Month: February 2013

Raajje TV journalist in critical condition after attack

A reporter for private broadcaster Raajje TV is in a critical condition after he was badly beaten in Male’ early this morning.

Ibrahim ‘Aswad’ Waheed, a senior reporter for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)-aligned television station, was attacked with an iron bar while riding on a motorcycle near the  artificial beach area.

The attack left him unconscious, and he has been transferred to a hospital in Sri Lanka for treatment.

Speaking by phone from Sri Lanka, Raajje TV Chairman Akram Kamaaluddin said Aswad’s condition had not improved at time of press.

“I am at the hospital in ICU with him right now. He is very critical but I can’t say anything else right now,” he said.  “We don’t know what will happen at present.”

Police Spokesperson Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef told Minivan News that no arrests had so far been made in connection with the attack and that it was too early to attribute a motivation to the incident. Investigations were ongoing, he said.

Police also confirmed that two reporters working for state broadcaster Television Maldives (TWM) were also hospitalised after they were hit by projectiles containing some kind of irritant, which local media reported to be paint thinner. The TVM reporters – identified as Aishath Leeza and Journalist Aminath Saanee – were later discharged, according to police.

“TVM reporters were also attacked last night; we believe by a protester or group of protesters,” Sub-Inspector Haneef said.

“We seriously condemn the two incidents and are trying to locate the suspects with all our means. We will be using all evidence we can get.”

An estimated 1000 to 1500 protesters were witnessed by Minivan News gathered on Sosun Magu in Male’ during Friday night’s protests. The demonstrations appeared calmer than in than recent nights, with music and flag waving, and minimal police presence.

A car belonging to Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed was also set alight.

Media suppression

The attacks on the journalists were condemned by the Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) as an attempt to try and suppress media in the country.

Expressing concern today, MJA President  Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir called for greater protection of journalists by police, while also requesting local media act more professionally and stop “spreading hatred”.

Zahir claimed that with local media being very much polarised along political lines, the MJA was concerned that “targeted” attacks on reporters such as those witnessed last night would potentially scare away futures generations of journalists.

“We have called on police to investigate these cases. What we know is that a Raajje TV  reporter was on a bike when he was attacked with a metal bar,” he said.

Zahir would not speculate as to the motivation behind Aswad’s attack, but be claimed the two TVM journalists were attacked by anti-government demonstrators.

Media should try to keep behind police lines during demonstrations in order to better protect themselves from potentially coming under attack, he suggested.

“We call on police to give protection [to journalists], but they haven’t picked out one suspect [concerning the attacks],” he said. “I don’t know why they haven’t arrested anyone.”

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik condemned the attacks on the journalists via his official Twitter account.

“Strongly condemn attacks on journalists. No justification for brutal acts of terror,” he wrote on the social media site.

In a press release, the opposition MDP condemned the attacks against both the Raaje TV and TVM reporters, calling for a thorough investigation to determine the perpetrators “ regardless of their political affiliation”.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed’s spokesperson, MP Mariya Didi said the attacks affected “everyone who believes in democracy and media freedom.”

“Since last year’s coup, journalists have been repeatedly threatened, harassed and, in some instances, violently attacked by the police and by criminals. However, the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the problem,” she stated.

“Since the unlawful transfer of power there has been a sharp increase in violent crimes. But the police continues to preoccupy themselves with politically motivated arrests, rather than investigating these violent crimes. Over 800 MDP supporters have been arrested in the past year. Yet, murderers, drug traffickers and gangsters are left to roam freely,” she said.

“Months have passed since brutal murder of the MP Dr Afrasheem Ali and fatal attack on liberal blogger Hillath Rasheed, without perpetrators being found. Impunity enjoyed by the security forces is creating a culture of crime that is deeply concerning,” she added.

Earlier in the evening, before the attack on Ibrahim ‘Aswad’ Waheed, the government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) posted a message on a Facebook page affiliated to the party calling reports on Raajje TV that it had called at a rally for MDP protesters to be killed as “completely false”.

The post warned that PPM “might have to come out against Raajje TV.”

PPM MP and Spokesperson Ahmed Mahlouf and potential presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen were not responding to calls at time of press.

Press freedom

The Maldives plummeted to 103rd in the most recent Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index, a fall of 30 places and a return to pre-2008 levels.

“The events that led to the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed in February led to violence and threats against journalists in state television and private media outlets regarded as pro-Nasheed by the coup leaders,” RSF observed, in its annual ranking of 179 countries.

