Tag: maldives

Newly appointed MMA governor reveals plans to strengthen economy

The newly appointed Governor of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Dr Azeema Adam has stated that she will ensure firm action is undertaken to strengthen both the economy and its currency.

“We need to strengthen foreign exchange market regulatory framework and establish a sufficient monetary policy framework in order to maintain the value of rufiyaa,” she told local media yesterday.

Azeema added that the strengthening of these frameworks would also assist in reducing inflation and the rise in prices of general commodities, as well as echoing the concerns of her predecessor regarding monetisation.

“Printing money to overcome the budget deficit is something that brings down the value of the Maldivian rufiyaa. Therefore, this needs to brought to an end.”

“In order to do so, the MMA will assist the government to finance their budget deficit through a market mechanism,” she revealed.

She added that this will be difficult to accomplish without decrease government spending, while also noting the importance of the ratification of the new MMA Act which has been recently drafted.

Azeema also pledged to bring an end to dollar transactions on the black market, noting the importance of maintaining the value of local currency in a country like the Maldives which strongly depends on foreign currency.

The MMA’s recent balance of payments projections estimate that the country’s current account deficit will widen to US$562.5 million in 2014, which is equal to 22 percent of GDP.

She pledged to bring down the expense of running the central bank, stating that decreasing spending throughout the state bodies is imperative to strengthening the country’s economy.

Azeema stated that, although Maldives has a comparatively high level of investments in tourism and other sectors, it has so far failed to be reflected in the country’s financial status.

Productivity increasing

Due to the rapidly developing tourism sector, productivity of the Maldives will increase by 4.5 percent by the end of 2014, she said.

“At the end of 2013 we had US$368 million. Our estimate is that this will rise to 400 million dollars by the end of this year. Looking at how much is imported from this reserve, this is the import of about 2 or 3 months,” local media reported the new governor as saying.

Dr Azeema estimated that, compared to 2013, the current account deficit of the country will increase by 16 percent this year, while the official reserves exceed this. She said that this estimate is made based on the developing tourism sector, and the increased earnings that the government is acquiring from the field.

She went on to reveal that the major work the MMA will currently undertake is to introduce new insurance services and to establish further Islamic financing instruments.

The MMA will assist banks in releasing more loans to individuals by decreasing the minimum reserve requirement that they have to keep deposited at the central bank, she said.

“We need to strengthen the financial sector through revisions, this is a work we must undertake. We do not see big investments being made in the financial sector. However, we need to attract investments into this sector too,” Azeema told the press.

The governor stated that, where required, the central bank will also work to revise necessary laws and regulations in an attempt to strengthen the financial sector. She stated that this would assist the government in obtaining funds to implement various projects, while also being of help to small and mid-level businesses.

She highlighted the importance of creating more public awareness about the financial sector as well as encouraging a mentality of keeping savings from their earnings.

She further said that the MMA would encourage the use of electronic payment systems as opposed to cash and cheques. She stated that more convenient and efficient electronic payment systems will be introduced by the central bank, adding that this would be more secure than cash and cheque transactions.

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Comment: Maldives – The Hypocrites’ paradise

This article first appeared on Dhivehi Sitee. Republished with permission.

More than half of the Maldivian population is under the age of 25 and, with over a third of the population aged between 18-35, the Maldives has one of the most youthful populations in the world. This weekend around 200 of them assembled on the desert island of Anbaraa for an overnight music festival.

All elements that any reasonable person expects at a modern event of the sort were present—great DJs, young people up for a good time and, unsurprisingly, party drugs. On Friday night, when most revelers were at the peak of their enjoyment, a Maldives Police Service (MPS) team in riot gear raided the island. Apparently they were in possession of an arrest warrant, issued by one of many farcical courts that comprise the so-called judiciary.

The MPS asked no one’s permission to get on the island, respected no laws, followed no due procedure. Police statements have made it clear they were aware of the plans for the music festival, and also that it would take the form of a rave. They made no move to stop it from going ahead. When they raided the island on Friday night, they were fully aware of what they would find — a bunch of young people in a highly vulnerable state — and proceeded to assert their supremacy on them as aggressively as possible.

The MPS could not have acted more triumphantly if they had managed to bust the world’s biggest drug cartel. According to eye-witness accounts, they threw smoke grenades onto the unsuspecting revelers, barged into their tents without permission, searched their personal possessions without their knowledge, and handcuffed everyone deemed ‘guilty’ before holding them in custody for 14 hours without the right to counsel.

