in the Act should be considered a person who will attempt to influence witnesses and is therefore a danger to the public.
Mahlouf said that the objective of the amendment was to prevent criminals from being left at large during the time their verdicts should be implemented, and said it would pave way for the judges to easily convict persons charged with offences related to gang violence.
Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group Leader and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, speaking in the parliament session during the preliminary debate, said he supported the amendment.
Moosa said that judges attended parliament’s 241 (national security) committee to discuss gang violence and were told that judges did not have an adequate level of security because each did not have a car and house in Male’.
Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed, former legal reform minister, noted that the whole amendment was based on withdrawing the right to remain silent, an article of the contentious ‘Sunset Bill’ that would greatly boost police powers for a limited period and remains before parliament.
Parliament also rejected an amendment presented by Mahlouf to the Child Act , which would lower the legal age to 15 years.
Meanwhile, parliament has added to tomorrow’s agenda a request by the MDP to dismiss Judicial Service Commission (JSC) member Dr Afrasheem Ali.
(0)Dislikes(0)International Volunteer Program (IVP) teachers Aideen Robbins and Kash Izydorczyk have one piece of advice for those who follow in their footsteps: “Make sure you are posted to Kulhudhufushi!”
The two teachers are almost halfway through their year in the Maldives and were in Male’ comparing notes with the other 11 volunteers under this year’s programme.
Aideen, orginally from Ireland, signed up as a volunteer in the Maldives after four years teaching in London.
“I’m 28 and felt like I just needed a change,” she says. “I saw the ad in the Times Educational supplement, and had no idea what to expect. At the interview they clarified that we were not going to the Maldives of resorts and beaches.”
Kash, who is from Poland, but grew up in Singapore, was fresh from studying International Education in Brighton, UK, and said she had been looking to do some volunteer development work somewhere in Asia.
“I have experience teaching English as a second language and wanted to keep hopping around the world for a while. I was considering Cambodia, Nepal and Thailand, but the Maldives interview came up first and it seemed the perfect place to go. I also thought it would be very interesting to live in a Muslim country – I’ve studied religion in the past and was interested in learning more,” she says.
The volunteer teachers met each other at the airport in Male’ at the beginning of the year, and were whisked off for a week of induction, including an island visit and a stay with a local family.
Kash and Aideen, who were teamed up together, began their time in the Maldives observing family life in Diffushi.
“We were shown our room on the first day we arrived, and the family would knock whenever it was meal time,” Aideen recalls. “There was not a lot of English spoken, but the kids really warmed up to us after a few days.”
They were then placed at their school of 360 students in grades 1-8 on Kulhudhufushi, an island of around 6000 people in the country’s north.
“I’m from a rural background in Ireland where I’m used to everyone knowing everybody else,” Aideen says, explaining that after a week, the islanders really warmed to the pair and began to invite them to picnics and night fishing expeditions.
“We’ve become close to some of the other teachers, they’ve been very happy with us asking questions,” Kash says.
Their fellow teachers and supervisors were very willing to help them navigate the teaching of sensitive subjects, they say, such as evolution, “although as I’m a maths teacher I’ve dodged that entirely,” says Aideen.
Kash, who teaches English and a social science component, said she was to advised to be careful, “and make sure the school knew what we were teaching. The supervisor was very open,” she said.
The teachers say they have been particularly impressed at the extent of the school’s resources.
“We are lucky to be at a school that has TV screens in every classroom – the resources are great and people seem to be very happy that we make full use of the IT,” Kash says.
Their supervisors have happily accepted a different style of teaching, the two teachers say, and were impressed at the reception for new ideas that was apparent during a Principal’s conference they attended.
Socially, Aideen and Kash have thrown themselves into the Kulhudhufushi’s sports scene. Aideen plays five-a-side football on weekends with the men, while Kash is coaching basketball.
“We play basketball every day,” she says. “We’ve also signed a basketball development contract with Male’s T-Rex team. There’s talk of bringing our team to Male’ now for a tournament.”