“Attacks on press freedom have increased since then. Many journalists have been arrested, assaulted and threatened during anti-government protests. On June 5, the freelance journalist and blogger Ismail “Hilath” Rasheed narrowly survived the first attempted murder of a journalist in the archipelago,” RSF noted in its report.

The attack on Aswad is one of the most serious assaults on a Maldivian journalist since blogger Hilath Rasheed had his throat slashed in an alleyway in mid-2012.

Rasheed was initially given a five percent chance of survival, but later recovered. He has since fled the country.

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Comment: Journalism in the Maldives

I sit to write this after hearing the news that another journalist has been attacked in the Maldives. Aswad Ibrahim, a journalist for Raajje TV was left critically ill after being repeatedly beaten about the head with a metal bar. We all pray he will recover, just as fellow journalist Ismail Hilath Rasheed recovered after having his throat slashed last year.

This recent attack has prompted me to share some thoughts from my own personal experiences of working as a journalist in the Maldives for much of 2012. The name of the newspaper I worked for was Minivan News – the word ‘Minivan’ meaning independent in the local language.

My time in the Maldives was a fantastic one, but also one of frustration and bemusement at the persistent refusal by many to accept the existence of political impartiality within Maldivian society. Many will already be reaching for their keyboards as they read this, to write disparaging comments about myself, about Minivan News, or about the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) – who founded the newspaper in 2005. This was a persistent tactic used by commenters on most of the articles I wrote for Minivan and many of the pieces I produced for other publications at the time.

The most commonly repeated rumours were that we worked very closely with the MDP leadership, in particular with Nasheed himself, and that we were all given a strict editorial line to follow. In actuality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Personally, I met with Nasheed only once during my time in the Maldives. Three days before I left, I requested a personal meeting with him as he was somebody I had come to admire greatly (and also, because I had never met a President before).

As for the strict diktat, filtering down to the writers from the upper echelons of the MDP, this would take a great deal more organisation than a handful of overheated foreigners hunched over their laptops around a kitchen table can really manage.

A brief account of my background may assuage any accusations that I was, as one commenter put it, an MDP “stooge”. I believe my history to be, if not the same as, at least indicative of, the majority of westerners who come to work for the paper – arriving open-minded, without prior political predisposition.

I ended up in the Maldives shortly after moving to London in search of career opportunities. Prior to this, I had worked as a postman in the north-west of England. The first internship opportunity I secured was with the Maldives’ High Commission.

Despite being an International Relations graduate, I have to admit that prior to my feverish preparation for the job interview that week, I had barely heard of the Maldives, nor could I have pointed it out on a map. All of this begs the question of naysayers who consistently queried my credibility: Why would a postman from Cheshire have strong political affiliations in country he’d never heard of, 5000 miles away?

I will admit that the High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner during my time at the High Commission were strongly pro-MDP. Indeed, both resigned shortly after President Nasheed left office. It is this assumption, however, that contact with persons of a certain political persuasion forever diminishes one’s ability to think clearly, that I found particularly insulting.

This attitude was exemplified by the response of business tycoon and politician Gasim Ibrahim when I met him during last year’s parliamentary by-election in Kaashidhoo. Feeling I had nothing to hide, I mentioned to him that I had worked at the High Commission with these people. It was at this point that he smiled knowingly and turned to the rest of his supporters saying “there, you see it”.

Perhaps this was the misperception that those raining blows down on Aswad laboured under. That they were attacking something bigger than him, that he is simply a mouthpiece for a far larger movement. As I experienced, it seems never to occur to people that the writer could be his own person; could have his own integrity; that his words could stem from his own thoughts.

One particularly interesting example of this attitude was the case of Dr Hassan Saeed, whom I met whilst working at the High Commission in London. Dr Saeed, a former Presidential candidate and current Special Advisor to the President, came to London shortly after the change in government in February 2012 to speak with the media. As part of my duties there, I helped to arrange an interview for him with the BBC. During that day we chatted about politics, Maldivian and British, and I found him to be a very pleasant man. However, during my time in the Maldives, I was unable to get him to even sit with me for a cup of coffee.

Understandably, Dr Saeed was surprised to see me in the Maldives when we met at President Waheed’s first public reception at Muleeage. After greeting me, Dr Saeed asked if I was in Male’ in relation to my work with the High Commission. I replied that I was now working with Minivan News, at which point his smile slipped a little.

Thinking I was talking to a friend, I jokingly asked if this would be a problem. He simply replied “no, every paper has its philosophy.” After this we agreed to meet for coffee. Unfortunately, after being politely stalled a few times, Dr Saeed would not return my messages and I realised with disappointment that an excellent opportunity to build a relationship between Minivan and this powerful politician would be missed as, in his mind, I had ceased to be Daniel Bosley and had instead become Nasheed’s mouthpiece.

