The Foreign Ministry of the Maldives has invited a delegation from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to the Maldives “to judge [for themselves] whether the local media is able to meet the needs of the public it serves, and of freedom of expression in the Maldives.”
The invitation was given after the IFJ issued a statement supporting the transfer of assets of the Maldives National Broadcast Corporation (MNBC) to parliament’s Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).
The MNBC is a 100 percent government-owned corporation that controls the assets of the former State Broadcaster Television Maldives (TVM) and Voice of Maldives (VOM).
In April 2010 the then-opposition majority parliament triggered a tug-of-war for control of the state broadcaster after it created MBC, appointed a board, and then ordered MNBC transfer the assets to the new body. Following a refusal to do so by the President’s Office, a Civil Court ruling last week ordered the transfer take place within 20 days. The government has said it intends to appeal.
“The IFJ has consistently argued the case for public service journalism which is independent of state control and insulated from a dependence on advertising revenue which is known to often impair editorial independence,” said IFJ’s Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park.
“The Maldives Journalists’ Association (MJA), an IFJ affiliate, has placed on record its belief that the empowerment of the autonomous corporation [MBC], which has been designated as a public service broadcaster under Maldives’ national law, is key to raising awareness during a challenging time of transition for the Indian Ocean republic.”
The Foreign Ministry claimed that “Unfortunately the current MBC Board was appointed at a time when the opposition majority of the People’s Majlis was being used for obvious political reasons.”
“However, the government looks forward to the day when the MBC can function as an independent, impartial and objective State broadcaster, backed by an independent and well-respected Board.”
The Maldivian media – including MNBC – is frequently accused of overt political bias favouring one or other of the major political parties, a legacy of decades of autocratic governance and a state-controlled media establishment.
Several opposition-allied MPs and businessmen remain key owners of much of the country’s private media, and visiting journalism trainers have voiced concerns from young Maldivian journalists that senior editorial management obstruct them from reporting ethically.
Iraq Editorial Manager for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Tiare Rath, observed in September 2010 following a series of journalism workshops that “one of the major issues all my students talked about is resistance among newsroom leadership – editors and publishers.”
“Even if the journalists support and understand the principles being taught, they consistently tell me they cannot apply them,” Rath said.
“This is a very, very serious problem that needs to be addressed.”
Inviting the IFJ to the Maldives, the Foreign Ministry said it requested that the IFJ “only uphold the very principles they espouse when they report on the situation on the ground. In this regard, perhaps it would be useful for the IFJ to send a delegation to Male’.”
Minivan News is currently seeking a response from the IFJ to the Foreign Ministry’s invitation.
In a referendum held on August 18, 2007, 60 percent of the people of the Maldives overwhelmingly decided on a Presidential system of government.
In 2008 a new Constitution came into force, taking into consideration the doctrine of the separation of powers and incorporating the ideas of checks and balances.
The executive branch separated from the legislative, and the judiciary began working independently. The Constitution is clear about the extent of the powers of each entity, the demarcations clearly drawn.
The powers and duties of the President, elected directly by the people, are clearly defined by the Constitution. There is a clear demarcation line drawn between the two spheres of influence: the legislative branch and the executive. It allows the separate powers to act independently while understanding the need for co-operation between these entities.
The legislature, staffed by members directly elected by the people, is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend and repeal laws. Article 5 of the Constitution vests the Peoples’ Majlis with all the power to enact necessary legislation.
In addition, the legislature has the authority to pass bills related to the lowering or raising of taxes, adopting the national budget and related money bills.
The executive branch is unipersonal, meaning that all executive power lies with the President. Members of the Cabinet are appointed by the President, held legally responsible, and are expected to implement the policies of the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of the government. It is the President’s prerogative under the Presidential system to direct members of the Cabinet, the military or any officer or employees of the executive branch.
The President’s power, however, does not extend into the domain of the judiciary: he generally has no power to dismiss or pass orders to judges.
The fact that a Presidential system seperates the executive from the legislature is sometimes held up as an advantage, in that each branch may scrutinize the actions of the other.
The question we are grappling with here is whether the legislature has the power under the Constitution to announce for applicants, interview, shortlist and hire members into State institutions.
While the Presidential system empowers legislative approval of Presidential nominations to the Cabinet as well as various other government posts such as judges and members of independent commissions, it does not allow the legislature to encroach into this sphere of influence that is specifically the domain of executive power.