Once they had been humiliated, and by some accounts several beaten up in custody, it was time to turn the whole affair into a media circus. Pictures of various partygoers were splashed across computer and television ‘news’ screens as if they were members of a newly busted paedophile gang deserving the most forceful of today’s naming and shaming techniques.

The worst of the humiliation was reserved for the women, as can be expected of the misogynistic society the Maldives has become today. First came the reports across the entire media spectrum—from the mainstream to the most obscure—that several of the women had been found ‘naked’, ‘nude’, ‘everything bared’, etc. Pictures of laughing policewomen in headscarves marching the young female partygoers in handcuffs and sarongs appeared on all print and online newspapers.

As it turned out, all reports the women were naked were total lies, engineered to belittle and humiliate ‘the weaker sex’ as much as possible. The women were made to wear sarongs to court — not to cover their nudity, but to cover up the lie that none of them were naked. Wearing shorts, apparently, is now tantamount to being naked in the tropical island ‘paradise’.

The treatment of these young people is a supreme example of the hypocrisy that defines modern Maldives. It is one of the worst kept secrets of Maldivian politics that most of the Maldivian cabinet, and a substantial number of parliamentarians in the Majlis all drink alcohol and/or take recreational drugs. Several government Ministers not only drink but also facilitate parties and raves for young people they know. On the more sleazy side of things, several do so with the goal of getting sexual favours from young people in exchange for the illegal substances provided.

Quite apart from the disgusting hypocrisy of those in power, and separate from the widespread heroin addiction that has afflicted an entire generation of Maldivian youth since the 1990s, it is also a fact that social drinking and indulging in recreational drugs are common among young Maldivians, especially in the capital Malé. In recent years the use of party drugs such as ecstasy, and even more recently LSD too, have increased as it has in most cities across the world.

Meanwhile, in a country where alcohol is only meant to be available to tourists who holiday in the exclusive resort islands, it is commonplace for copious amounts of alcohol to be sold and bought in and around Malé every weekend. Government officials—and police—are fully aware of this. Many, in fact, have a share in the profits, which are invariably huge. Young people who want a drink are forced to pool their resources and shell out as much as MVR2000 approximately  (US$130) for a bottle of alcohol, regardless of its make, size or contents. Where else do the bottles come from except tourism industry tycoons with a license to import them?

Today several of these tycoons are also running the government and the country. To pretend they are unaware of how much their profits are pumped up from selling alcohol to young Maldivians is a sham that any thinking person can see right through. Yet they keep up the façade so that a) they can keep making profits, and b) continue claiming that such things do not happen in a ‘100 percent Muslim country’ like the Maldives.

Fact of the matter is, Muslim or not, drinking alcohol and taking recreational drugs are as normal among a large section of the Maldivian population as it is in any other 21st century society in the world.  To believe that what happens in the rest of the globalised world does not happen in the Maldives is the height of idiocy. Being such a small country with deliberately weakened cultural and historical roots has made us more, rather than less, vulnerable to global influences than most other countries. Nowhere is this more evident than in the number of Maldivian youth who have found themselves bending to the radical Islamist winds that have swept across the globe since the beginning of the century.

If we are to be honest, we have to admit that the big black burugas that so many Maldivian women have come to wear in the past decade have as little affinity with our culture and religious practises as the hot pants the women at the rave were wearing – yet the former is not just embraced but almost forced upon everyone as ‘the right thing’ while the other is criticised as ‘alien’ and even criminal.

Yes, the use of drugs are against the law. But since man began to live in societies, there has been no place on earth where youth have not bent the law for their fun and enjoyment. Their infringements—if they cause no harm to society as a whole—need to be dealt with concern and understanding, not handcuffs, brutality, and long sentences. Drug laws are meant to punish traffickers and dealers and to stop dangerous substances from becoming a menace to users and society.

Young people at a rave on a desert island, whether tripping or not, poses no threat to society whatsoever. To treat the Anbaraa revelers as criminals, to set out to publicly shame them, and to punish them with imprisonment demonstrate nothing but intolerance and ignorance. And the hypocrisy of those meting out such punishment, while happily indulging in worse behaviour themselves, boggles the mind perhaps even more than some of the substances said to have been available at Anbaraa could have.

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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MBC warns DhiTV for airing ‘ADK’ Nashid’s picture upside down

The Maldives Broadcasting Commission (MBC) has revealed that it has received further complaints regarding DhiTV’s airing of uspide down pictures – which it has argued violates broadcasting practices.

The new complaint – submitted on April 5 – concerned a picture of the newly elected Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP-elect Ahmed Nashid.

