Three men have been arrested in connection with the alleged theft of Rf 60,000 (US$4670) from two safes in the Island Office of Badidhoo in Dhaal atoll, during which a guard was tied up with tape.
Six men have been arrested in the case so far, however police have declined to reveal further information.
Haveeru reported that one the men arrested had run as an MDP candidate for the Island Council in the recent local council elections.
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(0)Jamiyyathul Salaf, one of the Maldives’ largest and most active religious NGOs, has called on the government to withdraw a decision made by the cabinet to sent Maldives soldiers to UN conflict zones and take part in UN peacekeeping operations.
The Cabinet during last Tuesday’s meeting decided to finalise the participation of Maldivian soldiers in United Nations peacekeeping operations, noting that it was be” important for the Maldives to contribute to the efforts of these international agencies and institutions to ensure every country, every society and every individual had the opportunity to live in peace and security.”
However, “Taking part in the UN peacekeeping operations will force Maldivian forces to fight against Muslims which is unacceptable,” said Salaf in a statement. ”Everyone understands that the most of the wars against Muslims have been started without reasonable grounds, just because they are Muslims.”
Salaf claimed that biological weapons were used in these wars despite UN prohibitions concerning their use or manufacture.
“The history of such wars proves that non-believers have gathered and committed inhumane activities against Muslim women and children,” Salaf argued. ”The war in Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of places where such activities were practiced.”
Salaf noted that the Maldives had a very high crime rate and that civil defence was a higher priority than contributing to overseas peacekeeping operations.
”Disregarding our own society and getting involved in these matters for the sake of earing respect from powerful countries shows how much the future of this nation is being disregarded,” Salaf said. ”It will invite dangerous attacks on the country, from outside and within.”
Jamiyyathul Salaf furthermore claimed that any Muslim who assisted non-Muslims in a war against Muslims would themselves be branded infidels.
”Muslims will be obliged to treat him as a non-Muslim in all ways, such as if dead, burying without enshrouding the body, burying the body with other non-believer, and when dealing with inheritance matters the terms and condition that applies to a non-believer who dies in a war against Muslims will be applied to him,” the NGO said.
Referring to the incident where Prophet Mohamed’s (PBUH) uncle Abbas Bin Abdul Muthalib secretly embraced Islam and was forced to fight against Muslims in a battle where he lost his life, Salaf said the Prophet applied the same procedure as to what would be applied to non-believer if he died in a battle against Muslims.
During last week’s meeting, Cabinet agreed that participating in UN peacekeeping operations would enhance the country’s security capability through an improved understanding of the international security environment and integration with the international security architecture, according to the President’s Office.
”The Maldives’ participation in peacekeeping operations would also consolidate the country’s credibility on the international stage,” the President’s Office said.
UN peacekeepers include 98,863 uniformed personnel from 114 countries. The organisation’s limited terms of engagement led to widespread criticism of its inaction during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 people died.
Since then UN peacekeepers have been more proactive in troubled countries, such as its current siege and helicopter strikes on the palace belonging to Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to step down and launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing after losing the country’s 2010 Presidential Election.
Correction: An earlier version of this story translated the Dhivehi term used in Jamiyyathul Salaf’s statement, ‘Kaafarun’, as ‘Christians’. A more accurate translation is ‘non-believers’.
(0)Dislikes(0)Tourism insiders say that the industry has not done enough to provide security at the country’s resorts as authorities, while security officials and businesses continue to work on outlining new protective measures for properties across the country.
As security officials continue to await the outcomes from consultations by a steering group formed following a security seminar and workshop held last week to outline methods to reduce possible threats facing the country’s resorts, some property owners and managers appear divided over the severity of the challenges faced.
Speaking to Minivan News, ‘Sim’ Mohamed Ibrahim from the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI) said that despite ongoing attempts to outline a nationwide resort security initiative since 2008, no such policy had as yet been put in place.
Following last week’s security seminars, Sim said he was confident that by working with the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), the police, and the coastguard, progress was now being made in outlining long-term security strategies for tourism. He conceded though that the industry would need to bare more of the financial brunt to protect its interests in the future.
