Month: September 2011

Visa fees to be paid in 3 month lump sum

Recruitment agencies are newly required to pay visa fees for expatriate workers for at least three months, according to new policies at Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).

The visa fees of Rf250 were previously payable every month. Under the new policy, agencies will be required to submit at least Rf750 when making payments, Haveeru reports.

A MIRA authority told Haveeru that the policy was designed by the Immigration Department.

Recruitment agencies expressed concern over the policy change, allegedly because of the difficulty of providing larger sums of money at once. Others have claimed that it’s a waste of money on workers who are imported for a single month of work.


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Cabinet votes to uphold UN Human Rights Council covenant

The Maldives will participate in the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The decision was made after Cabinet discussions today.

Members said the rights stated by the UNHRC covenant matched those granted in the Maldives’ constitution, and that signing the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR demonstrated the government’s value of international guidelines protecting people’s right.

The Maldives also became the 118th member country of the International Criminal Court today, a close partner of the United Nations.

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Broadcasting Commission unveils strategic action plan

The Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) has unveiled its strategic action plan with six major policies to follow in the next five years.

The main policies include broadening responsible freedom of expression, developing broadcasting services and introducing a regulatory mechanism.

The commission would also encourage original content or programming by introducing an award. In addition, the commission intends to formulate standards for audio-visual quality.

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Confiscated swords found fake and flexible, sent to MNDF

Swords confiscated by Maldives Customs Service last Thursday have been reported as fake incapable of causing harm. The swords had been imported by Wushu Federation of Maldives for martial arts training.

Haveeru reports that the swords bend when waved or put in contact with a person. The swords allegedly look real, but are not used as weapons.

An assistant program director told Haveeru that the Chinese Wushu Association had donated the swords along with uniform kits, which were also confiscated.

Customs has released the martial arts uniforms, but sent the swords to the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). Customs also told local media that the swords were not imported with forged documents.

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“We don’t want Israelis to invest in our island”: Filadhoo islanders

Islanders on Filadhoo in Haa Alifu Atoll have reacted with outrage to news of an Israeli agricultural delegation scheduled to arrive on the island next Saturday, warning that the visitors from Teshuva Agricultural Products “will go no further than the island jetty.”

On its website the company claims its advanced agricultural methods “allow for fresh culinary herbs to be grown in soil-less hydroponic systems.”

Filadhoo islander Mohamed Hamidh told Minivan News that the majority of the island’s 550-strong population were against the visit by the Israeli company.

Hamidh said that when the islanders first received information about the delegation, they prepared a petition signed by 100 islanders and submitted it to the island council.

“That night the Island Council called the islanders for a meeting and 83 islanders attended the meeting. Councilors called for a vote and 82 out of the present 83 citizens voted that they do not want to let the Israeli delegation step on the island,” Hamidh said.

Local media reported that the petition signed by the 100 citizens claimed the Israeli delegation intended to preach Christianity on the island and conduct un-Islamic activities, although they came under the banner of an agricultural delegation.

An earlier press release by the Deputy Leader of the Adhaalath Party accused the agricultural delegation of being agents from Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

Hamidh meanwhile said the islanders would not welcome the delegation because Israelis “have been mistreating the Muslims in Palestine” and have “killed so many Palestinian men and left many Palestinian women widowed.”

“We have reports that although the islanders oppose their presence, they will still head towards our island. They are supposed to be arriving on Saturday morning around 8:30am, so we will keep an eye on the jetty and will not let them enter this island,” he said.

Island Council Member Mohamed Vijan told Minivan News that the council was “left with no other choice” but to support the will of the citizens.

“Last Monday the Atoll Council informed the Island Council that this delegation from Israel will visit Filadhoo on Saturday,” he said.

He said the council will be “with the citizens” whether they were in favour or opposed to the visiting delegation.

Earlier this month Deputy Leader of the Adhaalath Party Dr Mauroof Hussein called for alarm after alleging that a delegation from Teshuva Agricultural Products was due to arrive in the Maldives to assess the country’s agricultural potential.

The last time an Israeli delegation visited the Maldives – a team of volunteer eye surgeons – protests erupted across Male’ that saw the burning of Israeli flags and calls to “ban all Israeli medical teams” from practicing in the Maldives.

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DRP requests six month delay for general GST

Main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has sent a letter to the President requesting a six-month delay to the introduction of a 3.5 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) approved by parliament last month.

In his letter, the minority leader noted that according to parliamentary rules of procedure, only the government could submit tax legislation. He urged the government to delay the implementation of the GST to allow businesses enough time to prepare. The General GST is due to come into force on October 2.

Thasmeen argued that a number of citizens could be subject to legal penalties specified in the legislation if they were not provided sufficient information about registering and paying the new direct tax.

In a booklet handed out to media last month titled “DRP’s response to the government’s economic nuisance package,” the party noted that the General GST would affect small businesses such as cornershops, cafes and teashops.

The businesses would “need a lot of preparation” to maintain accounts, install “modern computer systems and hire accountants” as well as provide customer’s statements showing the GST percentage.