A statement on the commission’s website said that the complaint alleges that DhiTV broadcast the picture of Nashid – also the owner of ADK hospital – upside down as well as accusing him of being a thief.

MBC said that the pictures of Nashid were broadcast before more recent instructions to refrain from airing such images of leading politicians and civil servants.

On April 17, DhiTV aired pictures of MBC Chair Mohamed Shaheeb following the commission’s warning that strict measures would be taken against the station for airing similar pictures of other prominent figures.

The offending photo of MBC’s Shaheeb on DhiFM’s visual radio channel – also aired on DhiTV during its downtime – was accompanied by a news sticker that read, ‘Experts say that making such a harsh announcement while [we] have been apologising in compliance with the Broadcasting Commission’s instructions is a step backwards for democracy’.

Speaking to the press at the time, Shaheeb said that the commission had not decided what action it would take against DhiFM Plus, noting that the commission did not have the authority to withhold the broadcasting license of any TV station despite being the institution empowered to issue such licenses.

On March 24, 2014, MBC asked private media outlet DhiFM Plus to issue a public apology for broadcasting the upside down picture of former Elections Commissioner President Fuwad Thowfeek.

In a statement issued at the time, the commission noted that the act was in violation of the broadcasting code of practice and that it had violated the honour of Thowfeek

On February 12, 2014, the MBC advised private TV station DhiTV and its sister company, the radio station DhiFM Plus, to stop using the upside down images then Elections Commissioner Fuwad Thowfeek.

MBC had given similar advice to the two stations in November last year after they had shown upside down photos of three members of the Elections Commission – Thowfeek, Ahmed Fayaz, and Ali Mohamed Manik – with a caption alleging that they had committed electoral fraud in the annulled September 7 presidential election.

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Government to provide electricity to all islands before Ramadan

Minister of Defence and National Security Mohamed Nazim has stated that the government aims to provide sufficient electricity services to all inhabited islands prior to the month of Ramadan – likely to fall in late June.

Speaking at a conference of the government-owned Fenaka Corporation’s managers, Nazim acknowledged that currently some islands do not have sufficient electricity services. He stated that the utilities company Fenaka can play a major role in the government’s initiative to provide electricity to all the inhabited islands.

Nazim opined that the interferences in the supply of electricity in islands is mainly caused by the lack of proper maintenance of the generators, and the difficulty in obtaining spare parts.

Nazim stated that the current project undertaken by Fenaka to acquire new engines would contribute to providing a solution to the matter, while also highlighting the importance of having a plan to install and maintain the engines.

“We will need to panic at the last minute unless we have a plan to install them before they come to customs. Unless we do so, we cannot accomplish this in the right manner. The government now wishes to provide sufficient electricity to all inhabited islands prior to Ramadan. We can achieve this if this project proceeds in the right manner,” he stated.

Noting that Fenaka provides basic services, Nazim stated that employees at the company should work in line with government policies. He said that this does not require employees to act within political interests.

“If there is a difference in political ideologies, then it is best to let us know this through a letter. There are many people who are seeking jobs. The important thing is for those with different ideologies to step aside and give space to these people who are seeking jobs. I do not accept that any employee of this company needs to have a difference in political ideologies interfere with the work they are meant to do,” Nazim stated.

Nazim stated that the conference of Fenaka’s managers would assist in formulating effective policies to finding a solution to the problem of electricity service interruptions in the islands, while also building relationships which will assist in future cooperation between managers from various islands.

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MIRA quarterly revenues shows 10.5 percent increase compared with previous year

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) has released it’s first quarterly report of 2014, revealing that a total revenue of MVR2.78 billion was collected – an increase of 10.5 percent on the corresponding period in 2013.

91.5 percent of revenue was collected from five sources: Goods and Services Tax (GST) – 12.7 percent, Tourism Goods and Services Tax (T-GST) – 31.9 percent, Business Profit Tax – 27.9 percent, Tourism Land Rent – 9.3 percent, Tourism Tax (bed tax) – 5.3 percent, and Airport Service Charge – 4.4 percent.

MIRA noted that increased collection of fines for nonpayment as well as a “significant” rise in Land Sales Tax collected (0.3 percent).

59 percent of the total revenue was collected in US dollars – 29.5% more than the share of the previous quarter’s collection, and 7.7% more than the first quarter of 2013. The rise was driven largely by increased revenue from GST, Airport Service Charge, and Business Profit Tax – which grew by 24.7 , 45.1, and 16.4 percent respectively compared with twelve months ago.

MIRA’ s revenue streams are set to further increase from next month as telecommunications services will be subject to GST for the first time. T-GST is also scheduled to increase from the current rate of 8 to 12 percent in November, although the bed tax will be withdrawn in the same month.

