Tag: maldives news

Parliament summons Education Minister for questioning over Huraa drownings

Parliament yesterday summoned Education Minister Shifa Mohamed to question her about the Huraa drowning incident in which four students and the principal of Hiriya school died.

Police have meanwhile concluded their investigation into the incident and have sent the case to the Prosecutor General.

Shifa told Minivan News that  she was questioned about the incident itself, and about how the Education Ministry had reacted in order to avoid such incidents from reoccuring.

”I told the parliament committee that the Education Ministry conducted an investigation, which has been now concluded and sent to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM), police and other institutions,” she said. ”Police have concluded their investigation into the matter and sent it the Prosecutor General.”

Parents of the students had requested the Ministry not reveal the investigation report at the time because its potential political misuse would make it harder for parents to move on, she said.

She also revealed that there were four expat teachers involved in the incident who had been banned from leaving the country until the case was finalised.

”I asked the Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry to take action against any civil servant that they found to have neglected their duties,” she said.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the police investigation into the incident has been concluded.

”We cannot give further details of the case, the PG will decide whether or not to forward the case to the court,” he said.

Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem told Minvian News that the case with the PG’s office, which was  currently studying the investigation report to determine if it could be forwarded to the court.

He declined to give details of the investigation.

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Two former members of interim Elections Commission face corruption charges

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has forwarded corruption cases against two former members and two senior officials of the Elections Commission (EC) to the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) for purchasing over 50 laptops without a public tender or bidding process.

The officials facing corruption charges are former commission members Ahmed ‘Saabe’ Shahid and Mohamed Mahir along with then-Director General Shaukath Ibrahim and Deputy Director Ahmed Naeem.

An ACC investigation into the allegedly fraudulent transactions found that the EC bought 57 NEC Versa S3300 notebook computers on four different occasions from the same company ahead of the 2008 presidential elections.

The 57 laptops were purhcased in the space of 21 days at a total cost of Rf 621,015 (S$40,000).

A press statement issued by the ACC yesterday revealed that the first 20 laptops were purchased after a public announcement on September 16, 2008, but an additional 37 laptops were purchased before October 15 – two weeks before the second round run-off – without an invitation for bids.

The ACC found from examining “goods delivery” notes that the EC received the laptops before the dates specified in the agreements, which were signed by then-Deputy Director Ahmed Naeem.

The ACC noted that the purchases were made in violation of regulations on procurement of items from a single party as well as a stipulation for public tenders and evaluation by a committee for purchases above Rf25,000.

While the EC did not form a committee to evaluate bids and award points for proposals in accordance with the regulations, the ACC also found the company that provided the laptops did not submit information in writing as required by the procurement regulations.

The ACC asked the PGO on November 17 to charge former Deputy Director Ahmed Naeem under the Anti-Corruption Act for abuse of authority for undue financial gain for a third party and to prosecute former members of the interim commission, Mohamed Mahir and Ahmed ‘Saabe’ Shahid, on similar corruption charges for authorising the illegal purchases.

Ahmed Shahid is a senior member of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and husband of Galolhu North MP Eva Abdulla.

Both Mahir and Saabe had authorised the purchases by approving quotations provided by the company. The company was not named in the ACC press statement.

The ACC also requested the PG to prosecute then-Director General Shaukath Ibrahim to recover the cost of five laptops (Rf54,475) that were lost and not entered into the stock inventory. The investigators found that Shaukath as head of operations was responsible for the loss.

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Intolerance growing in the Maldives: Asia Times

The rising tide of religious intolerance in the Maldives is threatening the country’s young democracy, writes Sudha Ramachandran for the Asia Times.

Monuments donated by Pakistan and Sri Lanka were vandalised last week as they were seen to be “idolatrous” and “irreligious”.

Member-countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) donated monuments to mark the just-concluded 17th summit of the regional grouping that the Maldives hosted.

The monument gifted by Pakistan consisted of an image of its founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and also featured figures, some of them drawn from seals belonging to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Historians have argued that these figures of animals and human beings point to early religion. The Sri Lankan monument was of a lion, the country’s national symbol.

On the eve of the unveiling of the Pakistan monument, a mob reportedly led by the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), the party of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, toppled the bust of Jinnah. A day later, the monument was set ablaze and the bust stolen. The Sri Lankan monument was found doused in oil with the face of the lion cut off.