Morever, taxing “total value of business transactions” would not be possible with GST at zero percent for some items.

Considering the potential “administrative confusion” and the country’s heavy reliance on imports, the DRP argued that levying a customs duty at the entry point to the country was more effective.

President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Minivan News today that the government viewed the DRP as the main opposition party and “gives a high priority to their concerns.”

“But the President has been advised by financial experts that all taxes should be part of one network and it is not sensible to omit one tax for the whole system to work,” he said.

Zuhair noted that “people wanted to delay the introduction of political parties” in the past, adding that “we have lost 30 years without a tax system.”

In May, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a three-year support programme after the government agreed to “a package of policy reforms that will help stabilise and strengthen the Maldives’ economy.”

Under the IMF programme, the government committed to:

  • Raise import duties on pork, tobacco, alcohol and plastic products by August 2011 (requires Majlis approval);
  • Introduce a general goods and services tax (GST) of 5 percent applicable to all sectors other than tourism, electricity, health and water (requires Majlis approval);
  • Raise the Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST) from 3.5 percent to 6 percent from January 2012, and to 10 percent in January 2013 (requires Majlis approval);
  • Pass an income tax bill in the Majlis by no later than January 2012;
  • Ensure existing bed tax of US$8 dollars a night remains until end of 2013;
  • Reduce import duties on certain products from January 2011;
  • Freeze public sector wages and allowances until end of 2012;
  • Lower capital spending by 5 percent
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Islamic Foundation files court case seeking repeal of Religious Unity Regulations

Religious NGO Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) has filed a case at the High Court requesting the court rule that the Religious Unity Regulations are inconsistent with the constitution.

Controversial new religious unity regulations were published in the government’s gazette last week, cracking down on extremist and unlicensed preaching of Islam in the Maldives.

Local media reported that prominent religious scholar Sheikh Ibrahim Fareed, who currently faces charges for allegedly violating the Religious Unity Act, filed the case in the High Court and spoke to the media outside the court.

Media reported Sheikh Fareed as stating that the regulation was inconsistent with the constitution as well as the Quran.

Fareed was quoted as saying that romantic thoughts, social talks and religious speeches were part of the fundamental right of freedom of speech as stated in the constitution.

Meanwhile, religious NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf and the religious council of the Adhaalath Party voiced opposition to the regulations.

Sheikh Fareed today told Minivan News that the regulation was “very” inconsistent with the Quran and the constitution.

“By God’s will next week I will request the High Court issue a court order to delay the implementation of the regulation until the court reaches to a conclusion on the issue,” Sheikh Fareed said. “The regulation was drafted by the Islamic Ministry and it pressured the government to publish it in the gazette.”

Islamic Foundation protestHe said islanders of Miladhoo in Noonu Atoll have been protesting outside on the streets of the island today calling for the religious unity regulation to be amended.

Media Coordinator of the protest and Chairman of Miladhoo Island Council Hassan Gassan told Minivan News that the protest started at 4:15pm today.

“The protest is organised by the IFM Miladhoo Wing and a huge majority of the islanders have joined the protest,” he said. “We walked around the main streets of the island and stopped at the island harbor.”

He said protesters were calling for the resignation of Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, and to amend the Religious Unity Regulations.

New religious unity regulations were published in the government’s gazette last week, cracking down on extremist and unlicensed preaching of Islam in the Maldives.

The regulations reflect the enforcement of the Religious Unity Act of 1994 and were originally put forward by the Islamic Ministry, but have undergone numerous drafts and revisions over the past year. The penalty for violating the regulations under the Act is 2-5 years imprisonment, banishment or house arrest.

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HarperCollins confirms Maldives not being erased from Times Atlas as global warming statement

The Maldivian government has written to the editor of the UK’s Telegraph newspaper seeking “clarification and apology” for a satirical article claiming that the Maldives was to be erased from the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World as a statement on global warming.

The article, by climate skeptic James Deringpole, cited a fictitious spokesperson from Times Atlas as implying that the Maldives’ position on climate change was “a publicity stunt, cooked up by green activist Mark Lynas, to blackmail the international community into giving the Maldives more aid money while simultaneously trying to lure green Trustafarians to come and spend £1500 a night in houses on stilts with gold-plated organic recyclable eco-toilets made of rare earth minerals from China.”

In a letter to the Telegraph’s Editor, Tony Gallagher, Acting High Commissioner Ahmed Shiian wrote that “to suggest, even in satire, that the plight of our country in the face of sea-level rise is simply some kind of con-trick to raise guilt money from the international community is despicable and hurtful to all of us, whose country is indeed one of the most vulnerable on Earth to global warming.”

Shiian added that Delingpole’s “leaden attempts at humour” had  already had “unfortunate political consequences in the Maldives”, after his invented quotes from a Times Atlas spokesperson “were reported as fact in the Maldives media, and the opposition party of the former dictatorship has used this to accuse the President of undermining the country and national pride.”

Minivan News yesterday contacted the publisher of the Times Atlas, HarperCollins, which confirmed that the story was bogus.