Meeting up with other volunteers this week, Aideen and Kash say they feel fortunate to have been posted to a larger, more populated island.
“They’ve had very different experiences to us,” says Aideen. “[Volunteers] on smaller islands in particular seem to have faced more challenges.”
Behavioural management issues seemed to be a challenge in some schools, Kash notes, such as “14-15 year old students who do not want to be there.”
“I think it has been easier for us because the school only goes up to grade eight and the students are not under the influence of older children,” she suggests.
A key adjustment the pair made soon after their arrival was “to adopt the same laid-back attitude as everyone else.”
“We laughed off things like broken water tanks, toilets, oven,” says Aideen. “You need to accept that things will take a little time to fix – don’t expect things to happen overnight.”
The pair were prepared to forego air-conditioning, but were delighted when it appeared in their bedrooms: “They have really been spoiling us,” Aideen says. “We also moved in straight away – one of the other teachers said she had been in temporary accommodation for months.”
The ‘last-minute’ cultural concept was an early challenge for those used to the relative punctuality and forward planning of the Western world.
“The clipboard would come around for signing at 3:00pm for a meeting at 8:30pm that night, which was completely alien to me,” Aideen says. “One night we were at school until midnight making banners for the next day – we didn’t mind at all, but you can’t imagine that happening in the UK.”
Such is the programme’s success that demand for volunteer teachers has boomed, notes head of the Maldives Volunteer Corps (MVC), Mariyam Seena: “we had over 80 requests from islands last year,” she says.
Budgetary and resource constraints limited that number to a maximum of 30, but in the end 13 volunteers were recruited. Seena attributed this to negative international publicity in the wake of the ‘Swiss Wedding’ incident at Vilu Reef Resort and Spa, “which occurred just before we started recruiting.”
“It was bad timing,” she noted.
Recruiting new teachers may not be difficult on Kulhudhufushi – Kash and Aideen say they have grown fond of their students and are contemplating seeing them through to their GSCEs in 2013.
“We’ve asked if at least it might be possible to maybe come back,” Kash says.
The IVP is intended to reduce the shortage of trained personnel in numerous sectors of the Maldives, including education and health. The 13 volunteer teachers were recruited by the Maldives High Commission in the UK, the Maldives Volunteer Corps (MVC) and UK-based NGO Friends of Maldives.
(0)Dislikes(0)An Indian man who suffered burns to 90 percent of his body in the incident is reportedly in a stable condition and is being cared for by his family.
Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the Indian man’s family had requested that his identity be withheld from the media.
Minivan News understands that the man was attempting to tend the barbecue using a 20 litre can containing flammable liquid, which caught fire and burst.
Police said both Arif and her sister were burned trying to extinguish the man who was on fire. Arif’s sister suffered burns to her hands, police said.
A friend of Arifs informed Minivan News at time of press that she was conscious and speaking, and her wounds were showing signs of healing.
“She was really strong. She kept under control and did not panic,” the friend said.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has reported revenues of Rf355.8 million (US$23 million) in May, US$21.7 million of it in foreign currency.
Foreign currency received in the first five months of 2011 had climbed almost 40 percent on the previous year, from US$67.2 million to US$108.5 million MIRA stated.
US$5.6 million was received in May Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST), US$4.8 million in tourism taxes and US$5.4 million in airport service charges.
President Mohamed Nasheed has said that based on this year’s TSGT figures, the tourism economy is four times larger than the government’s previous estimates.
(0)Dislikes(0)Former Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Mohamed Zuhair had given notice that he intended to participate in the government’s voluntary redundancy program three weeks before his sudden departure last week, Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam has revealed.
Zuhair resigned publicly stating that his departure was due to “political interference” in the EPA’s fining of local business tycoon Mohamed ‘Champa’ Moosa – the owner of opposition-leaning private broadcaster DhiTV – for conducting dredging and reclamation works around Thun’bafushi without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Photos obtained by Minivan News, corroborated by the eyewitness accounts of foreign experts, suggested that Thun’bafushi had been used as a dump site, with piles of old machinery, oil drums and used car batteries rusting in the sun. At the time the photos were taken, a number of sharks were also being kept in a concrete tank containing less than a foot of tepid water.