After this, Dr Saeed failed to respond to almost all of the paper’s calls regarding stories, just as most government ministers do. Read any story published on the site and you will find it littered with phrases such as “the state minister was unavailable for comment”, “Minivan News was awaiting the government’s comment at the time of press”. The article is then almost inevitably followed by many comments stating how biased and “one-sided” it is.

One of the most bizarre experiences I had personally was a President’s Office spokesman calling me a “little shit” over the phone, after I had spent five minutes explaining to him why I needed a quote for a story and could not just write my own opinion. This failure to understand the basic tenets of journalism seems to be the main reason why journalists in the Maldives, like Aswad, are more often becoming the victims of violence.

Dr Hassan Saeed was also rumoured (note that I include the word ‘rumoured’ as I cannot personally substantiate this) to be behind a comical attempt last year to establish a rival English-language news outlet – Maldivian Daily.

This endeavour involved flying in two young journalists from the UK, assigning them minders, and refusing them any of the freedoms a normal journalist would expect – including a warning to steer clear of any Minivan employees (who, me?). This farcical scheme ended soon after the pair began asking too many questions. The employees of Minivan News were given all the details at the airport bar shortly before the first journalist flew home, to be followed by the second weeks later.

This incident would be funny were it not indicative of the repeated attempts to manipulate and coerce the Maldivian media. I fully understand that Raajje TV takes an unashamedly pro-MDP line, but this in itself does not make its content necessarily fallacious. Again, the basic (and often wilful) misunderstanding of the difference between an editorial line and propaganda has led to the refusal of the Maldivian Police to offer Raajje’s journalists even the most basic protection.

In the UK, the Guardian newspaper takes an openly liberal line but its journalists are not labelled communists and beaten in the streets; similarly, Daily Mail writers are not condemned as Nazis. My advice to anyone who feels a news outlet is printing inaccurate information would be to send them to court, not to hospital.

If you are reading this on Minivan News itself (I did not have any particular publication in mind when this stream of consciousness began), you will likely note a thread of derogatory comments below. It is not the policy of the paper to reply to comments made on the site, so I would like to redirect anyone particularly incensed by my remarks to my twitter feed (@dbosley80).

I write this not as an MDP stooge, not to win favour with any individual, not even as a practising journalist. I write as someone disturbed to see a man beaten to within an inch of his life for putting pen to paper; to see a peaceful nation brutalising itself.

The URL at the top of the page should not detract the veracity of my claims, nor should the name of a paper diminish the credibility of a writer’s argument. Similarly, the organisation which Aswad Ibrahim works for does not immediately denigrate his integrity as a journalist.

Perhaps more importantly, it does not remove his rights as a human being – something which many in the Maldives appear to have forgotten.

Daniel Bosley worked as a journalist for Minivan News in 2012.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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MPL CEO terminated amidst corruption allegations, appointed Deputy Minister of Transport

Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) Chief Executive Officer Mahdi Imad has been removed from his post by the government, before being appointed as Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications a few hours later.

Imad told local media that although the President’s Office had sent him a letter informing him of his dismissal, no official reasons had been given.

Local media reported earlier this week that the MPL Board of Directors had approved remuneration of MVR 120,000 (US$7800) and MVR 130,000 (US$8400) for the two posts of Managing Director and CEO that Imad filled at MPL.

In addition to this, the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) sent a case against Imad to the Prosecutor General (PG) in 2012, on allegations of an act of corruption committed by abusing his powers as Managing Director of MPL.

The ACC alleged that Imad used his influence as Managing Director at MPL to secure a law degree scholarship in Malaysia for an employee who had not completed the required one year term required to qualify.

The ACC stated that Mahdi had secured this scholarship in 2009 despite funding for the course not being included in the year’s allocated budget. The commission also stated that as MD, Mahdi had not presented the opportunity to apply for the course to other employees working in the company at the time.

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan last week also liquidated the eight member MPL board, of which Imad was a sitting member.

The board consisted of CEO Mahdi Imad, Mohamed Shiyam, Abdul Matheen Ahmed, Ibrahim Zaki, Riyaz, Ahmed Nasir, Hussain Areef and Mohamed Hashim.

Waheed liquidated the board after the ACC advised him to remove board member Mohamed Shiyam, due to his refusal to provide documents required by the ACC to conduct an investigation into additional corruption allegations concerning MPL.

President’s Office Spokesperson Masood Imad said that the government had not heard officially of any corruption allegations against Mahdi Imad.