Sources in the Maldivian government told Asia Times Online that the vandalisation was driven by political motivations rather than religious beliefs. “This is the opposition’s way of damping the success of the SAARC summit,” a member of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said.

The PPM has hailed the vandals as “national heroes” and promised to “do everything” it can to secure the release of the two men arrested over the incidents.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs has ordered the government to remove the monuments as they “breach the nation’s law and religion”. Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari told the local media that the Pakistan monument was “illegal” as it “represented objects of worship of other religions”.

Adhaalath Party president Sheikh Imran Abdulla told Minivan News that the monument “should not be kept on Maldivian soil for a single day” as “it conflicts with the constitution of the Maldives, the Religious Unity Act of 1994 and the regulations under the Act” as it depicted “objects of worship” that “denied the oneness of God”.

Sunni Islam was declared the official state religion of the Maldives under the 1997 constitution. This was retained in the 2008 constitution. Article 9-d says that “a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives”. While the constitution allows non-Muslim foreigners to practice their religion privately, they are forbidden from propagating or encouraging Maldivians to practice any religion other than Islam.

The island nation in the Indian Ocean is formed by a double chain of 26 atolls has a population of about 314,000. It is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area. With an average ground level of 1.5 meters (4 foot 11 inches) above sea level, it is the planet’s lowest country.

Although religion plays an important role in the daily lives of Maldivians, the kind of Islam practiced here has never been puritanical or rigid and it is suffused with local cultural practices. Faith in Islam has co-existed with belief in spirits and djinns. Traditionally, Maldivian women did not veil their faces or even cover their heads and men did not grow beards. That is now changing with a puritanical version of Islam taking root.

Religious conservatism has grown dramatically in recent years, as has intolerance. A small but vocal group of religious radicals espousing Wahhabi or Salafi Islam has campaigned for inclusion of sharia law punishments like flogging and amputation in the penal code, used intimidation to force women to veil themselves and declared listening to music as haram (forbidden).

Maldivians who are atheist, agnostic or profess the milder Sufi Islam have been hounded by radicals. In May last year, 37-year-old Mohamed Nazim, who professed in public to be non-Muslim, was threatened by the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives, a non-governmental organisation.

Three days later, he went on television and asked for forgiveness. Two months later, 25-year-old Ismail Mohamed Didi, who admitted to being an atheist and had sought political asylum abroad, was found hanging at his workplace.

Some blame the recent spurt in religious radicalism on the country’s nascent democracy. A Maldivian political analyst who Asia Times Online spoke to in 2009 pointed out that “unlike Gayoom, who jailed people like [controversial religious preacher] Sheikh Fareed for their views, under the new democratic government extremists are able to advocate their version of Islam without fear of being arrested and detained.”

Others blame what they describe as President Mohamed Nasheed’s “appeasement of religious elements”. Indeed, not only did Nasheed create a Ministry of Islamic Affairs but he also put it in under the control of the Adhaalath Party, a party of religious conservatives.

Although Adhaalath parted ways with the ruling MDP in September, Nasheed has retained Bari, who is a member of Adhaalath, as his minister of Islamic affairs.

Nasheed’s reluctance to take on religious radicals has eroded his support among young Maldivians who voted for him not only because they wanted to see the end of four decades of Gayoom’s authoritarian rule but also because they expected him to put in place real freedom, including the right to religious freedom. Their hopes seem to have been dashed by the government’s flirting with the fundamentalists.

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Adhaalath, PPM accuses government of influencing Fuvahmulah by-election

The Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and religious conservative Adhaalath Party has accused senior government officials of illegally influencing the by-election held in Fuvamulah last Saturday for a vacant atoll council seat.

In a statement yesterday, Adhaalath Party said it had received information that the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) carried out a number of activities to influence voting.

Transport Minister Adhil Saleem, Tourism Minister Dr Mariyam Zulfa and Education Minister Shifa Mohamed were in Fuvahmulah on the day of the vote, Adhaalath noted, alleging that the ministers summoned Fuvamulah managers and staff at the State Trading Organization (STO) Fuvamulah branch as well as the island’s hospital and “threatened” and ordered them to vote for MDP candidate.

Education Minister Shifa phoned heads of Fuvamulah schools and asked them to vote for the MDP candidate, Adhaalath claimed.

“Fuvamulah islanders in Male’ were carried on flights to the Fuvamulah for the vote,” Adhaalath said in the statement. “When the ministers went near the area where the ballot boxes were kept to influence the election, islanders sent them away.”

