Month: June 2012

“Nasheed’s ouster Maldives’ historical equivalent of Tiananmen Square”: US Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies

One of the world’s leading scholars on non-violent conflict, Dr Mary King, has compared the resignation of former President Mohamed Nasheed with the ruthless crushing of democratic movements in Communist China and Soviet Russia.

“For 300,000 Maldivians, President Nasheed’s ouster was the historical equivalent of Tiananmen Square in 1989 or the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968: the sensation of new freedom one day, its threatened disappearance the next,” said Dr King.

Dr King’s comments were included in a statement from the International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), which will today award Nasheed with the James Lawson Award for Achievement in the Practice of Nonviolent Action. The ceremony will take place at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The press release stated that the award is in recognition of Nasheed’s “leadership during many years of the nonviolent opposition to dictatorship in his country, his courage in the face of an armed coup earlier this year which forced him from power, and his renewed nonviolent action on behalf of restoring genuine democracy in his country.”

Dr King, a professor of Peace and Conflict studies at the UN-affiliated University for Peace in Costa Rica, is a former recipient of the James Lawson award herself.

The award is to be presented by Dr James Lawson himself, a leading activist in the American civil rights movement who is best known for devising the Nashville lunch-counter sit ins of the 1960s.

President and founder of the ICNC, Jack Du Vall, said that nonviolent action can be the only basis for a ruler’s legitimacy.

“The question for the Maldives is whether it will have a real democracy or not, and whether it will be led by a person who was elected to that office by the people and whose elevation to power was based solely on nonviolent action,” he added.

President’s Office Spokesman Abbas Adil Riza said that he was not aware of the statements, saying that the ICNC was “free to say whatever it wished.”

Asked for a government response to such opinions, Abbas said: “The Maldives is a free society and has a free media. Only the courts will decide if it was a legal change of government.”

The Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) mandated to investigate the circumstances surrounding the February transfer of power was recently reformed in order to enhance its credibility.

The group began its investigations on June 21 and is scheduled to have completed its work by July 31.

The CNI is not a criminal investigation and will hand its findings over to the President, the Attorney General (AG) and the Prosecutor General (PG).

Nasheed’s US visit has included a speech at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a briefing given to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a follow up meeting with the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia Committee on Foreign Affairs after it had sent a team to the Maldives earlier in the year.

Nasheed is also said to have met with State Department Assistant Secretary Robert Blake as well as having briefed the International Republic Institute on the political situation in the Maldives.

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Foreign staff at Alidhoo Resort allegedly unpaid for six months: “No complaints with my Ministry,” says Human Rights Minister

Staff at Alidhoo Resort in Haa Alif Atoll have not been paid for up to six months in some cases, sources in the resort have alleged to Minivan News.

According to information from Tourism Employees’ Association of the Maldives (TEAM), corroborated by sources at the resort, the Alidhoo’s management have not paid the resort’s 125 expatriate staff  for six months, while the 85 local employees have not been paid since May.

Alidhoo is run by J Hotel & Resorts, a company owned by current Deputy Leader of the Jumhoree Party, MP Abdullah Jabir, the husband of newly-appointed Minister of Human Rights, Dhiyana Saeed.

Also according to the resort source, the resort has also been deducting seven percent from every staff’ member’s salary for the state pension scheme, but have allegedly failed to deposit this money in their pension accounts.

Staff have gone on strike on three previous occasions over the salary issue, but have been met with harsh penalties including the dismissal of those staffs involved in the strikes. Staff at resort reported that the occupancy was currently eight percent.

Staff went on strike last year shortly before Ramadan, claiming non-payment of wages.

“It is almost the end of this month and Ramadan is coming up – we have to send money to our families back on the islands and we are really broke,” said a staff member working in the resort at the time.

He also alleged that allowances for the staffs working in the resort had not been paid for the last three months, including service charges and overtime.

The company at the time stated that the delay in payment of the wages was because Jabir, the company’s chairman, was not in the Maldives at the time. Jabir told Minivan News at the time that “The payments were delayed because I was not here.”