“We completely liquidated the board, and the rest of the members have not been given any new appointments. When it comes to Mahdi though, we have no problem with him. So we simply transferred him to another post,” Masood Imad said.

Masood confirmed that Mahdi Imad had been removed from both CEO and MD of MPL.

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Comment: Origins of the Special Operations police

This article was first published on Dhivehisitee. Republished with permission.

An especially trained squad known as Special Operations were at the forefront of the police mutiny that ended in the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed on 7 February. Together with riot police squads, they have since led violent attacks on protesters and re-introduced into Maldivian society the culture of impunity and violence of the pre-democracy era. Although their abuse of power and violations of human rights have been documented by local and international institutions, there have been no prosecutions or disciplinary actions against them.

Late last year, Nasheed’s Police Commissioner Ahmed Faseeh gave evidence to the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) on the events of and surrounding 7 February 2012. Although it was a national inquiry held for the benefit of the public, none of the statements and evidence submitted to CoNI have been made public. A transcript of Faseeh’s evidence, however, was leaked online recently.

He provided members of CoNI with a detailed description of how the SO was created in 2004, as a means of crushing the Maldivian people’s uprising against dictatorship and their agitation for democracy. This is an English language translation of the evidence, reconstructed in narrative style. The only changes made are to style, facts remain as shared by Faseeh:

“Police Commissioner Adam Zahir summoned me to his office. It was about two weeks before the 12/13 August 2004.

On 1 September we will be placed under the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.

“If we do not get a good force ready by then, we could be severely weakened. We must do everything that can be done to cope. So we must have a plan. Faseeh, why don’t we find someone who can build muscle?” Adam Zahir asked me.

“There is only one person in Male’ with a gym for building muscle. His name is Kesto Haleem, he is the owner of Muscle Load,” I replied.

Adam Zahir asked for more details.

“His name is Kesto Haleem. He may have been a student of yours. He was in Majeediyya School, four batches before us,” I told him.

“We must know him to see. Must have been in a class of mine. Get him over quickly,” he said.

I called Haleem and the three of us met in Adam Zahir’s office the very next day. From what I remember, it was around late afternoon.

“I want to put some muscle on about 30 boys.”

“That’s no problem”, Haleem said immediately. “They can be trained in my gym. For free. All you have to do is get the meds.” Zahir agreed.

The day after, Haleem told me he wanted to take ‘Before’ and ‘After’ pictures of the boys. They were called to the Police Theatre Hall, looked at, and measured. Work began on preparing the team.

Only a few days later, I think it was 12,13 August, vast crowds gathered at Republic Square.The boys stood with me outside the police gates, to protect us and to protect the headquarters. They had not yet had any training; they were green. But, these boys — about 30 or 35 from what I recall — made a line in front of the Hussein Adam building, blocking its entrance. I stood behind the line, around the middle. There was a stabbing. I was cut only a little. Two of the boys were stabbed, the one in front of me, and one a bit further away.

About two months later, the boys were all muscled up. They were ready. Within six months, they were what you would call “pumped.”

“This isn’t enough. We must also teach them something about special operations,” Adam Zahir said. “Why don’t we talk to Thailand?”

Thailand is a friendly country. Our police relations are very good. Discussions with a Thai General secured us 16 placements at their Police Commanding School. I even went to the opening ceremony. From what I recall, I went with F.A [Mohamed Fayaz, current State Minister for Home Affairs]. It is a tough school, and the boys trained rigorously for about two months. They returned from the Commander School and became what is commonly referred to as the Star Force. STAR Team is their real name—Special Tactics and Rescue, that’s what STAR stands for.

That’s how they came into being.

In truth, STAR Team is the name of Singapore’s elite force.We followed the Singaporean model because it is most suitable to a place like this. It is an island nation, they are at the forefront of law enforcement. I, too, graduated from Singapore. That’s where we took the STAR Team from and, actually, we worked within the democratic process.

There were many challenges. We did not really know much at the time. Also, around the same time, it became essential to train riot squads. There were only two individuals with riot control training. From what I recall, one of them was called Superintendent Asheeth. Initially it was with Asheeth’s assistance that we laid the foundations, introduced recruits to what riots are, taught them methods of confrontation, took them through the drills, explained the system to them. That is how they were trained.

MDP was very active on the streets. They were protesting day or night, whatever the area of Male’. Even if a banner was lifted, the cloth must be confiscated—that was the policy. No banners could be hung, those were the orders from the top. When I was head of that department, this is how orders came down: “Remove the banner! Remove the pot! Remove the fish!” For instance, if we cooked bon’baiy, an order might come to have the bon’dibaiy pot removed. Next thing, the pot would be in Dhoonidhoo. Really. That’s how things were.

