News in Brief – Page 259 – Minivan News

India getting tough on Waheed government: Business Standard

There is much more energy this February in doing the right thing by the Maldivians, unlike last February when Delhi deemed the transfer of power or coup from Mohamed Nasheed to Mohamed Waheed to be legitimate, writes Jyoti Malhotra for the Business Standard.

Certainly, the ongoing struggle for power in Maldives constitutes one of the most interesting stories in South Asia. A former bureaucrat in the United Nations and the first Maldivian to have studied at Stanford University, Waheed inveigled himself to the top job last year by allowing the former Maldivian president, Abdul Maumoon Gayoom, to play puppeteer.

When Nasheed, a charismatic and democratically elected president, had a judge arrested for a repeatedly biased record in January 2012, Gayoom had Waheed waiting in the wings to replace Nasheed. The Maldivian security forces played their part by overthrowing Nasheed.

A whole year later, Delhi has sought to make amends. Nasheed was invited to visit India on an official visit earlier this month, when he met National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon. On his return from Argentina, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid has been in regular touch with him, as well as other actors in Maldives. Last week, the ministry of external affairs stated the Waheed government should hold a free, fair and credible election in September, implying Nasheed should be allowed to participate in it; if he was arrested, he would be effectively eliminated from the election.

Rumours are afoot that India’s outgoing high commissioner, D M Mulay, was summoned to the Maldivian foreign office and scolded for allowing external interference inside the high commission, a reference to hosting Nasheed. A second and more important rumour is about a possible compromise between Nasheed and the judiciary; either charges could be withdrawn against Nasheed or these could be deferred until after the elections are held on September 7 or Nasheed could be tried in absentia and sentenced.

Some say the Indian government could press Waheed and the power behind the throne, former dictator Gayoom, to drop charges against Nasheed because they have seen through the game both have played over the past year. India and the world know Maldives has barely enough money to import a month’s worth of foodstuff and other essential commodities. The idea of economic sanctions has sometimes been known to work wonders.

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DRP overtakes PPM in member numbers

The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has become the second largest political party in the Maldives, overtaking Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) in membership numbers.

According to local media, the number of members in the DRP now stands at 22,687 – a 64 member lead on the 22,263 members of PPM.

The largest party in the Maldives, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), stood at 47,192 members as of December last year.

However, local media reported that the latest Election Commission (EC) numbers for the MDP show that the party had lost 237 members this month alone.

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik’s Gaumee Ittihad Party (GIP) gained the most members in February, according to local media, increasing its membership by 372.

Amongst the 16 political parties in the country, Jumhooree Party (JP) currently has the most member registration forms pending in the EC with 2595 waiting to be approved.

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Health Ministry hand over MVR 68 million to complete new IGMH building

A MVR 68 million (US$4.4 million) project has been handed over to AMIN Construction in order to complete the new 11-storey building of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

Local media reported that an agreement was signed at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Health by Health Minister Dr Ahmed Jamsheed and Managing Director of AMIN Construction Abdullah Mohamed.

Earlier this month the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had ordered a temporary halt to the construction of the building in order to investigate a matter regarding the project handover to AMIN Construction.

Dr Jamsheed told reporters at the ceremony yesterday (February 18) that construction of the building had been halted for various reasons, and that funds had been obtained to complete the project prior to the handover.

“The project was commenced to build private rooms to solve the problem of lack of space at IGMH. We have made major changes to the project. By the time the changes were made, the main concrete and construction work had been completed,” Jamsheed was quoted as saying in Sun Online.

The money for the project, according to local media, had been obtained as a loan from the Islamic Bank.

President of the ACC Hassan Luthfy said a complaint had prompted the commission to investigate the project handover over claims that the handover was made at an excessive cost.

“We received a complaint that the project was handed over a second time with an increase in cost. The commission is currently summoning and questioning the relevant parties,” he said earlier this month.

Investigations into the handover have now been concluded according to the ACC president.

MD of Amin Construction Abdullah Mohamed however, told local media that work had been halted due to payments owed to the company. Mohamed was quoted as saying that construction on the building will commence tomorrow.

The building was commissioned by the government to alleviate space constraints in the hospital, which was gifted to the Maldives by the Indian government.

Last month IGMH struggled to deal with the influx of patients prompting concerns as to whether the hospital was large enough to cope with the demand for medical care in Male’.

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175 foreigners deported in 2012: Immigration

The Department of Immigration and Emigration has revealed that 175 foreigners were deported from the country in 2012, local media reports.

Immigration Controller Mohamed Ali told local media a large proportion of foreigners were deported in relation drugs and sexual offences.

According to Sun Online, the majority of deported sexual offenders were from Thailand, while Bangladeshis committed the majority of other offences out of those deported.

“We deported 175 people by the end of last year. The majority of those were for sexual offences. Also for drug issues, financial fraud and robbery,” Ali said.

Immigration also revealed that roughly 3000 more foreigners had been deported upon their personal request.

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Indian comedy of errors in the Maldives: Deccan Herald

The Maldives — with a predominantly Sunni population of 400,000, the ending of President M.A. Gayoom’s 30-year rule and the US war on terror post-9/11 — was ripe for the emergence of radical Islamists and their convergence with Gayoom loyalists, writes for K C Singh for India’s Deccan Herald.

Mr Nasheed’s election convinced New Delhi that the Maldives was on a path of self-correcting liberal democracy. But even when warning signals began emanating that the tourism industry was being targeted on narrow principles of faith and that Mr Nasheed was alienating his alliance partners, corrective measures were not taken.