The current government is considering a number of revenue-raising measures in order to address the MVR3.4 billion (US$224 million) shortfall in this year’s record MVR17.95 billion budge.

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Foreigners removed from pension scheme as voluntary amendment is passed

Following the passing of the second amendment to the pension act at the parliament yesterday, the Maldives Pension Administration Office (MPAO) has said that foreign employee participation in the pension scheme is now voluntary.

In a statement issued yesterday, the office said that employers are now permitted to delay the foreign employee pension contribution for the month of May.

Quoting Ismail Sujau, a director at MPAO, Sun Online has reported that the office has decided not to collect from those who are registered with the scheme this month as a lot of people have already started withdrawing from the scheme after it was made voluntary.

As of April, a total 3854 foreign employees have registered with the retirement pension scheme, reported Sun.

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JSC appoints Judge Abdulla Hameed as head of High Court

The Judicial Services Commission has appointed Judge Abdulla Hameed to head the High Court from April 20, 2014.

According to local media, Abdulla Hameed will be in charge of managing the High Court for a period of six months.

Since the suspension of the Head Judge of the High Court Ahmed Shareef, the court has been presided over by Judge Abdul Rauf Ibrahim.

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Hospitalised Maafushi inmate Ibrahim Azar dies from injuries

Former inmate of Maafushi prison, Ibrahim Azar, who suffered severe injuries during a fight in his cell has died while receiving treatment.

Local media has reported that Azar died at Ananthapuri Hospital in India at 12:15 p.m. local time, quoting members of the deceased family.

The injuries were sustained on February 24 during after being attacked by his two cell mates. According to a report on the incident at the prison shared by the Maldives Correctional Services (MCS), Azar had requested to be transferred from his cell more than an hour before the assault.

Azar – of Maafannu Dhodhilge – was brought to Malé after the incident with serious head injuries, although police were said to have assured his mother at the time that his injuries were not serious. He was serving a five year drug abuse sentence.

A source familiar with the matter has previously told Minivan News that Azar’s cell mates attacked him using a razor blade. He received multiple wounds to his body, and his head was allegedly banged against the cell wall or the metal fence.

However, officials from the MCS had denied that any “sharp objects” were used in the assault when asked by MPs at a Majlis oversight committee meeting.

Following the incident, Azar was taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, who recommended he be flown to an international hospital for specialist treatment.

Local media CNM has reported that Azar will be buried this afternoon after Asru prayers.

The correctional services said that they were unaware of the reports of Azar’s death at the time of publishing.

Azar made request to move cells before the fight

According to the one-page MCS report, on February 24, Prison Corporal Mohamed Mujthaba, the ranking duty officer at the time of the incident, was informed by guards of unrest in cell number 12 of unit three, wing one, at about 5:25pm.

Mujthaba questioned the prisoners and was asked by two of the three inmates in cell 12 – Ali Ashwan of Ma. Oasis Villa and Azar – to be transferred to a different cell.

“However, when [the inmates] were asked to explain the reason for wanting to change cells, they refused to do so until they were taken out of the cell,” the report revealed.

At about 6:00pm, the report stated, instructions were given to transfer the inmates, but the third inmate in cell 12 – Ahmed Liushan, also from Ma. Oasis Villa – obstructed prison guards who attempted to take the other inmates out of the cell.

At about 6:50pm, Mujthaba and Emergency Support Group officers made their way to the cell upon hearing a commotion from the unit – finding the “severely beaten” Azar inside.

The source familiar with the matter had told Minivan News that Azar was attacked by his cell mates after calling prison officers when a fight broke out between two of his cell mates on February 24.

“Azar was kept in A-B/Unit-3 of Maafushi Prison with two other inmates, and that day the two inmates had an issue and started fighting,’’ the source said.

“Azar called the prison officers and the prison officers talked to the two that were fighting and resolved the issue – but as soon as the prison officer left they started fighting again.’’

“It repeated three times, and after the fourth time prison officers were called Azar was attacked by his two cell mates,’’ the source said.

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The parlance of paradise: Preserving the Maldivian language

While over one million tourists visit the Maldives every year to gaze out at turquoise waters while sipping coconuts beneath palm trees, Maldivians have a far better understanding of what their guests seek – a perception inherent in the Dhivehi language.

Dhivehiraajjege understand that it is a view of the Moodhu that tourists hope for – the clear shallow waters between the beach and the reef – as opposed to the Kan’du, or deep sea. Similarly, visitors would hope to be served with a Kurumba – a ripe coconut filled with juice – rather than having a dried up Kurolhi fall onto their heads from the tree.