“Resorts do need more investment in regards to security, we haven’t done enough so far,” said the MATI head.
Sim said that last week’s seminar reflected growing industry concerns of late raised by the active Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture as well as industry bodies over protecting the country’s lucrative resort islands from possible theft and attack.
The country has this year alone faced two isolated, yet high-profile incidences of intrusion at properties such as Kihaadhuffaru resort and Baros Island Resort and Spa highlighting for some the magnitude of the threats facing the country.
Sim claimed that these concerns were not an “isolated” issue for tourist properties alone, but rather a symptom of rising levels of crime on inhabited islands such as the Maldivian capital of Male’ that had spilled onto resorts.
“This is not to say that the government is working on this issue [of crime], but really they need better laws in the country for offenders,” he claimed.
To try and combat fears over criminals targeting resorts, the MATI Secretary-General said he believed that improved networking between different resorts and ease of communication was a vital part of limiting potential attacks in the future. He added that the closer cooperation between tourism officials and the police and armed forces in the country was also seen as another key aim.
However, Sim claimed that rather than bringing wide-ranging reforms to tourist and resort security, the country would be better prioritising commitments in areas where it was able to ensure effective changes could be put in place.
He added that a committee containing government and tourism industry figures was now working to address what sort of commitments should be prioritised on the back of last week’s security seminar.
“The best thing to come from these talks is that we are now attempting to work together [with the government and security forces]. We know we are not alone as an industry,” he said. “In the past, we have tended not to mix the leisure side of holidays with security, but this is something that we need to do.”
Security advisor
Speaking today to Minivan News, National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal said that he still haven’t received feedback from the steering committee of government and industry figures regarding outlining new proposals for resort security.
While Faisal added that he was not sure of the exact nature that potential changes could mean for how defence forces worked with the tourism industry, he was convinced it would not lead to a rise in their presence on resort islands.
“Personally, I don’t think operational changes will be seen in the manner that police and the MNDF operate regarding tourism,” he said. “There will probably be some training programmes conducted by police for resort security, but I don’t think we will see a physical presence by defence forces at these resorts.”
In addressing any perceived threats posed by Maldivian gang crime reaching the isolated environs of the country’s tourist properties, not all resort groups appeared to have share MATI’s beliefs that security problems were generated solely by offshore criminals.
One general manager for a leading multinational brand of resorts in the country said under anonymity that he believed the resort robberies were more likely to have resulted from serving or former employees with knowledge of the properties than from random attacks by gangs or opportunistic thieves.
In taking this view, the general manager said that he believed it was often imperative to try and effectively manage staff and their grievances that could often occur from very small and often easily rectified measures.
(0)Dislikes(0)The Maldives Film Association has announced its intentions to launch an awards ceremony later this year to honour local actors and directors for their work, newspaper Haveeru has reported.
The organisers of the Maldives Film Awards, which are scheduled for July 2011 and will be held in collaboration with local promotions group High Rise Maldives under a three-year deal, have said that the exact categories to be contested will be announced later this month.
According to the report, the Maldives Film Association has said it will be looking to add two foreign experts to the award’s judging panel as well as inviting high-profile Bollywood stars to be in attendance.
(0)Dislikes(0)On the night of December 21, 1954, a cult of worshipers gathered together in a room in Chicago.
Having carefully removed all metallic objects from their person, including bra straps and metal zippers, they sat together in a silent huddle. Many of them had quit their jobs and colleges, left their spouses and sold their houses in preparation for that night.
They wouldn’t need any of those where they were going – for indeed, they were awaiting the arrival of a flying saucer that would take their small group of true believers away before the prophesied end of the world the next morning.
As it turned out, the flying saucer never arrived – and the world continues to spin majestically over half a century later.
Having their superstition proven so utterly false, one would reasonably expect that the cult would have disbanded and died out immediately afterward.
But, as chronicled in the famous book ‘When Prophecy Fails’, written by a group of authors who had infiltrated the cult to observe them first hand, the cult actually grew in strength after the failure of their central prophecy.
One of those authors, Stanford psychologist Leon Festinger, famously described this phenomenon as ‘cognitive dissonance’.