So, these are the boys.

My second point relates to how they were recruited. When we separated from the military, our population was about 400. When that includes personnel based elsewhere in the country, Male’ is left with only about twenty. We had no choice but to recruit a large number of police. There was no time for a proper recruiting process. People were given crash courses, some training, and sent out on to the streets.

We did not have the opportunity to recruit the kind of people we wanted. Although educational requirements demanded at least two passes in the London O’Level exams, we had to ignore that. Civil unrest was on the rise, time was of the essence, and we had no choice.

I would like to raise two points in relation to this. The boys that we recruited for the riot squads and the Special Team—or STAR Team—were not the type of people we wanted to recruit. We became more certain of this when Dhivehi Observer, a website, started carrying regular video clips of police, intensely criticising their actions. It was bad for our reputation, and became a matter of great concern to us.

“Watch their actions to check what they are really like,” Adam Zahir told me.

I went to a scene personally, and with increasing concern, relayed the allegations to the Direct Commander.

“We really have to look into this. This is ruining our reputation. If they confiscate a camera, they shatter it. If they get hold of a person, they spray him. Or, after bringing the person under unnecessary control, they hit him.”

There were several such incidences. There was no integrity then. No Police Integrity Commission.

Under Adam Zahir’s orders, I therefore sent an undercover team to observe them secretly. Their language was filthy, their vocabulary was obscene. They use the Lhaviyani word all the time. If they got hold of someone, they hit them.

Adam Zahir changed their command. That was one, one and a half, or two years before the term ended in 2008. That is why I wanted to talk about this. They are connected to the events of 7 February; that is why I have gone into such detail.

We did not get the kind of people we wanted, the kind of people we would have been proud of.

Back then, they thought they were in charge of the police, that they were the only people running the police. In fact, this attitude of theirs and the ego that accompanied it, created major motivational problems throughout the police. They were all puffed up, that was their attitude.

This was also of great concern to me. Adam Zahir did suggest having them replaced, but at a time like that, it was very difficult to do so. Before it could be done, government changed. In fact, under the new regime, I tried very hard to shuffle them, rehabilitate them, change their language.

When I became Commissioner on 17 November 2008, one of my greatest concerns was the murder rate in Male’. I think from 2007 to this day, there have been 41 murders in Male’. Cold blooded murders in a tiny society. A very very serious issue. I tried using them to tackle the problem.

But these people, these members of the STAR Team or Special Operation, regard routine police work as outside of their duties. If assigned to any other task, they jeopardise it, create chaos. They’ll hit someone, spray someone in the mouth, cut someone’s hair—something, they will do something disruptive. Nor do they want to do anything physically demanding. They do not want to arrest anyone by doing the dirty work, every day routine work, by asking questions. That’s not something they like to do.

I think, from what I have shared, you will know by now who these people are, how they came into being.

Dr Azra Naseem has a PhD in International Relations

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Youth civil society drug prevention workshop

A two day ‘Young People As Changemakers’ workshop focused on building youth capacity to create “tailor made” drug prevention programs was held by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Journey.

“This workshop is training youth to develop drug prevention programs that are specialised to address community needs and target at-risk youth,” Journey Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Shuaib told Minivan News.

The 25 workshop participants include youth civil society leaders, civil servants from the Ministry of Human Resources Youth and Sports, and councillors from the Ministry of Education.

The workshop has been conducted with the support of UNICEF and a consultant from Nepal, specialising in youth education, and concluded Thursday (February 21).

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Q&A: Former Secretary General of MATI ‘Sim’ Mohamed Ibrahim

Former Secretary General of Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) ‘Sim’ Mohamed Ibrahim stepped down from his position in December 2012, having held the post for the last 15 years. Prior to his work at MATI, Sim held various positions within the tourism industry, even working at Television Maldives as the Chief of News and Current Affairs.

Luke Powell: The Tourism Ministry has put a lot of emphasis on achieving one million tourist arrivals for 2013, how important is this target and is this the right way to go about measuring success in the industry?

Sim Mohamed Ibrahim: There are many ways of measuring tourism. The most important of those measures is in terms of yield, as in what you have left after your expenses. I think there is a big challenge at the moment in this area. Despite resorts being very full, there are a few companies relying on Chinese tourists, and while tourists from China are good in the sense of keeping numbers up, in terms of yield, it’s not good.