Firstly, India erred in quickly endorsing the transfer of power from Mr Nasheed to Mr Waheed without ensuring that the latter excluded sympathisers of radicals from critical Cabinet posts (the home minister went to a Pakistani religious school), announced early elections and struck a truce with the outgoing President.

The unseemly haste in India’s Prime Minister writing to the new President lost that opportunity. The next mistake was in neither anticipating the attack on the Indian company GMR, to whom the awarding of the contract to run the Male airport was a showpiece decision of the Nasheed government, nor defending it when a clear motivating factor was the business interests of Mr Waheed’s coalition partner.

Finally, the Nasheed affair has been handled without political finesse. Resting Indian interests on the fate of one obviously flawed personality, exposing his Indian links by having him sit cowering in India’s mission and thus letting anti-Indian and pro-Islamic sentiments swirl is foolhardy. Gayoom has positioned himself cleverly. He has neither supported India nor criticised it. His daughter, who is in the run for presidency, benefits from the division between Mr Nasheed and Mr Waheed. We should not have abandoned Mr Nasheed in 2012, and having done so not got stuck with him.

Disraeli, as Prime Minister in 1877, frustrated by his maladroit diplomats wrote, “They seem quite useless. It is difficult to control events, but none of them try to.” His ambassador in Berlin he felt was “… reporting all Bismarck’s bravado… in an ecstasy of sycophantic wonder”. Perhaps our Prime Minister needs to ask the same question to his diplomats and his national security adviser.

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PIC advises protesters not to obstruct police duties

Protesters are advised not to obstruct the implementation of police duties, the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) announced in a press statement (February 17), according to local media.

The PIC noted that police and protesters are sustaining injuries ‘typically’ caused when police break up protests, which occurs “when protesters break through police barricades” and gather at locations prohibited in the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly act.

Protesters were advised not to obstruct police duties and “exercise their freedoms” within the limits of the law, while the PIC advised police to “only use force to the extent demanded by the given circumstance” and also to keep their actions within the limits of the law, local media stated.

Under the new bill, citizens are not allowed to hold gatherings within a certain distance of the headquarters of police and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Among the key features of the bill is the outlawing of demonstrations outside private residences and government buildings, limitations on media not accredited with the state and defining gatherings as a group with more than a single person.

Demonstrations would also be outlawed within a certain distance of the residences of the president and the vice president, the offices of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), tourist resorts, harbours utilized for economic purposes, airports, the President’s Office, the courts of law, the Parliament, mosques, schools, hospitals and buildings housing diplomatic missions.

The bill also states that demonstrators wishing to protest against a specific individual, may not use megaphones, stand outside, or have a sit-down outside that person’s residence.

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Tourist paradise rocked by political uncertainty: Vancouver Sun

The United States and India have been watching with concern as radical Islam, fuelled by Saudi Arabian Wahhabi and Salafi charities, takes root in the Maldives, stoking fears the archipelago could become a terrorist haven, writes Jonathan Manthorpe for the Vancouver Sun.

At the same time Washington and New Delhi are mistrustful of China’s growing influence with the Male government.

There is apprehension the Maldives could become yet another supply base for China’s navy. India, Beijing’s regional rival, is already concerned that China’s naval link’s with Pakistan and the Bay of Bengal ports of Burma are part of a containment strategy.

The march of radical Islam in the Maldives began in the 1980s during the dictatorship of Gayoom, who allowed Saudi Arabian Wahhabist charities to establish themselves in the Maldives and who oversaw a radicalization of the education system.

Many Maldivian students now go to radical madrassas – religious schools – in Pakistan for higher education. Several are known to have become affiliated with al-Qaida as a result.

The increasing popularity of puritanical Islam in the Maldives sits uneasily with the country’s main industry as an upmarket tourist destination, which accounts for 30 per cent of the annual gross national product.

Aspects of Shariah religious law, such as the banning of alcohol, prohibition of men and women dancing together, and public flogging for adultery, are applied in the capital Male. But these restrictions are not imposed in the tourist resorts on the 250 inhabited islands of the archipelago.

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ACC launch investigation into 99-year Maamigili Airport lease

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has begun investigating the 99-year lease of Maamigili Airport to Villa Shipping and Trading, local media reported.

The private airport is owned by Chairman of Villa Group and Jumhoree Party (JP) MP, Gasim Ibrahim. The airport had initially been leased to the JP presidential candidate’s Villa company for 30 years.

Former Minister of Transport Dr Ahmed Shamheed – who was nominated as transport minister by JP – was later removed from his cabinet post after extending the airport lease.

President of ACC Hassan Luthfee told local media that the commission has launched an investigation into the case and that all documentation regarding the lease has been collected.

“This Commission has started looking into the matter of the extension of the management period of Maamigili Airport for a duration of 99 years, because the news has been circulating in the media,” Luthfee was quoted as saying in local media.

Gasim has claimed that there were no acts of corruption in the airport lease.

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PPM Yameen meets Indian High Commissioner DM Mulay

Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) Parliamentary Group Leader Abdulla Yameen met with Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives DM Mulay yesterday (February 16), local media reported.

The High Commissioner told local media that the meeting was to encourage dialogue in order to resolve the current situation in the Maldives.

According to local media, Mulay said he is in contact with officials in the government of Maldives, political parties and other intellectuals to encourage conversation towards a peaceful resolution to the current political instability.

Yameen said he met with Mulay in the PPM office and that the high commissioner visited to assure him the relationship between India and the Maldives would remain unchanged, local media reported.

The meeting follows former President Nasheed’s decision to seek refuge within the Indian High Commission in Male’ after he failed to attend a court hearing last week.

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