According to this theory, when faced with incontrovertible proof against a held belief, people tend to eliminate the dissonance by resorting to either denial or justification.
The cult members, upon realising that their alien saviors failed to show up, promptly decided that the Earth had been given a second chance as a reward for their night-long perseverance. Armed with this new theory, the formerly media-shy cult went on a recruiting drive and the cult expanded more than ever.
Cognitive dissonance would also explain the resurgent practice of ‘Baccha baazi’ in Afghanistan, where powerful warlords and other self-described Muslim men engage in pederasty with ‘bacchas’ or pre-pubescent dancing boys, attired in women’s clothing.
The men candidly admit to the practice on camera, denying that it was sodomy because they were not ‘in love’ with the boys, and providing the justification that they were able to judge the young boys’ looks beforehand, unlike the niqab covered women where it was more of a hit-and-miss.
In the dark alleys of Bangalore and Mysore in India, the hashish and heroin trade is known to be run by old Muslim men with prominent prayer marks on their forehead where it touches stone five times a day,
They too, justify their actions with an assortment of explanations about profits and business.
In these cases, one appears to have an inner moral conflict, as is clearly visible in the confused expression of the pious old Dhivehi woman with a fondness for traditional raaivaru and folk songs, when suddenly confronted with a religious ruling on TV from the leading sheikh of the day that music is forbidden.
The dissonance is then placated by subconsciously finding a convenient explanation that flies in the face of available statistics, just as a smoker finds a justification to smoke, or a motorist finds a justification to not wear helmets or seat belts.
The theory of cognitive dissonance is often used to explain the unintentional hypocrisy of individuals and social groups.
In the Maldives, however, it appears that hypocrisy has given way to something far more unpleasant – namely, self-deception.
The Ministry of Truth
As described in the dystopian society portrayed in George Orwell’s novel 1984, Maldivians seem to have embraced the practice of ‘doublethink’.
The novel describes doublethink as :
“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancel out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it… to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again.”
Perhaps due to remarkable upheavals in their recent history, Maldivians appear to have mastered the art of effortlessly holding two utterly incompatible, conflicting ideas in their head.
The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.
A casual stroll down the Artificial Beach in Male or the neighboring islands during the night reveals dozens of young girls – proudly wearing the Islamic head scarf – in various stages of embrace, undress or coitus with their partners under the veil of darkness.
There’s the story of the outwardly devout graphics designer who declined an assignment to draw a female figurine, citing religious principles. Notably, the man was later found to be downloading explicit pornography on his office workstation.
During one energetic debate on Facebook, one of the most vocal defenders of the faith was a young man with a colorful vocabulary. In case his demeanor and menacing threats didn’t make his tough gangster credentials clear, he also spelled out, in bright red letters, on his profile image, ‘Blood, Sex and Booze’.
To be precise, the young Maldivian man, who swore by ‘blood, sex and booze’ on a public social network, was the first to step in to defend morality and religion against perceived threats.
These are hardly isolated cases.
There are plenty of Maldivians who proudly embrace the creed that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’ and that those that create conflict are not ‘true Muslims’, but in the same breath, applaud Bin Laden, the Taliban, and other random militants who place bombs in schools, markets and mosques in Pakistan as righteous ‘mujahideen’ whose actions are sanctioned by the religion.
Young girls and boys, often wasted on drugs and given to casual sexual relations, often vocally argue for the imposition of an un-codified ‘Shariah’ law system that, if implemented, could very well see them stoned to death or worse.
The national doublethink is no doubt helped by the country’s dramatic swing from a heady, westernised disco-era to a rigidly conservative religious society almost overnight.
The 2008 Maldivian constitution forbids any law or regulation that contradicts loosely defined ‘tenets of Islam’.
In May 2010, the Maldivian government invited salafi preacher Zakir Naik who, during a heavily promoted lecture televised on prime-time national television, proclaimed to a gathered audience of ten-thousand, that income made from tourism was ‘haraam’.
But as recently as last week, the President of the Republic, Mohamed Nasheed, reiterated that the tourism industry – fueled by alcohol and, as the Mullah prefers to put it, ‘fornication’ – is the mainstay of the country’s economy that must be safeguarded at all costs.