PPM Media Coordinator and Vili-Maafanu MP Ahmed Nihan told Minivan News today that three cabinet ministers and senior officials of the State Trading Organisation (STO) were actively campaigning and “going door to door” on the day of the by-election.

“PPM calls on the Elections Commission (EC) to investigate the government’s intimidation of voters and violation of democratic principles,” he said.

Senior officials of STO told Fuvahmulah residents that work on the island’s airport could stop if they did not elect an MDP councillor, Nihan claimed.

Such actions by senior government officials cast doubt on the fairness of the by-election, Nihan argued.

Nihan said the EC should have a “better probing mechanism” to answer complaints of undue influence over elections, adding that an official should have been monitoring the situation on the ground.

Tourism Minister Dr Maryam Zulfa however dismissed the allegations today and said that the purpose of the minister’s visit was to brief the islanders and councillors about the government projects planned and ongoing in Fuvamulah.

“We did not take part in any campaign activities and the only persons we met were the island councilors and atoll councilors and we had a meeting open for all the people of Fuvamulah,” she said. “There are so many investments made in Fuvamulah and we were advised not to let it die there.”

PPM member Abdulla Mohamed Didi – who ran as an Independent as PPM had not completed the registration process – won Saturday’s by-election for the mid-Fuvahmulah atoll council seat with 861 votes (52 percent) to the 750 votes (46 percent) for the MDP candidate, Mohamed Abdulla Didi.

The seat had previously been held by MDP councillor Hassan Saeed, who was removed from the post after the Supreme Court ruled in October that his candidacy should have been disqualified over a decreed debt.

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UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Maldives

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay arrives in the Maldives today for the start of a week-long visit to Asia.

Pillay will spend several days in the Maldives during which time she will meet President Mohamed Nasheed, senior ministers, political party leaders, the judiciary, National Human Rights Comission and civil society organisations. A key item on the agenda is likely to be Nasheed’s interest in establishing a human rights mechanism in SAARC.

The visit is the first such visit to the Maldives by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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Maldives a case study of new Chinese consumerism: GTIN

Analysts now know that the best place to learn about Chinese ultra-rich consumers is not the mainland, writes Global Travel Industry News.

Rather the Maldives, double-chain of islands near the equator, proves to be the perfect place to launch a case study of Chinese consumerism. In 2010, more than 118,000 Chinese visited the country: a 109 percent increase from the year before, making the Chinese the number-one inbound market of the Maldives. Tourists here have helped form the new profile of Chinese consumers.

More Chinese are traveling overseas from smaller cities, places where growing middle classes are accumulating more wealth and do not face the financial pinch of rising housing prices and inflation felt by similar demographics in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which, according to Vincent Liu, a partner at BCG in Hong Kong, will eventually impact the spending power of travelers from first-tier cities.

“Many of them are richer than those from major cities,” says Roger Wang, head of Lukintl, a Beijing-based tour company that has taken thousands of Chinese to America since it was founded in 1996. “The tourists from the main cities are mostly from the middle class, while tourists from smaller cities are millionaires or government officials. Usually they have strong spending power.”

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HRCM claims to have received 500 complaints of human rights violations

The Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) has revealed that some 500 complaints of alleged human rights violations were lodged at the commission in the past year.

According to statistics made public yesterday, the complaints include 106 cases concerning the right to work; 77 cases of unlawful detention; 74 cases of social protection to children, young, elderly and disadvantaged people; 47 cases concerning standard of health care; and 23 cases of torture or degrading treatment.

Speaking at a press conference, HRCM Chair Mariyam Azra Ahmed said the commission investigated and closed 216 cases between January 1 and September 14 this year.

Among major cases submitted to the commission in that period included the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) protest outside the Supreme Court on October 20, the alleged suicide of an inmate in Maafushi jail on November 15, the death of an infant due to “shoulder dystocia” on March 3 and complaints regarding inmates released under the government’s ‘Second Chance’ programme.

Azra informed press that the commission has undertaken studies to assess the human rights situation in the country and was currently drafting an assessment report on human trafficking in the Maldives due to be finalised at the end of the month.

Moreover, a draft of recommended amendments to the HRCM Act would be sent to parliament in the near future, Azra said.