It’s very expensive to run the resorts and I think we are not doing as well as we should be. Last year was not so good, we were able to keep the numbers fairly high but they were again mostly Chinese. It’s not really about the numbers, what we should have is average occupancy at good rates, however, we are finding that difficult to maintain as we now have to bring down the rates, offer discounts, and give special prices, to make up for the numbers being down.

The one million tourists mark is always good in terms of marketing and public relations as it is a nice big number. It keeps the momentum up and is very good psychology. But it’s not such a huge thing now.

LP: In your time at MATI, what developments did you oversee and were there ever any difficulties in carrying out your role?

SMI: My time was purely administrative. Our main concern at the time was trying to get the best deal for people who invested in the tourism industry and worked in the industry.

My main role was to try and keep people together and to push for common goals. We worked with the government and parliament, which was not easy. We found out that in parliament you have people from different parties and people with different viewpoints and motivations. It turned out that working with parliament was always difficult, whereas with the government it was easy.

With [former President Mohamed] Nasheed it was a lot easier to work, as he was someone very well known and familiar to us. He had his moments, he would sometimes stick to something and not let go, but usually we found we could negotiate and he in turn would talk to his cabinet and to his group we would be able to come to compromise.

LP: You said that working with parliament was not always so easy, what difficulties were there?

SMI: Some issues we couldn’t really agree on, some people wanted to ban alcohol from the country, but tourists drink it like water. It’s like us with coffee and tea. So how do you work with people like that? It becomes impossible.

Even with the economic issues, there are people who have the perspective that the people in the Tourism Ministry make too much money and that the government should be taking more from them.

They don’t really understand the workings of the ministry, running costs, investments costs and the facilitation of all these things. It’s like a normal business, but there is an idea in the country that the tourism ministry is rolling in the stuff. There are bills to pay, loans to pay and staff to pay, it’s very hard running tourism in this country.

LP: Would you say that attitude still exists? Earlier this year there was criticism from MATI over the decision to allocate just MVR 20 million from the 2013 budget for tourism promotion, when the tourism ministry had requested MVR 200 million.

SMI: There are people within parliament who think the tourism ministry is so rich they can fund their own advertising and promotion. It has been said, I can’t quote, but there are some who say that. But obviously it’s not true, people in the ministry are already financing quite a bit of it.

LP: Are there other difficulties faced by the tourism industry in the Maldives?

SMI: It is hard here because there is a lot of work and there is so much co-ordination. Everything has to be brought in, cleared by customs, taken to the resorts and then prepared.

The other difficulty is the management of human resources. A lot of young people in the country do not want to work in the tourism industry so you have this sole problem of finding Maldivians who want to work as opposed to people from overseas who want these jobs.

That doesn’t sit very well with the local population because the media is obviously employed by people who are not very happy with the tourism industry for using expatriates. All the money is going outside the country, when it should be going to Maldives.

Maldivians are not working in this industry because they are not given entitlements and privileges and because they think the industry is not paying all that much, but this is not true. It is just that the kind of work we have in the resorts has not yet become attractive to young Maldivians leaving school.

LP: What sort of work is available to them? Is there any other reason why they are not taking the jobs?

SMI: A resort in the Maldives is like a small town, so you have technical, engineering, maintenance, food production and public relations roles. They all exist on the island.

There is always this thing between the government, the public and the Tourism Ministry, whereby the government and the people seem to assume that the tourism ministry should be training its own people.

It’s difficult because many of us feel the education system in country should be geared towards teaching people to serve the economy and the country, and that should be through jobs available in the Maldives. For example, we checked the Ministry of Tourism once and there were perhaps a thousand jobs going.

What I am saying, is that the jobs are there, but we haven’t been able to tell the young people that there is an alternative in resorts where they can work. But there is something missing, it is not gelling.

Working in tourism is not part of the school curriculum. They teach travel and tourism, but that is not to do with running hotels and hospitality. They are linked, but they are not the same thing. These are some of the problems the industry faces in the country.

LP: How do you think the tourism industry as a whole in the Maldives is progressing?

SMI: I think the industry is going very well here. People who started this 40 years ago are still very involved and these guys have so much experience because they have worked every single day of their lives and know what’s going on and what’s needed.

People like Champa, his company has comes up with brilliant new concepts every time. Then there is Universal, they have a very high standard and a lot of their resorts are home-grown, places like Baros and Kurumba, these are local companies but they are able to compete with world standard brands. There is a lot of thinking going into that. People are not just sitting back and taking the money, they are planning where to go next.

LP: There have been some negative reports in local media regarding resort developments by Maldives Tourism Development Company (MTDC), what is your view on the firm?