A few days later, the resort made a decision to sack 12 staff members following the strike over unpaid wages. Following the dismissals, Jabir told Minivan News, “Don’t ever call me about this again.”

Minivan News tried contacting Jabir today, but did not respond at time of press.

‘Helpless’

Speaking to Minivan News on condition of anonymity, a staff member today told Minivan News that they were “helpless”. Expatriate staffs in particular had been “forced to remain silent” as their employment was at stake, the source said.

“Every time we go to the management, they say they would pay next week – but it never materialises. Now it has been a month,” he said.

The staff member also confirmed that pension money was regularly deducted but had not been deposited into their pension accounts for the previous five months.

“The last deposit made to our pension account was on January 2012. I personally checked with the Pension Administration Office and that was what they told me,” he said.

The staff member further said that the resort’s bed occupancy had not risen above eight percent for the last two months. This, he said, had dissuaded staff from further strike action “because if we stage a strike we know it is going to be us who will suffer at the end of the day,” he said.

Asked if the staff has contacted the relevant authorities for assistance, he claimed that the process was “long and too risky”.

The General Manager of the Resort, Mr Jadullah, denied the allegations stating that the resort was paying its staff regularly, and told staff to “come and collect it”.

“Those claims over unpaid wages are not true. We have been paying the wages on a regular basis, but there may be some staff who have not come to collect their salaries,” he told Minivan News. “We have asked those staff to collect their salaries before the end of this month,” he said.

Asked about the alleged failure to deposit staff pension money, he said that the resort’s Male’ office was responsible and said he had “asked them in writing to provide the details of the deposits.”

“Organise, fight and win”, says TEAM

Mauroof Zakir, President of Tourism Employees Association of the Maldives (TEAM), told Minivan News that the group had been advising staff on the island after being made aware of the issue.

“This has been happening in that resort for years. In 2009 and 2010 there was a strike regarding unpaid wages and it succeeded in 2010, but after 2011’s strike, the management sacked 12 employees,” he said.

“We are saying that the employees need to organise themselves: they must organise first, and then fight and win,” said Zakir.

Zakir said that TEAM was limited in its capacity to help due to a lack of resources and funding. However he said that TEAM was handling 35 cases currently in several courts and labor tribunals.

He raised concerns regarding the rise of unfair dismissals across the country, and said that even this year so far there had been around 48 such dismissals of employees due to low bed occupancy rates.

Asked about the reasons for the increase, he said, “The biggest reason why the number of unfair dismissals have gone up is because the decisions and orders of the labor tribunal are not enforced. As a result, it encourages resorts to easily sack staff.”

Human Rights Minister reluctant to comment

Human Rights Minister Dhiyana Saeed – the wife of J Hotel’s owner and chairman – said no complaints had been made to her ministry and that therefore she did not want to comment.

Asked for the government’s opinion on the matter of employee exploitation, she repeated her comment.

“I do not want to take the initiative and make a comment on the matter because there are no such reports or complaints submitted to my ministry,” she said.

President of the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), Mariyam Azra, told Minivan News that the commission would only look into such issues once they had been reported.

Asked if HRCM was advocating the rights of employees, and initiating actions to resolve such matters, she said she would look into the matter and call back. She had not responded at time of press.

HRCM member Jeehan Mahmood told Minivan News that labor exploitation was the number one complaint filed with the commission.

“Sometimes some expatriate workers are forced to work for 11 or 12 months and are not paid or given the required vacation periods. We believe that if it goes on for this long, it’s forced labour,” she said.

Mahmood said that cases in which expatriate workers had worked for 11 or 12 months without pay because they had no other option and were unable to return home, amounted to slavery.

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Civil Court rules in favour of former Police Superintendent Jinah in Gassan Maumoon suit

The Civil Court has ruled that the court was unclear of the role former Police Superintendent and head of the Drug Enforcement Department (DED) had played in obstructing the basic rights of Gassan Maumoon, following his arrest last year on suspicion of dropping a wooden plank from a six story building into a crowed of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters.

Gassan Maumoon, son of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, filed the suit against Jinah after police arrested him on allegations that he had dropped the wooden plank into the MDP supporters, striking the head of a 17 year-old boy.