“Of course we have no plans to erase the Maldives, Tuvalu or major parts of Bangladesh from the next edition,” a spokesperson told Minivan News, also confirming that the spokesperson cited by Deringpole was not a HarperCollins employee.

“Like the rest of the piece, he is a fiction,” she said.

Major media outlets in the Maldives, including Haveeru, Miadhu and Sun Online, continued to carry the story this morning, although Haveeru had amended its version to reference “unconfirmed reports”.

The stories generated strong sentiment among the many who commented on it, with many blaming President Nasheed for the underwater cabinet meeting which had led to the Maldives “being wiped off the map”.

A senior source in the President’s Office told Minivan News that the story had stirred up strong sentiments and now the perception risked running ahead of the reality.

“It is hugely irresponsible journalism not to acknowledge when you’ve made a mistake. Standard procedure all over the world is to do a retraction,” the source said.

Editor of Sun Online and President of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), Ahmed Hiriga Zahir, told Minivan News that he had edited Sun’s story and was under the impression that it was genuine.

“I didn’t thoroughly check the original,” he acknowledged, “but I did read the Maldivian media. Why would the [UK] media report it [incorrectly]? I think the original media should correct it. If the Maldivian media reported it and they know it is not the truth, they should also correct it,” he added.

Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair, said the government was approaching the Broadcasting Commission and the Maldives Media Council asking it “to insist the mainstream media be responsible, and not to take silly blogs as mainstream news.”

Zuhair said he suspected the media had “deliberately misinterpreted” the story to mislead the public and generate anti-government sentiment.

“Many of these outlets were the government organs of yesteryear, and many of their journalists have not reconciled themselves with the days when they were calling the current President a vagabond and a terrorist,” Zuhair said.

“Presenting this story as serious news is misleading, and people have been misled – they are calling up the morning radio programs concerned that the Maldives has been taken off the map. The media should be responsible and publish a retraction, but I doubt they will do it – you can wake up a person who is asleep, but you can’t wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep.”

MP for former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s new political party, the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Ahmed Mahlouf, yesterday sent out a mass text message informing people of the supposed decision to erase the Maldives from the map, blaming President Mohamed Nasheed for holding the underwater cabinet meeting and ”erasing the country, erasing religion and erasing the people.”

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Abandoned child legally assigned foster parents for first time in Maldivian history

The Family Court has assigned foster parents to a 10-month-old baby for the first time in Maldivian history. The child, who had been abandoned, was transferred from state care to a married couple on Sunday, September 18.

“This is the first time that non-biological parents have been given legal guardianship of a child in the Maldives,” said Ilham Mohamed, a local NGO worker familiar with the matter.

Mohamed said that foster parents previously risked the biological parents turning up to demand money and/or the child. “This example will make the process more secure,” she said.

The new foster parents will have the same legal rights given in adoption, except for the rights to consent to marriage and leave an inheritance.

Mohamed pointed out that in many cases where a father will not consent to his daughter’s marriage, the young couple requests and often receives court permission. She said the process usually takes between two and three months.

The couple’s lawyer, former Attorney General (AG) Aishath Azima Shakoor, told local media that the couple wanted to opt for their new daughter to inherit an equal share of their property. According to Mohamed, Maldivian law allows foster parents this option.

Shakoor recently told local media that the court had transferred the state’s legal guardianship of the child under Shari’a law to the couple, who have agreed in writing to protect and provide for the girl.

The Maldives did not provide services for abandoned children before the 1990s. Sources say that the number of abandoned children rose during that decade, possibly due to the allegedly higher rate of drug use among young adults at that time.

In 1992, the Ministry of Gender and Family established the Unit for the Rights of the Child (URC), now known as the Child and Family Protection Services (CFPS). Since then, the ministry maintains that the number of care-giving staff and institutions are unable to meet demand.

An Auditor General’s report dated 2009 reported 43 children at the state’s orphanage on Villingili, near Male. The report noted that the orphanage was understaffed and staff members were unable to provide sufficient care for children below the age of five. Most employees were not trained in child psychology, and there were no provisions for medical emergencies.

The orphanage on Male is currently over capacity and children are not segregated by age, said Mohamed.

Minivan News previously reported that Maldivian Family Law requires various next-of-kin be asked to care for abandoned children before the state assumes responsibility. But the process of identifying proper care-givers was reported long and difficult, and the Ministry of Family and Gender was regularly backed up with applications at the time.

The report also noted that adoption, as it is handled in the West, is illegal in Islam.

“Adoption in the Western style is not part of Islam,” explained Mohamed. “But fostering, or taking people into your care, is part of Islamic culture. It doesn’t really matter what name you use, foster or adopt, just so long as children have a safe place to live.”

Mohamed said she believes most orphanages have wait lists, and expects foster parenting to increase significantly.

“The couple that has been approved struggled to convince local authorities of their case. But now that this has been done once, it won’t be difficult for people to do it again.”

Mohamed noted that the struggle to legalize foster parenting began in the late 1990s, and calls the recent case a “very significant event.”

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