Even the tree itself, the giver of shade and Kurumba to thirsty tourists, represents more than the sum of its parts to the Dhivehi speaker, with the iloshi traditionally used to make brooms, the fann used for roofs, and the Ruhgulhi to make drums.

“It is our identity. When we say ‘I am a Mal-dhivehin’ – the Maldivian and Dhivehi – you can’t separate it,” explains President of the Dhivehi Academy Ashraf Ali. “This is the only factor which shows the cultural and linguistic identity of the Maldives.”

President Abdulla Yameen has recently called upon all state institutions to adhere to the 2011 National Language (Priority) Act, which created the Dhivehi Academy – charged with continuing the preservation and development of the language.

The President’s Office quoted Yameen as saying that the Dhivehi language was one of the “greatest privileges of our nationalism”, describing it as a “social obligation, as Maldivians, to give precedence to our national language”.

Ashraf explained that the preservation of the local language – spoken by less than 400,000 people – is beset with difficulties, but maintained that Dhivehi was “changing” and “evolving” rather than declining, with the Maldives’ youthful population lacking the same fluency in their Dhivehi as their elders.

Dhi-velopment

“They’re mixing into English language because the medium of instruction in the education system is given in English. Mostly the students don’t have enough time to discuss and to talk in Dhivehi language,” said Ashraf.

The restriction of Dhivehi to Islam and Dhivehi classes has left many young people feeling as if their mother tongue is not an official language, he suggested, arguing that English is seen as the key to a career.

A number of Arabic and Urdu words have been introduced into Dhivehi in recent decades, and Arabic has recently being introduced up to grade 7 in some schools – with plans to make expand into all schools. Young people are now seeing both Arabic and English as equally foreign languages.

“This generation don’t understand the Arabic, so they are mixing English. When they use English, the elders are saying ‘why are you destroying the language’, but the young people respond, ‘why did you mix with Arabic and Hindi’?”

Many more words detailing different types of ocean remain in use only amongst fishermen, who perceive the currents and swells of the Indian ocean far better than the younger generation for whom fishing has become a less common vocation.

One of the tasks performed by the academy is dealing with this evolution of the language in the Bas Committee, which also developed the official Dhivehi dictionary – published in 2012. Meanwhile, the Qavaaidhu Committee deals with issues relating to grammar and rules. An official English-Dhivehi dictionary is planned for next year. Furthermore, the academy is tasked with ensuring that Dhivehi is the primary language used across government institutions.

Events organised by the academy such as national competitions promoting the language have increased in popularity in recent years, with Ashraf suggesting that this growing interest may have been an unexpected side-effect of the country’s democratic advances over the past decade.

“The system has changed – the governance. Mostly people want to go to the People’s Majlis, so they have to speak in Dhivehi,” he said. “If they come up from these competitions they feel they will have something to show in the future.”

Language of love

The impact of the 2011 legislation was also described as providing greater knowledge of the language. The academy provides workshops and courses across the country, as well as a book fair which the academy has decentralised in order to spread its work into the atolls.

Work to preserve the country’s most prominent dialects has also taken place, with around 60% of the records of regional dialects – including the Addu, Fuvamulak, and Huvadhoo dialects – now preserved in Malé. A book featuring some of the preserved works in the Addu dialect is planned for publication later this year.

“It’s very difficult – the books are very expensive. That is the main problem for Dhivehi writers – they don’t have any kind of subsidy to better show their efforts. Maybe that is the one reason why the language is not well developed today.”

“The main problem to preserve the language is we don’t have enough facilities – even the human facilities…Still we don’t have any ability to do Dhivehi cartoons, Dhivehi comics. These are the challenges we face to preserve our language. We plan to have these things, but we don’t have any support within the academy.”

Ashraf also pointed out that, in order to survive in the 21st century, Dhivehi must adapt to sweeping technological advances – an objective that he is confident will receive the full support of a new generation of Maldivians.

“Dhivehi language must be a technology friendly language. That capability is not there in the last generation – now this generation, they have this capability so they have many ideas.”

“To preserve and develop the national culture, we must know the language. Every Maldivian must know the language for the culture and for his own country,” said Ashraf, whose major concern was simply that teaching methods had left students bored with their mother tongue.

“You should love the language in order to develop the language,” said an optimistic Ashraf.

Pointing out that the Dhivehi vocabulary has at least eight synonyms for the word ‘love’, Ashraf clearly feels that this is something Maldivians have a great capacity for.

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