Police at the time said that the victim, Hussein Hassan of Thinadhoo in Gaaf Dhaal, had to undergo brain surgery to repair damage to his skull.

Civil Court Judge Aisha Shujoon ruled that the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), the oversight body of the police, had told the court that the case was lodged at the commission and that it had decided that Jianh did not have to take responsibility for Gassan’s arrest.

Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed at the time ruled that his arrest was unlawful and ordered his immediate release, despite early evidence being produced to the court supporting police claims.

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) had recently competed a report on Abdulla Mohamed detailing the judge’s misconduct, notably politically-biased comments given to opposition-aligned private broadcaster DhiTV. This would later lead to his detention by the military, opposition protests and ultimately the toppling of the Nasheed administration in a police and military mutiny on February 7 this year.

In his counter suit filed in the Civil Court, Gassan contended that the Criminal Court had ruled that the arrest was unlawful and requested the court make Jinah take responsibility for his unlawful arrest, and pay him compensation.

At a press briefing at the time, Superintendent Jinah said police wished to “reveal the truth” about the incident as “deliberately false allegations have been made against police using the media” to bring the institution into disrepute, and “relentless attempts” had been made to cast aspersions on police and its senior officers by members of the then-opposition.

Police at the time exhibited video footage of a wooden pole thrown from above injuring the 17 year-old during the MDP protest against judicial corruption, which took place outside former President Gayoom’s residence, Maafanu Endherimaage.

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Twelve men arrested in Maafannu for gambling

Police have arrested 12 men for gambling inside a house in Male’s Maafannu ward last night at about 2:15am.

According to police, police intelligence received information that a group of people involved in robberies occurring in Male’ were gambling inside Ameera Manzil (a house in Maafannu ward).

Police obtained a search warrant from the court and searched the house last night, and in their presence of the men, discovered four packets of illegal drugs, the chip sets they used, and Rf24,193 (US$1612).

The arrested 12 men were aged between 19 and 30 and all were male, police said.

According to police statistics revealed by Commissioner of Police Abdulla Riyaz, 112 premisises have been searched so far in this year leading to the arrest of two alleged drug lords.

Riyaz said that so far this year police have conducted 6311 searches of people suspected suspected of using illegal drugs .

Gambling is strictly prohibited in Islam, and anything prohibited under Islam is illegal in the Maldives.

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“Military counter-coup would be silly,” Nasheed tells US Institute of Peace

Former President Mohamed Nasheed yesterday spoke at the United State Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC.

Nasheed spoke on the current political situation in the Maldives as well as the importance of non-violent protest, before taking questions from the audience.

“People loyal to me in the military are talking to me about a counter-coup – I say, ‘Don’t be silly’. We must have early elections soon,” Nasheed said.

When asked about how, if elected, he would avoid problems similar to those that led to his resignation, Nasheed replied: “I will be naive again and will continue to be naive. A purge of police and military may bring some satisfaction but that won’t help us build a better society.”

In an interview given by Nasheed to Time magazine in April, Nasheed explained his commitment to national reconciliation following his 2008 election victory.

“We didn’t want to go on a witch hunt. We didn’t want to purge the military, we didn’t want to purge the police,” he said.

“The lesson is we didn’t deal with Gayoom. That’s the obvious lesson. And my romantic ideas of how to deal with a dictator were wrong. I will agree with that,” he continued, before arguing that the answer was greater international assistance in reforming vital state institutions.

He drew comparisons between former President Gayoom and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, saying that the pair schooled together and shared the same Baathist ideology.

The USIP is an independent conflict management centre created by the US Congress to study non-violent approaches to conflict resolution.

Before his speech, Nasheed was introduced by the USIP President Dr Richard Soloman, former member of the US National Security Council and former Ambassador to the Phillipines.

Dr Soloman revealed that, whilst in the US, Nasheed would be receiving a James Lawson Award for Nonviolent Achievement at the Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict.

The annual event, organised by the International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), will be hosted by Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The James Lawson Award is named after a leading activist in the American civil rights movement who is best known for devising the Nashville lunch-counter sit ins of the 1960s.

