Tag: maldives

Airport deal “will allow Israeli flights to stop over after bombing Arab countries”: Umar Naseer

Deputy Leader of the Maldives’ main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Umar Naseer, has said that the government’s decision to privatise Male’ International Airport is “ridiculous.”

”Privatisation is a good policy, but there should be limitations,” Umar said. ”There are many disadvantages that Maldivians will face in the long term future if Male’ International Airport is privatised.”

He claimed that if the airport was privatised, the Maldives would not have the authority to decide which flights would be permitted to land at the airport.

”That means, if [the operators] allowed it, an Israel flight can come and stop over after bombing Arab countries,” Umar claimed.

He also claimed that “more than 1500 jobs” would be lost.

”More than half the Maldivians working in the Airport will lose their jobs if a foreign company takes over it,” Umar predicted. ”There are currently more than 3000 Maldivians working there.”

He said that if foreigners replaced Maldivians working in the airport, “income which was earned by the Maldives would go to the hands of foreigners.”

”Retail shops in the airport will also belong to foreigners,” he said. ”So money coming into the county will flow out of the country because foreigners are earning it.”

Umar suggested that the airport could charge a US$25 airport development fee for each passenger, the same amount GMR has proposed to collect.

”If that US$25 charge is implemented it will generate an extra US$25 million annually, because more than 500,000 tourists come to the Maldives each year and could be charged upon arrival and departure – which means US$50 from each person could be collected.”

He claimed the government was pushing ahead with the privatisation deal because “there are no successful businessmen in the government.”

”President Nasheed did not even know how to run a carpentry business. In 1990 his father gave him the business, and the president bankrupted it,” Umar alleged.

He said that “any economist” would consider the privatisation deal “ridiculous”.

Today the parliament is voting on whether to amend a Financial Bill stating that any state asset can only be sold or rented by an imposed law approved by parliament.

The signing of the privatisation deal with GMR-KLIA was derailed at the last minute yesterday, in front of assembled press, when representatives of the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) reportedly disagreed over who would sign the document.

Three MACL board members have now reportedly resigned after disputing the government’s decision to privatise the airport.

Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair, said he had not officially received confirmation.

”I also heard something like that unofficially,” he said. ”I have asked for the minutes of the last MACL board meeting.”

Minister for Civil Aviation Mahmood Razee, also Chairman of the Privatisation Committee, said he had no information regarding the matter.

”All the board members agreed to privatise the airport,” said Razee. ”If they are having disputes, that might be an issue concerning individuals.”

MACL board members Shaz Waleed, Moosa Solih, and Chairperson Ibrahim Nooradeen, declined to comment.

The vote on the Financial Bill will go before parliament today.

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Shelving ETS scheme a reason for Rudd’s downfall: Inside Story

Kevin Rudd’s fall from power was mainly caused by his decisions to “shelve the emissions trading scheme, to toughen asylum-seeker policy and to impose the resource super profit tax on mining companies,” according to an article in the online Australian current affairs and culture website, Inside Story.

“Kevin Rudd was absolutely wrong to claim that he had been elected by the Australian people and not by Labor factions,” writes Geoffrey Barker. “Rudd was elected as the member for his parliamentary seat of Griffith in Queensland. Nothing more. He took the leadership from Kim Beazley by putting together the numbers within the caucus [the Labour Party MPs]. It is the caucus that creates and destroys, that gives leadership and takes it away, and it is false and fanciful to try to suggest otherwise.”

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Subsidy for more electricity consumers from September: Firaq

Electricity usage exceeding 400 units may be subsidised from September, the deputy minister for home affairs Mohamed Firaq told Television Maldives (TVM) on Sunday, reports Haveeru.

The additional subsidies would go to applicants after a review of their financial situation, said Firaq. The government presently subsidises electricity usage below 400 units. “After September, subsidies will be provided to applicants. Usage of below 400 units will be subsidised after an ‘easy’ form is submitted. Subsidies for those who use more than 400 units will be provided after they submit a special application form,” Firaq said. “Sometimes the electricity bill becomes hefty for houses with large families… The new policy aims to provide subsidies to this group.”

The forms are available at STELCO and the National Social Protection Agency.

The government gives some Rf5.5 million as subsidies to STELCO, and the amount would reach Rf60 million by the end of 2010, reports Haveeru. The fuel surcharge would be subsidised.

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GMR shares rise on back of Maldives deal: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation

Shares in Maldives GMR Infrastructure shares soared 5.5 percent to INR60 in morning trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, after announcing the day before that it was awarded the contract to manage and expand Male International Airport in the Maldives, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) has reported.

GMR Infrastructure stock closed 0.5 percent  higher.

GMR Infrastructure reportedly offered US$78 million upfront for the contract, plus 1 percent of total profits in the first year (until 2014) and 10 percent of profits from 2015 to 2035.

Meanwhile, Maldives Airports Company Ltd (MACL) reported an 11.6 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to US$20.1 million for the 12 months ended 31-Dec-2009.

MACL also declared the payment of USD4.9 million in dividends to the Maldives Government, an increase of 36.7 percent year-on-year, and a payment of 1 percent of net profit, US$200,886, as bonus to its employees.

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On-Off-On-Off-On airport privatisation agreement signing function

A ‘hasty function’ organised on Sunday to sign the Male International Airport privatisation agreement with India’s GMR was postponed for a few hours and later for a day, reports Haveeru.

The Maldivian government earlier had set the signing for Wednesday, and the sudden changes of schedule come hours after four opposition parties from the Majlis signed a joint statement opposing the privatisation.