The easily inflammable pseudo-religious groups that assemble on the streets at a moment’s notice to protest against everything from news editors to co-education, gathered in in late 2009 to protest against the restricted sale of alcohol in ‘inhabited’ islands.
Nevertheless, their screeching rhetoric against the sale of alcohol in the capital was in stark contrast to their meek acceptance of the availability of alcohol on the adjacent airport just five minutes away.
It could also be contrasted with their monk-like silence on the widespread child abuse and pedophilia, reports of which have hit local media with alarming frequency throughout the past year.
The same government alternatively claims that tourism is haraam and absolutely vital. The same television channel that plays music throughout the day also airs religious programs that proclaim music is forbidden. The same school that teaches that bank interest is forbidden in Islam also teaches students modern banking, and how to calculate interest.
The effect of this national doublethink on the young Maldivian democracy is a cause for concern.
Citizens who have given up the intellectual tools of reasoning have also inadvertently given up their ability to choose, leaving the country vulnerable to either sliding back into a dictatorship, or morphing into a theocracy.
Confirmation bias
The first comment on a recent Minivan News article about alleged bestiality involving the rape of a goat on a rural island, incredibly enough, appeared to blame the incident on ‘LIBERAL DEMOCRACY’.
This is further evidence that the Maldives is steeped in a strong confirmation bias, where the population disregards evidences that are in plain contradiction to their viewpoints, but jumps at even unverified hearsay supporting their prejudices.
Fifth grade science teachers have reportedly taught their students that the Apollo moon landings were ‘fake’, thereby insulting the achievements of thousands of scientists and engineers, while simultaneously robbing young students of the wonders and amazement of science, leaving them vulnerable to a lifetime of conspiracy theories.
Meanwhile, tiny moon rocks have been on display for years at the National Museum in the Maldives.
Openly biased reporting on the Middle East abound in the local media, as are outlandish conspiracies such as the easily discredited allegations that a team of Israeli doctors were ‘organ stealing Zionists’.
If this keeps up, Maldivians as a nation will be no better than the alien cult worshipers, who bend reality to suit their convenience and bask in an atmosphere of mutual-misinformation.
The vital essence of a successful democracy is the ability of its citizens to make critical judgments.
Once that ability is clouded by confirmation bias, dissonance and doublethink, the end-result closely resembles the confusion and noise that characterises Maldivian society today.
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]
(3)Dislikes(0)Police arrested four people in Dhaal Badidhoo today in connection to the theft of a safe with over Rf58,000 (US$4,500) at the island council office in the early hours of Friday, reports Sun Online.
A security watchman at the council secretariat was left bound and gagged by the thieves. The 55 year-old sustained minor injuries in the assault.
An official from the council told Sun Online that today’s arrests were made after police had prohibited anyone from leaving Badidhoo without permission.
The safes at the former Badidhoo island office and health centre were robbed on two occasions in the recent past.
(0)Dislikes(0)Voting is in progress in Haa Alif Kelaa for the local council by-election ordered by the High Court after ruling the original poll on February 5 invalid.
The ballot box will be closed at 4pm and provisional results are expected by 7.30pm, according to the Elections Commission (EC).
Local daily Haveeru reports that over 600 Kelaa residents had voted by 11am.
Five candidates each from the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party and opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party together with one candidate from the religious conservative Adhaalath Party are competing for the five-member island council while two candidates from each party are contesting the two atoll council seats.
Speaking in Kelaa on Thursday during his ongoing tour of the northernmost atoll, President Mohamed Nasheed hailed the by-election as a sign of restoration of justice in the country.
“I am encouraged by the new reality we are seeing. Today we see a clear sign of justice being restored,” he said.
(0)Dislikes(0)Main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s lawyer told the Civil Court Thursday that his client was ready to settle a disputed Rf1.92 million (US$149,400) debt to coalition partner People’s Alliance (PA) Deputy Leader Ahmed Nazim, reports Haveeru.
At Thursday’s hearing, Thasmeen’s lawyer however argued that Nazim’s lawsuit was politically motivated as “the friendship between them is gone and they have become enemies.”