The MDP today released further details of Nasheed’s US visit which has included a briefing given to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a follow up meeting with the  Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia Committee on Foreign Affairs after it sent a team to the Maldives earlier in the year.

Nasheed is also said to have met with State Department Assistant Secretary Robert Blake as well as briefing the International Republic Institute on the political situation in the Maldives.

Nasheed’s speech, given after a short clip of The Island President film was shown, recounted his country’s path to democracy, his torture under the former president, and his efforts to convince Maldivians of the importance of basic freedoms as a way to a better life.

The documentary culminated in Nasheed’s negotiations at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit – negotiations which Nasheed felt were telling in the international community’s response to the new government.

“All those who did not like us in Copenhagen have recognised the regime in Male’. Those who liked us in Copenhagen have not. That’s a fact,” said Nasheed.

The summit resulted in an accord providing $30 billion in short term loans for climate change adaptation, ten percent of which was earmarked for small island and developing nations.

Six countries, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Tuvalu opposed the accord.

He spoke of early elections, expressing his bewilderment at the suggestions by certain governments that the Maldives is not ready for fresh presidential elections.

“It doesn’t matter who wins. We don’t want to topple a government, we want an election,” said Nasheed.

“Give us an election and let’s see who wins,” he continued.

Nasheed spoke about the danger of religious extremism under restrictive governments.

“When societies are suppressed, underground movements become far more common. Religious extremists are far more effective at organising themselves underground. The Quran is their manifesto so they are much stronger in suppressed societies,” he said.

Nasheed was also asked about the current President Waheed’s announcement that the Maldives was to become the world’s largest marine reserve.

““I was advised that a reserve would not be a good idea. But we don’t fish for sharks, we don’t purse seine – Maldives is a marine reserve anyway,” he replied.

Nasheed finished his speech with a resolute tone.

“We will give a good fight and hopefully we will win it again. The story is not over. This is a process and it will never end.”

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Discovery of dead baby in outdoor shower a distressing reminder of the Maldives’ failure to address unwanted pregnancies

The police have recovered the body of a newborn infant buried in the outdoor shower of a house on Shaviyani Feydhoo island. The baby’s mother was identified as a 15 year-old school student.

This incident is a reminder of the pervasiveness of underage and out of marriage pregnancies in Maldives, and the subsequent acts of infanticide and abortions – a distressing flaw in the social fabric of the island nation which continues to be unacknowledged and under-addressed by authorities.

According to local news outlet Sun, Feydhoo island girl was allegedly sexually abused and impregnated by her own stepfather. The allegation has not been confirmed by the police.

Media official Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef said “the case is sensitive” as the girl is a minor, was being investigated in collaboration with the Gender Ministry. He also refrained from confirming local media reports that the girl is now under arrest.

However, he noted that four people, including the girl’s legal guardians, mother and step father, were now under police custody in relation to the case. He added that the suspects resisted arrest, causing a scene on the island of approximately 700 inhabitants.

“We are investigating allegations of  giving birth outside wedlock, killing and burying the baby,” Haneef explained.

Doctors confirm the baby was already dead when found by the police at around 6:30pm, he observed, adding that the police are investigating the cause of death as well.

However, without post-mortem services and an absence of visible wounds on the infant’s body, proving infanticide in the Maldives is almost impossible without a confession from the suspects.

In 2006, the Juvenile Court acquitted a woman from Dhabidhoo island, who police alleged killed her newborn and threw into the lagoon, ruling that her three confessions contradicted each other. The woman gave birth out of wedlock in 2008.

Tale of illegal pregnancies and throwaways

Due to the conservative exterior of the Maldives  and the deep-rooted culture of blaming the victim, the stigma of having a child out of wedlock drives women to desperate measures.

Mothers helplessly hide the growing bump for nine months and endure the pain and struggle in silence until an abortion is possible, or else abandon the newborns after birth – dead or alive.

Abortion is illegal and unavailable to most mothers, unless it is proved that the conception is the result of rape or that the pregnancy is a threat to the mother’s health.