SMI: MTDC was a very good project to start with, it was very good thinking because not everyone can be an entrepreneur or even a manager. There are people who just don’t have the skills or inclination to do that. MTDC was a brilliant idea where we can all have shares in the tourism industry.

The former chairman of MTDC ‘Champa’ Hussain Afeef, when he took on something, he would complete it. Herethera Resort for example is the same distance as Sri Lanka is from us in Male’, 470 miles, yet he built that resort in just over a year. That was amazing.

However, when Nasheed came in, he obviously wanted to bring in new management, he knew these people but he misjudged the importance of somebody like Afeef there. When Nasheed removed him, the company made losses and it became worthless. It was such a brilliant thing, shattered. Nasheed has put people in there, the president has put people in there and these people have not been able to come up with any creative ideas.

If they bring in good management they might turn a profit, but right now it is terrible. It has to be resurrected and changed. Someone needs to be brought in who can see things strategically and has empathy for the people. See the company for what it is – a company for the people. But it is worthless at the moment, it needs to be revamped.

LP: What do you think the future holds for the tourism industry in the Maldives?

SMI: There is a trend moving towards people who are wanting to stay and see something different, rather than coming just for relaxation. People want to be involved in the community. It’s not going to be huge, but there are some people who want to do that, it’s a different kind of tourist.

The future of tourism in this country is immense. We have already started building rooms underwater. We already have clubs, dining rooms, and spas and very soon we will have entire bungalows underwater. However, the time it takes to get the Maldives and the cost of getting here is an issue for the future. If they build better planes, and find a way of reducing fuel costs that will be much better for the country, but this is not something we cannot predict.

LP: Why did you decide to leave MATI?

SMI: I needed a break, I had been there for 15 years and I needed to do something different. Being in tourism all these years I realised there is another aspect to tourism that has been totally ignored, and that is culture and environmental tourism. I thought it would be very interesting for me to start digging into this.

LP: Do you think that will be a new tourism market in the Maldives?

SMI: It will be a niche in the market. It might get a bit bigger when we start taking conservation seriously and the restoration of our historical sites – things like the old mosques and cemeteries. There is a lot of history in this country that we have not even tapped yet and that makes me very excited.

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US Ambassador meets former President Gayoom

The United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Michele J Sison met with former President and current Progressive Party of Maldives leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Thursday (February 21).

“[We] had a good exchange of views on domestic and bilateral issues,” Gayoom stated on Twitter.

Their discussion included strengthening ties between the US and Maldives, as well as an “exchange of views” on the current political situation in the Maldives, said the statement released by Gayoom’s office as reported by local media.

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ACC investigating former Adhaalath Party head’s bribery allegations against two judges

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is examining photographs of all pilgrims who went on hajj last year, following allegations of bribery levied against two sitting judges.

The allegations were made by former President of the Adhaalath Party, Sheikh Hussain Rasheed.

Sheikh Rasheed said during a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally in January that he had met a Maldivian businessman while in Saudi Arabia, who told him he had paid two Maldivian judges a sum of MVR 12.3 million (US$ 797,148.41).

According to the report, the ACC began analysing the photographs to identity the businessman to which the former Adhaalath Party leader had referred.

Speaking to Minivan News, President of the ACC Hassan Luthfee confirmed the ACC was investigating the matter. He said Rasheed was summoned for questioning following the allegations.

“The investigations are currently going on. While investigating we will be looking into all the relevant documents and other details,” he said.

Luthfee declined to comment on whether the commission was analysing the photographs of the pilgrims, but said the commission would “utilise all the information it can get on the case.”

He declined to give any further details.

Rasheed alleged the businessman had paid one judge a sum of US$70,000 (MVR 1.079 million) while the other was paid US$50,000 (MVR 771,000) on two different occasions, a sum of US$170,000.

Speaking to Minivan News on Thursday, Rasheed confirmed that he was summoned to the commission and added that he had “given all the details and names of the people involved in the deal”.

“These are stories that are being constantly discussed in society. The businessman told me about the case, and it is a duty to let the public know of such critical matters, especially when it concerns people who we go to seek justice,” he said.

Rasheed further claimed that certain controversial decisions reached in the courts the acquittal of criminals suggested “something is really going wrong”.

“The courts have ruled that printing counterfeit dollars is not a crime. How is that not a crime? It is a crime even under international law,” he said.

Rasheed noted that the courts failed to find any wrongdoing on behalf of a man who put Japanese aid money in his personal bank account, referring to an embezzlement case involving former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s half brother, Abdulla Algeen Abdul Gayoom.