Deputy Speaker Nazim’s lawyer refuted Majority Leader Thasmeen’s contention that the loan was used to finance the 2008 presidential campaign, claiming that Thasmeen needed the money to repay a bank loan.
In early 2010, before he took over the DRP leadership, Thasmeen was sued by PA Leader and potential presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen to recover US$100,000. The case was eventually settled out of court.
(0)Dislikes(0)Sales agents for some international airlines operating in and out of the Maldives have said that a lack of US dollars circulating within the economy is causing concerns, and in some cases, temporary cessation of their day-to-day operations.
Galaxy Enterprises, which operates as a general sales agent for Sri Lankan Airlines in the country has said that it has temporarily stopped selling airline tickets in the country. The group have forwarded potential customers to the Sri Lankan Airlines official website to process booking requests.
The announcement comes as financial institutions like the Bank of Maldives concede that the high level of imported goods bought into the economy are not being matched by US dollar generating industries inside the Maldives. The bank has said that the disparity had created a “lag” in terms of supply and demand for the currency.
The situation this week led to police – with the assistance of the Madives Monetary Authority (MMA) – trying to crackdown on sales of the country’s US currency beyond the pegged rate of Rf12.75 per dollar at black market rates as high as Rf16.
In the statement issued by Galaxy Enterprises and printed in newspaper Haveeru today, the group said it had been forced to suspend sales of Sri Lankan Airlines flights as it was not receiving sufficient US dollars through the banks to pay the airlines after selling tickets to its customers in rufiyaa. The group said that it will resume selling Sri Lankan Airlines tickets once the dollar shortage was perceived to have “eased”.
Galaxy Enterprises is not alone in witnessing operational difficulties as a result of the state of the nation’s finances.
Tyronne Soza, Maldives Country Manager for Mack Air Services Maldives, which represents the local interests of multinational aviation group John Keells Airlines, said that dollar supply was a major concern for its operations, although it continues to sell tickets.
“We are having some issues with obtaining and paying in dollars right now. As we are part of the John Keells group we have been able to manage the situation though,” Soza said. “It’s illegal to charge customers in dollars and obviously we accept rufiya, but it is difficult.”
John Keells serves as a holding company for aviation groups link Jet Airways and Sri Lanka-based Mihin Lanka.
Not all operators have shared these currency concerns though, with senior management for one of the world’s highest profile airlines, which works through Universal Enterprises in the country, claiming it was “business as usual” despite reports of dollar concerns amidst some competitors.
Last week, Peter Horton, the recently appointed CEO of Bank of Maldives told Minivan News that he believed the country desperately needed new ways of creating a US dollar income to try and overcome the crisis.
“A reality of the economy is that we are importing so very much, and we have so few dollar generating industries. In very simple terms, any downturn in the economy incur losses in the economy when turnover drops below break-even level. That is where we are as an economy – our revenue in dollar terms, in terms of the imports we require, is lagging,” the CEO, a British national, claimed.
“We need to look at ways of keeping dollars in the country as much as possible. [A] number of entitites are taking money out of the country – and are free to do so without exchange control. I think we also need to look at other ways of enhancing dollar revenues through fresh or new industries – and I would include financial services among those industries.”
Horton added that the issue had been compounded by economic uncertainty within international financial markets during the last few years, representing a massive national challenge that needed to be overcome.
However, police attempts to crack down on potential black market dollar sales are claimed by some low-wage expatriate workers to have exacerbated difficulties faced in trying to transfer and provide funds abroad.
Many of the country’s 100,000 foreign workers, particularly a large percentage of labourers from Bangladesh, are paid in Maldivian rufiya by their employers and are forced to change the money on the blackmarket at rates often higher than the government’s pegged rate of Rf12.85, before sending the money to their families.
The set dollar rate in the Maldives is Rf12.75, however during the dollar shortage it has increased to 13, 14, 15 and sometimes even as high as 16 on the black market.
However, banks routinely refuse to change rufiya into dollars, and experts have claimed that the crackdown will do little to address the demand for foreign currency or the budget deficit, which has led to the pegged rate not reflecting the value of the rufiya.
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