In last two years, three babies have been discovered dead and two alive. The dead infants included two fetuses, one hidden in a milk tin and the other at the bottom of Male’s municipal swimming pool, while another fully-developed baby was thrown into a park having apparently been strangled by the underwear tied around its neck. Two babies were found abandoned and alive, and have now been placed under state care.

Anecdotal evidence suggests some mothers, both young and adults alike, use abortion-inducing pills or receive injections from amateur abortionists; others turn to harmful vaginal preparations, containing chemicals such as bleach or kerosene. Although infrequent, some women insert objects into their uterus or induce abdominal trauma.

Though these alarming throwaways have grabbed headlines and attracted public attention momentarily, it came short from prompting concrete action from authorities and public to address the underlying issue. Instead it merely provoked widespread condemnation and vehement calls for the mothers to be put to death.

Meanwhile, in the recent case of the 15 year-old, police have not revealed any information surrounding the circumstances of the pregnancy.

Unless it is proved that the pregnancy is the result of rape, Maldivian law provides for her to be publicly lashed and placed under house arrest.

Although the current judicial system restricts adult punishments to children until they reach the legal age of 18, there are currently three exceptions to the provision. One of these is that if she has had a child, a girl will be tried as an adult, according to a 2004 study on gender issues in the criminal justice system.

Out of fear of potentially being stigmatised, fathers seldom take responsibility for their actions, while pregnancy leaves girls guilty by default, leaving mothers to be flogged, publicly humiliated for fornication or incarcerated for infanticide – a disturbing trend of gender-bias observed in the criminal justice system.

All talks, little commitment or action

The issue has been raised at various gender related forums – with many words, but little action.

In 2010, the Deputy Minister of Health and Family at the time, Fathimath Afiya told Minivan News that a meeting was held to discuss reproductive services in the Maldives. While Maldivian and Shariah law criminalise abortion and intercourse outside of wedlock, Afiya said communication between relevant services and the judiciary made it difficult to fully address each case.

“There needs to be an appropriate legal framework for reporting these cases to the services that could help unmarried and teenage women in compromised positions,” said Afiya. “We are very concerned about the rising number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions by married and unmarried women. Today, we began formulating an action plan for short- and long-term improvements,” she added at the time.

However, at the national stakeholders meeting held by UN Women yesterday on the UN Secretary General’s Unite campaign to end violence against women and girls, officials confirmed that “no concrete action plan” has been finalised.

During yesterday’s meeting, as a Unite Youth Network Member, I gave a presentation on violence and problems faced by youth, highlighting sexual health illnesses such as STIs, early pregnancies, abortions among youth and emphasised the need for immediate sexual and reproductive health education.

All participants, including government officials, councilors, police, and gender advocates unanimously agreed on the importance of tackling the problems.

But as participants pointed out at the workshop, most of the time “it is all talk, with little commitment or action”.

“Raising public awareness and educating the girls and boys about their bodies, the ramifications of being sexually active and how to protect themselves from harm is very important,” said a public health official from the Centre for Community Health and Development.

The official noted the magnitude of the sexual health problem and its consequence as a “great national concern”.

“Discussions are underway,” the official said.

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MDP’s CNI member rejects government allowance

New Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) member Ahmed ‘Gahaa’ Saeed has informed the government that he will not claim the allowance allocated to commission members by the government, local media has reported.

“I told (President) Waheed even on the first day that I do not want an allowance. Deen (Vice-President Mohamed Waheedeen) was also present in the meeting. President said that he would allocate an allowance”, Saeed told Haveeru.

Upon contacting Saeed, Minivan News was told that the new CNI member would not be making any further statements to the media outside of the fortnightly press conferences arranged by the commission’s secretariat.

Saeed’s addition to the CNI is part of the recent reform of the group which is tasked with investigating the events surrounding the February’s transfer of power.

After pressure from both the local and the international community, the original CNI has been supplemented with a nominee from former President Mohamed Nasheed – Saeed – and an international component – retired Singaporean Supreme Court Judge G.P. Selvam.