The commission meanwhile conducted a number of programmes to raise public awareness of human rights, including training workshops and media campaigns by the advocacy department featuring video spots. Among notable public outreach programmes was the ‘Every neglect is an abuse’ campaign against child abuse.

The commission also released booklets and leaflets providing information on the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

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State Home Minister calls on HRCM to be “honest and fair” over second chance programme

State Home Minister Mohamed ‘Monaza’ Naeem has denied allegations made by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) that the ministry is obstructing the investigation of cases involving inmates released under the government’s ‘second chance’ programme, and called on the organisation “to be honest and fair.”

HRCM recently met with the press and alleged that the government was releasing inmates who had committed offences such as theft, robbery and assault under the second chance programme, and that it was withholding information and obstructing the investigation.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon at the Second Chance Programme Office, Naeem said that HRCM had requested the government send them details of the inmates released with their photographs and fingerprints.

Naeem said that the Home Ministry was trying to determine whether the HRCM had the legal authority to obtain fingerprints of the prisoners, because fingerprints were kept only for police purposes.

Naeem said he had met with commission members and briefed them about the second chance programme.

Furthermore, the State Minister said that the Ministry had been cooperating with the Human Rights Commission and called on the commission to treat everyone equally.

“HRCM said nothing about the incident that occurred near Alivaage, or following the death of an inmate in Maafushi prison,” Naeem said. “I personally called them and invited them to see the place where he died.”

An official from the Second Chance Programme told Minivan News that all inmates released were incarcerated for drug-related offences.

“To get drugs the drug addicts commit different crimes – they might steal something or commit a robbery,” he explained. “So far 304 inmates have been released and 17 of them have had to be returned to prison for breaking the rules of their release.”

He said all the inmates were released according to the law, and that the Second Chance Programme Office and police have been monitoring the inmates released.

“We randomly test urine of the inmates at least once a week,” he said. A number of inmates released under the programme have been taken back into custody after testing positive for drug use.

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Parliament passes bill reducing, eliminating import duties

Parliament today passed a bill proposed by the government under its economic reform package to amend the Export-Import Act of 1979 to reduce and eliminate import duties for a wide range of goods.

The amendment bill was passed today with unanimous consent of 60 MPs present and voting.

Among the items for which custom duties would be eliminated include construction material, foodstuffs, agricultural equipment, medical devices, passenger vessels and goods used for tourism services.

However, the bill was passed with an amendment to charge a Rf10,000 (US$650) annual fee for passenger vessels and no change to tariffs for spare parts. While import duties were eliminated for construction material such as cement, glass, tin, aluminium, plywood and plastic fittings, an import duty of five percent will be levied on tiles, which was reduced from the previous 25 percent.

Import duty was reduced to five percent for furniture, beds and pillows as well as cooking items made from base metals. Other kitchen utensils had duties reduced to 10 percent.

While import duties were eliminated for most fruits and vegetables, 15 percent would still be levied on bananas, papaya, watermelon and mangoes as a protectionist measure for local agriculture. Areca-nuts would have duty reduced from 25 percent to 15 percent.

Import duties for tobacco would be hiked from 50 percent to 150 percent. However an amendment proposed by the government to raise import duties for alcohol and pork from 30 to 70 percent was defeated at committee stage.

A total of Rf2.4 billion was projected as income from import duties in the 2011 budget. With the passage of the amendment bill today and ratification by the President, the figure is expected to decline to Rf1.8 billion next year. The shortfall is to be covered by Rf2 billion in tourism goods and services tax (T-GST) and Rf 1 billion as general goods and services tax (G-GST) revenue.

MDP parliamentary group leader MP Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was not responding to calls at the time of press.

PPM Media Coordinator and Vili-Maafanu MP Ahmed Nihan told Minivan News today that all members of the party’s parliamentary group voted in favour of the bill and stressed the importance of “providing relief to businesses” paying GST on top of custom duties.

“By this vote today, we have answered the MDP’s allegations that we tried to stop Majlis sittings to prevent this bill from being passed,” he said.

Speaker Abdulla Shahid and the ruling party should bear full responsibility for the cancellation of nine sittings over three weeks, Nihan said, as the dispute over the convicted Kaashidhoo MP’s attendance could have been avoided.

The PPM council member condemned the ruling party’s “efforts to blame the Majlis cancellation on opposition parties.”

“PPM will support any measure that will provide relief to the public,” he said, adding that the party would “very closely monitor” pricing by retailers following the elimination of import duties.

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