Algeen – also the younger brother MP Abdulla Yameen, ex-President Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) presidential hopeful – was accused of embezzling US$177,460 of Japanese funding from the Department of Meteorology (DOM), when he was the director.

Algeen allegedly sent three separate invoices to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) between May 2006 and April 2007 on behalf of DOM. All three invoices demanded payment to Algeen’s personal Bank of Maldives account.

However, in acquitting the case, Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Didi ruled that the state could not prove that the money in question was owed by JAMSTEC to the government.

Following the former Adhaalath Party leader’s allegations, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) also discussed probing into the allegations.

A JSC spokesperson told Minivan News at the time that after the allegations were made public, members of the commission had discussed an investigation.

“The matter was discussed during a JSC meeting,” the spokesperson said previously. Asked whether a decision was reached, he replied “there were many items on the agenda.”

Minivan News on Thursday confirmed that the JSC was not investigation any of the allegations.

Former JSC member and whistleblower, Aishath Velezinee, in her book The Failed Silent Coup: in Defeat They Reached for the Gun extensively highlighted the watchdog body’s undermining of judicial independence, and complicity in sabotaging the separation of powers.

In her book, she recounted her experience as she attempted to stop the commission from re-appointing unqualified and ethically-suspect judges loyal to former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, after it dismissed the professional and ethical standards demanded by Article 285 of the constitution as “symbolic”.

That moment at the conclusion of the constitutional interim period marked the collapse of the new constitution and resulted in the appointment of a illegitimate judiciary, Velezinee contended, and set in motion a chain of events that ultimately led to President Mohamed Nasheed’s arrest of Chief Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed two years later.

In 2004, a report by judicial expert Professor Paul Robinson assessed the country’s criminal justice system, and found in his report that “serious efforts” were required to increase the quality of judges.

“Serious efforts must be made to provide substantial training to current judges in order to ensure that all have the background they need in both law and Shari’a. Perhaps more importantly, no judge should be hired who does not already have the needed training,” he wrote.

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“Government will not evict MNU students by force”: Housing Minister Muiz

Housing Minister Mohamed Muiz has said the government does not wish to forcefully evict Maldives National University (MNU) students out of the old Jamaaluddeen building, which houses the university’s faculty of Sharia and Law (FSL), Faculty of Arts (FA) and Centre for Continuing Education (CCED).

The Housing Minister had earlier sent a notice to the university giving a seven day ultimatum for it to vacate the building, which it claimed was too old and no longer safe for use.

Speaking to local newspaper Haveeru, the minister said that following the notice Chancellor of the Maldives National University Dr Zahir Hussain met with President Mohamed Waheed Hassan and raised his concern over the decision.

In response, the minister claimed the President had given his word to the chancellor that the government would not make a decision that would leave the students of MNU “homeless”.

Muiz however said that it was the mandate of his ministry to advise on the safety of government buildings and propose recommendations to the government.

He further said that the seven day notice was given in accordance with his responsibilities and repeated his claim that the building’s weakened structure posed a threat to those occupying it.

The minister claimed that technical experts had carried out analysis of the structure and recommended that it be vacated as soon as possible to avoid any unpleasant consequences.

“We will not forcefully drag the students or any staff out of the building. We will not go there with a court warrant and force the people out. It is not what we intend to do,” he said.

He further added that even the attorney general had advised not to take any legal action on the matter, but stressed that if something bad happened due to the condition of the building, he would be forced to take legal action against the university.

Housing Minister Muiz was not responding to calls at time of press.

The Maldives National University and the government have been at loggerheads over the ownership of the old Jamaaluddeen School building.

During a press conference, Muiz said the government “will not be responsible for any damages incurred by students, lecturers or anyone who uses the building”.

“We have told them to vacate the building and remove their property as well,” he said at the time.

Minister Muiz claimed that the government intended to demolish the building as soon as possible after the MNU vacated it.

However, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Maldives National University Dr Fayyaz Ali Manik told Minivan News that they could not vacate the building as government had not provided an alternate facility, despite repeated requests.

“We have not been given any other building. They never mentioned it,” he said at the time.

He further said that if the university was forced to move out, it would bring all the programs currently running to a standstill.

The Maldives National University was initially formed in 1998 as the Maldives College of Higher Education (MCHE). The institution was established to rationalise resources and assure the quality of all existing post-secondary government institutes.

In 2011 the MCHE went on to become the country’s first university, formed under the Maldives National University Act.

In November 2012, MNU announced that it would be launching the first PHD programs offered in country. The subjects offered include law and pedagogy. The university has also announced that it will also be launching programs on political science in 2013.

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