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Pro-government parties exclude DRP from new joint-parliamentary group

Dhivehi Rayithuge Party (DRP) Spokesman Ibrahim Shareef has emphasised that his party had never signed up to any official coalition agreement, after local media reported the formation of a pro-government Joint Parliamentary Group (JPG) excluding his party.

“There has been a slight confusion. No coalition agreement was signed – we are part of a national unity government after having accepted an invitation from President Mohamed Waheed Hassan,” explained Shareef.

“We will support the government in matters that are in the best interest of the nation, rather than of other parties,” he added.

The JPG has been reported as including members of all pro-government parties, with the more prominent positions going to members of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP).

DQP MP Riyaz Rasheed told local newspaper Haveeru that the PPM, the Majlis’s minority leader, will now hold its parliamentary group meetings in conjunction with these other members.

Minivan News was unable to find a PPM member available for comment at the time of press.

Haveeru reported that, when asked why the DRP had not been invited to join the group, Rasheed answered that it was because they had joined the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

“Why invite them to join us. They vote against the government on matters submitted to the parliament against the government. They had and still are conspiring with MDP,” Haveeru quoted Rasheed.

The MDP, the former ruling party, still holds 31 of 77 seats in the Majlis, although it has suffered from a number of defections in recent months. The DRP currently holds 15 seats, while the PPM has 18.

Last weekend, it was reported that MDP MP for Maradhoo constituency, Hassan Adil, was also reconsidering his membership.

The remainder of the seats in the Majlis belong to members of Waheed’s unity government.

Shareef told Minivan News that the JPG was nothing new and had existed prior to the formation of the unity government, stating that the parties concerned were just “twisting” old things to court controversy.

“Riyaz is there to take advantage of being the only DQP member in the parliament, although he acts more like a PPM member. He is a man on his own and we are not worried about his antics,” said Shareef.

Riyaz, whom Shareef described as a “cartoon character”, last week declared his party’s coalition with the DRP to be over, baulking at what he felt was DRP support for a controversial MDP motion in the house.

The motion in question – a debate on police brutality – brought such strong protests in the chamber that the session was prematurely ended.

A DQP statement the next day called on all parties to refrain from actions which might “encourage the efforts of former President Mohamed Nasheed… to bring the two oldest institutions of the country into disrepute and cause loss of public confidence [in the police and military].”

The number of parties in the Majlis may be set to expand after former DRP deputy leader and MP for Meedhoo constituency Ahmed ‘Sun Travel’ Shiyam officially registered his intention to form his own party with the Elections Commission (EC).

The party, to be called the Maldivian Development Alliance (MDA), obtained the signatures of 50 people in support of the party and will be given nine months to gain 3000 members.

Vice President of the EC Ahmed Fayaz confirmed that the new party had received a permit, stating that Shiyam’s signature on the list was accompanied by fellow independent MP Ahmed Amir.

Shiyam was not responding to calls at the time of press.

Shareef admitted that Shiyam’s party would inevitably draw DRP members from his constituency.

“There is no doubt we will lose some members,” he said.

“But we have the wherewithal to withstand all these challenges. Once we are established and have earned peoples trust we will overcome these differences,” he added.

Referring to the DRP’s 2011 split with the PPM, led by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Shareef concluded: “We survived Gayoom and Shiyam is no bigger a threat.”

Regardless of this new competition, the DRPs parliamentary numbers are set to be reduced after Maafannu-West MP Abdulla Abdul Raheem announced his intention to leave the party, for the second time, earlier this month.

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Tourism Ministry lauds global PR efforts as opposition proposes promo spending cuts

Deputy Tourism Minister Mohamed Maleeh Jamal has claimed marketing plans designed to boost consumer confidence in the Maldives have had a positive impact over the last three months, as parliament prepares to debate a proposal on cutting state promotional spending.

Maleeh said that the nature of global media coverage about the Maldives had been “much better” over the last three months, following a decision to hire several marketing firms to promote the country following February’s controversial  transfer of power.

Among these firms is the high-profile multinational PR group Ruder Finn, which has been employed to “instil confidence in the tourism industry of the Maldives [and] gain understanding and public acknowledgement of the Maldives in the international community”.