The EPA labelled Champa an “environmental criminal” and fined him the maximum penalty of Rf100 million (US$6.5 million) after the EPA assessed damage to the area as amounting to Rf2,230,293,566 (US$144.6 million), under new enforcement regulation introduced in February.
“Thun’bafushi has been an issue long before we took office,” Aslam told Minivan News, explaining that the previous administration had initially rented the island to Champa for Rf 100 a year (US$6.40) under an agreement that stipulated that he “not do anything detrimental to the environment – he was allowed to grow trees and monitor the shifting of the islands. He was not allowed to reclaim or extend the island.”
However Champa had conducted these works without ever submitting an EIA, Aslam said.
“The area has been surveyed 2-3 times now, and last year the Director General attended himself a survey to assess the cost of the damage.”
The government had on several occasions asked Champa to explain himself, and he had corresponded with the EPA, Aslam said.
“Champa disputes he has done anything illegal, and states that has done everything according to the initial agreement.”
Champa’s lawyer, Aslam noted, “a professional with a background in island morphology”, had claimed that the Maldives did not have the capacity to do an accurate assessment.
Champa has yet to appeal the EPA’s formal issuance of the fine, Aslam said, “and it is up to him to take the matter to court.”
Aslam disputed Zuhair’s parting public accusation that the government had interfered in the fining of Champa, noting that several resort properties had also been fined for unapproved reclamation works.
“We know this accusation to be inaccurate,” Aslam said, explaining that Zuhair had expressed his decision to take the voluntary redundancy package three weeks ago.
The Asia Development Bank (ADB)-backed redundancy incentive program offered lump sums of up to Rf200,000 (US$13,000) as well as scholarships and preferential SME loans to civil servants in an attempt to downsize the state budget. The deadline for applications was May 31.
Zuhair’s decision to apply for the program had caught the government by surprise, Aslam said, explaining that he had met with the EPA’s Director General to try and retain him.
“His reason was that government pay was not meeting his financial needs, and he was looking to move to the private sector. We offered to move him to another department that would allow him to also work in the private sector – which is not allowed under the EPA’s regulations.”
Aslam said he became concerned when he pressed Zuhair for an explanation, “but he said on this matter he couldn’t tell us anything further.”
“We asked asked him then if this was a matter of national security, but he said no. So we respected his decision, and he submitted [the voluntary redundancy forms] with the Ministry of Finance, and we were just about to sign them – my signature was to be the last.”
Around this time Zuhair was allegedly sent a letter containing a mobile phone SIM card and a slip of paper note requesting he use it to call Nawal Firaq, the CEO of DhiTV.
Minivan News understands the letter containing the note and SIM card, registered in the name of a Bangladeshi labourer, was delivered to Zuhair’s flat on Friday morning but instead found its way to police.
Firaq denied knowledge of the letter when contacted by Minivan News.
In the police inquiry subsequent to his resignation Zuhair cooperated with police but denied any knowledge of receiving the letter.
“This is Champa building his court case by attempting to question the independence of the EPA,” Aslam suggested, noting that as the EPA’s Director General, Zuhair’s signature was on all the correspondence with Champa, including the notice informing him of the fine.
Despite Zuhair’s expressed financial concerns, his sudden resignation following the fining had meant he had forfeited his entitlement to the redundancy package he had applied for, Aslam noted.
“The numbers don’t add up,” he said.
The EPA’s Director Ibrahim Naeem told Minivan News that neither he or the EPA had received any communication from Zuhair following his sudden resignation.
“I heard his words on television, and some of them did not match his actions,” Naeem said. “He was the guy who signed the letter [fining Champa]. Why would he have done so if he was not happy about it?”
As to why Zuhair would have resigned before receiving his resignation chit from the civil service commission, “that is a very big question, and the answer is not very clear.”