At the President’s Office on Sunday afternoon, the privatisation committee chairperson Mahmood Razee announced ‘some documents are pending’. Afterwards, the President’s Office press secretary Mohamed Zuhair told Haveeru the function was postponed until Monday.

The function was cancelled due to disputes among board members of Maldives Airports Company Limited over appointing a board representative to sign the agreement, reports Haveeru. GMR Infrastructure won the bid last Thursday to expand, modernise and operate the airport for 25 years.

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Regional action on piracy threat essential: Shihab tells SAARC

Dinghies suspected of being associated with piracy are arriving in the seas around the Maldives and a regional mechanism to counter piracy is needed, said the Maldivian minister of home affairs Mohamed Shihab at the SAARC home ministers meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, reports Miadhu Daily.

The SAARC Drug and Terrorism Offences Monitoring group also needs to be strengthened, Shihab said. Police chiefs, immigration controllers and home secretaries attended the meeting which was held from 23 to 26 June.

This month a dinghy with 6 men aboard was found floating in Maldives waters and rescued by local fishermen off Maamakunudhoo atoll in northern Maldives, reported Miadhu Daily. In May the MNDF rescued an Iranian fishing boat with 20 people aboard 75 miles west of Huvadhu atoll in southern Maldives, and an abandoned boat suspected of belonging to pirates was discovered off Laamu atoll just north of Huvadhu in April. In December 2009, fishermen from Addu atoll spotted a similar boat with seven Somalis in distress drifting off Hithadhoo island in southern Maldives.

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Protect Islam in the Maldives – don’t use it as a political tool: SAAG

The Maldivian constitution places a heavy responsibility on the present government to tread a careful path in developing democracy and at the same time ensure that there is no deviation of any citizen from his/her adherence to Islam, writes Dr S Chandrasekharan for the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG).

It is claimed that it is possible to establish such a balance and it will be interesting to see how Maldives under the present President Nasheed who in many ways is a liberal himself is able to manage his country and keeps it safe from extremism.

In the days of Gayoom, it was easy to keep track of visitors and prevent elements holding extremist views from visiting or from preaching, but in a democracy as is being practised now, it is difficult for the present government to prevent such visitors from coming in or from such persons making rigid interpretation of Islam.

The result is that on the invitation of religious NGOs within the islands or from the Islamic ministry itself, visitors with dubious background are allowed to come preach without restraint.

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Woman on Kinbidhoo attempts suicide after death of 10 month-old child

An Indian woman living on the island of Kinbidhoo in Thaa Atoll has been admitted to hospital after allegedly smothering her 10 month child and attempting suicide in Kinbidhoo this afternoon, an island official has claimed.

The woman was discovered by people on the island and rescued before she could kill herself, the official told Minivan News.

”Her husband is from Kinbidhoo, he works in the island court as a court secretary. She is quite young,” he said. ”They both had some disputes two days ago and it continued until today.”

”After killing the child she attempted to kill herself, but people discovered her and rescued her,” he alleged. ”She was taken to the health centre as she was in a bad condition. The health centre said that she had taken pills and tried to hang herself.”

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed the woman was hospitalised in Kinbidhoo health centre, but said it was too early to establish murder charges.

”We cannot say whether the child was murdered yet,” said Shiyam. ”There are more investigations to be conducted.”

He declined to give more information as the investigation was ongoing.

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“People should be free to pray according to any sect of Islam”, says Adhaalath president

The Islamic Ministry and the Adhaalath party have expressed concern over certain amendments proposed in the religious unity act by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Dr Afrasheem Ali.

The Islamic Ministry on its website said that while the amendment bill was useful, it was concerned about an article stating that the Shafi sect should be enshrined as the basis of Islam in the Maldives.

The Islamic Ministry described the article as “unIslamic”, and that it was against the constitution of the Maldives.

Furthermore, the ministry called on parliament to gather more information and to cite that information when amending the proposed bill during the committee stage.

The ministry said that “many scholars” were concerned over the amendment proposed to make the Shafi sect the main basis of Islam in the Maldives.

Sheikh Hussein Rasheed, President of the Adhaalath Party, refuted the article which making the Shafi sect the official sect of the Maldives.

”People should have the freedom to pray according to any sect [of Islam] they wish,” said Sheikh Hussein. ”There are many people in the Maldives who follows different sects when worshiping.”

Sheikh Hussein said that although the bill was passed, ”nobody will follow it.”

”Until 1997, on the island where Dr Afrasheem comes from, they did not perform the Friday prayers because according to the Shafi sect there should be a minimum of 40 people in order to conduct them,” he said. ”So if it becomes a law to follow the Shafi sect, again we are going back to those days.”

He said that Dr Afrasheem’s comment in parliament that in Malaysia people followed the Shafi sect was “a big lie.”

”In Malaysia people perform prayers according other sects as well,” Sheikh Hussein said.

He said that in many other Islamic countries there were no laws that specified which sect to follow.

”Laws can’t force people to follow a specific sect – people should be rather trained to follow a specific sect,” he said. ”I strongly refuse that part of the amendment bill.”

On May 21, Dr Afrasheem Ali presented a bill to amend the religious unity act.

Dr Afrasheem said that social unity among Maldivians was weaker than it had been in the past.

”One reason for this [disruption] is issues of religion, particularly disputes over worship and [scholars] criticising each other,” said Dr Afrasheem.

He proposed that the Shafi sect be chosen as the basis of Islam in the Maldives.

”I selected the Shafi sect because it is the sect most friendly, most accepted and most widely followed sect in Islam,” he said.

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