Ruder Finn, which was appointed back in April under a three month contract reported in some media to amount to US$150,000 a month, has come under some criticism from at least one opposition MP, who has forwarded a proposal to parliament on rejecting further state spending on the contract.

MP Ibrahim Rasheed hit out at the cost of the Ruder Finn contract as being unsustainable considering the current economic situation in the Maldives.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Deputy Tourism Minister Maleeh said he was aware of the parliamentary resolution forwarded by the MDP MP for Maafannu-South, stressing concern at the potential impact it could have on the national economy.

“I’ve heard of the motion. Certainly from time to time MPs in the People’s Majlis will submit not-so-important motions,” he said.

The country has experienced ongoing political tensions amidst allegations by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) that the elected government of former President Mohamed Nasheed was ousted back in February under a “coup d’etat” supported by opposition politicians, mutinous sections of the police and military and certain business leaders.

Within the current partisan atmosphere, Maleeh called on politicians, regardless of their politics, to avoid actions that would sabotage the tourism industry and the wider national economy.

“I am concerned that a major source of revenue such as tourism is being put at risk. I condemn such acts,” he said, referring to MP Rasheed’s motion to cancel state funding to hire Ruder Finn. “Without tourism the economy would be in a grave state. It is the biggest contributor to our national economy for the last 40 years. Politicians should leave the economy aside.”

According to Maleeh, during the last three years, the former government “slashed” the budget set aside for the promotion of tourism.

He added, that with President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan now in office, the new government was doing “all it could”, along with working in collaboration with the private sector, to boost promotional efforts and undo the impacts of international headlines concerning February’s transfer of power.

However, Maleeh stressed that Ruder Finn was just one of a number of promotional contracts that had been signed by the government to try and improve damage to consumer confidence in the country’s tourism industry.

“We have several international contracts with agencies that are carrying out specific focuses for us,” he said.

Earlier this month, the tourism industry announced it had signed a contract to advertise the Maldives under its recently reinstated “Sunny Side of Life” branding on the BBC weather service both through its online and World Service.

When contacted by Minivan News today about the present nature of its contract with the Maldives government, as well as the company’s aims for its work in the country, Ruder Finn’s Ethics Officer Emmanuel Tchividjian said he had “no comment”.

The contract, said to cost US$150,000 a month for the three month-long campaign, was the result of a collaboration with the private sector that tourism authorities have said they hope to continue over the next few months as they secure more funding.

In addressing the impact of the industry’s recent promotional spending Maleeh added that the “results were hard to measure”, but added that there had been a positive impact during the last financial quarter on media coverage of the country.

“Marketing is a long-term strategy. It therefore can take time to get clear results,” he said. “However, with marketing contracts such as these, the main agenda is to protect tourism.”

Amidst “quite aggressive” marketing strategies being employed by neighbouring destinations such as Sri Lanka, Maleeh stressed that improved budgets would allow the country to compete more evenly. To this end, he expressed commitment to secure further private sector support such as the country’s resort industry to aid future marketing efforts.

With the Ruder Finn contract expected to expire next month, Maleeh stressed that no decision had yet been taken on whether to continue using the group in the future.

“That decision would depend of a review of the agreement when the contract was over,” he said, stressing that any decision would be based on the perceived impacts of its current work on the global perceptions of the Maldives.

MP Rasheed today told Minivan News that he had sought to forward a proposal to parliament that calls for a cessation of state funds to be spent on the Ruder Finn contract over concerns that money was being diverted from other areas such as public health.

With a hearing now scheduled for next Monday (July 2), Ibrahim Rasheed said he was confident that the proposal would be able to garner sufficient support in the Majlis chamber.

“We don’t have a budget for sewerage programmes or to fund healthcare,” he said. It is the government who are telling us the don’t have the money for these things.

When questioned by Minivan News as to whether the potential economic benefits of PR efforts from a group like Ruder Finn would not provide a greater economic boost than the amount being paid, Rasheed remained sceptical.

“My argument remains that there are not enough funds for this. [The government] should not be spending that amount on their image,” he argued.

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