Minivan News has sought to contact Zuhair for several days in regards to his resignation, but his phone appears to have meanwhile been switched off. The EPA and the Environment Ministry have also reported difficulties contacting him.
Minivan News also sought response from Champa but he was not responding to calls at time of press.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives Media Council (MMC) has called on the editors of Sun Online and Sun magazine to issue a public apology following the publication of a series of stories in which journalists wrote detailed and lurid accounts of their visit to an illegal brothel.
The articles, which now rank as ‘most viewed’ on the Sun Online website, followed three reporters on an ‘undercover’ operation in which they solicited sex from women in massage parlours.
‘’The context of the articles published on Sun Online investigating illegal prostitution in the Maldives contained phrasing suggesting that the journalists may have engaged in ‘sinful’ activities, and were written in such a way as to encourage these activities,” said the MMC.
The MMC claimed the articles violated its media code of ethics, including Article 1 which states that no media should publish anything against the constitution or Islam, and article 9 which stipulates that media should not publish pornography, sex stories, stories that encourage sex or anything that describes such activities.
‘’While it is the responsibility of journalists to research and report on unacceptable things that occur, the media should obtain information and report it accordingly to the religion of Islam, public order and in a way that does not undermine the dignity or professionalism of the Maldivian media,’’ the MMC said.
The Sun’s investigation of illegal prostitution in the Maldives revealed that ‘massage’ and medical treatment centers were being used a front for Male’s sex industry.
The Sun journalists who patronised the salons had ‘massages’ and reported that illegal prostitution was conducted widely and freely inside such places.
Some salons offered them group sex, while most provided a list of available girls with ‘special features’ for different prices.
Executive Editor of Sun Online Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir said the company was unwilling to comment pending the police investigation, after the MMC forward the case to the Prosecutor General yesterday.
However Sun magazine editor Shinan Ali said the company was prepared to issue a public apology “as the MMC is the media’s governing authority.”
“We will look into the context and the way we reported the issue,” he said, but noted that he was not surprised at the response to the article.
“As the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) has said, this kind of reporting is new to the community and we need to get used to it.”
Ali said he was “really proud” of the journalists involved and what they had reported. The articles did not explicitly state that they had engaged in illegal activity, he noted.
“We are a 100 percent Muslim society and our journalists are Muslim, and they should not be exposed to this kind of illegal activity – this is the reason why they did not state this directly.”
The focus on the journalists was “sidelining the real issue,” Ali said, observing that explicit material was already readily available in the form of songs and TV shows.
“But these illegal things are happening every hour in our own society, and we need to talk about them. Readers need to get used to this kind of reporting,” he said.
(0)Dislikes(0)The ‘How Blue is Your Ocean’ exhibition launched yesterday at Male’s National Centre for Arts, featuring a selection of works by Indian artist and environmentalist Bipasha Sen Gupta.
Gupta’s works depict an array of hazy underwater scenes with embossed corals spreading across the canvas like capillaries.
“I’ve seen a lot of coral as a Maldivian. But this is the first time I’ve seen it through the eyes of an artist,” said Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam, opening the exhibition.
“As you stare at the paintings a while you grow to understand the deep message of how important coral is to an island nation like the Maldives. Islands are sustained by the reef, islands are protected by the reef, and the sand and building blocks come from the reef,” he said.
“The sea water is rising at 2mm per year, reefs grow at 7-12mm per year, and it’s important that reefs kept up with rising seas. However rising surface temperatures and increasingly acidic water is slowing the growth of the reefs, and many in the Maldives are slow to recover from the effects of bleaching.”
Gupta spent a year working on 29 paintings of coral after being inspired during a visit to the Maldives in 2005 – after she learned how to snorkel and explore “the rainforest underwater.”
“God does not exist in the empty temples we build – the mosques, churches and synagogues – but in the small miracles of life,” she said.
The event was organised in collaboration with the National Centre for the Arts, the Indian High Commission and the Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) in celebration of World Environment Day.
The exhibition is opened to public from 10.00am to 4:00pm and from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
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