A clear line has to be drawn between nomination and appointment of members of state institutions within the executive domain and approval and accountability which is the prerogative of the legislature.
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]
An opposition protest held last night near the artificial beach was dispersed by police after the group tried to make its way towards the intersection of Majeedhee Magu and Chandanee Magu, the focal point of last week’s violent demonstrations.
Earlier this week police had announced they were restricting protests to the artificial beach and tsunami monument areas, and have since quickly dispersed those conducted elsewhere.
Demonstrators at the artificial beach last night carried placards written in English reading “Remove sex offenders/drug addicts from government”, and “Resign now”.
As the demonstration took place, five rows of police and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) personnel armed with heavy wooden batons stood between the 300-400 demonstrators and the route down Majeedhee Magu.
At around 11:30pm demonstrators, attempted to reach the intersection and were forced to split up by groups of police with interlocked arms.
Police eventually used pepper spray to subdue several protesters who attempted to force their way into the intersection, including dismissed Deputy Leader of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Umar Naseer.
Placards at the artificial beach
“Five or six people who tried to force their way through our shield line were arrested and taken to police headquarters, and then released,” Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said.
Minivan News observed a light police presence all over the city, with larger squads of riot police stationed near key locations such as the President’s Office and the Chandanee Magu intersection. Several MNDF troop trucks stood ready outside the MNDF headquarters, but the military presence appeared minimal.
Besides the opposition protest and groups of young men hanging around the intersection heckling police, Male’ was unusually quiet for late evening. Entire city blocks in the north-east of the city were closed off and Republican Square was deserted.
An opposition protest in the square that morning involving several hundred people was quickly dispersed by riot police, and covered by foreign media including Associated Press and Al-Jazeera. The protest was subsequently rescheduled for the evening.
Later in the afternoon, a somewhat carnival atmosphere descended over the city as the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) staged a flag-waving counter-protest of several thousand people near the tsunami monument, alongside a concert stage and a police road safety campaign consisting of upturned cars and burned motorcycles.
Five lines of police blocked off Majeedee Magu.
“Anti-government protesters claim the uprising is inspired by the Arab revolution, that people power is rising up,” reported Al-Jazeera. “But here on the other side of town are thousands of voicing pointing out that the revolution has already happened.”
In an interview with the news network, President Nasheed accused the opposition of trying to reinstate authoritarian rule.
“I don’t think these are spontaneous demonstrations. If you look at the events and incidents [this week] it is very easy to understand this is very well stage-managed and fairly well played,” he said.
Al-Jazeera observed that “while leading opposition figures are clearly at the forefront of these demonstrations, they deny this,” and interviewed DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali.
“It is not attempt overthrow or change the government, it’s just raising voices,” Thasmeen told Al-Jazeera.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)‘s 2011 ‘Press Freedom in Peril‘ for South Asia has claimed there are “several matters of detail on which discord between journalists and the government is rife” in the Maldives.
The report, produced on behalf of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) of which the Maldives National Journalists’ Association (MJA) is a member, states that “going beyond the perception-based indexes of press freedom that have put Maldives among the most rapidly improving countries, there are certain difficulties that journalists in the nation continue to face, even if these are not reflected in the broad numerical indexes, which are admittedly of limited value.”
The reports claims that journalists covering opposition demonstrations in October 2010 were been “beaten with batons, some of them shackled and a number briefly detained,” with police claiming that this occurred because “some of the journalists covering the demonstration had started engaging them in a confrontational spirit.”
The report also noted the opposition party had blamed the alleged assaults on journalists on Parliamentary Group Leader of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), “who had, in the weeks preceding the event, made a number of public statements that suggested a deep antipathy towards the media.”
Manik referred to private TV channels in the Maldives as the fruit of ‘ill-gotten’ wealth and vowed to teach them a lesson,” the report claimed.
Subsequent findings from the Maldives Media Council (MMC) had “sought to be all things to all people, calling on journalists to follow a certain code of practice when covering events such as opposition led demonstrations, while at the same time, reprimanding the police for not giving adequate space for the media in their effort to record the protests.”
“Journalists needed to adhere to a certain standard of discipline, and the police needed to provide sufficient leeway for honest journalistic effort,” the report said, citing the MMC.
Attempts to devise a code of ethics and self-regulation for the country’s journalists by the MJA had been derailed by the state-owned media, the report claimed, “which was indifferent to this initiative, [and] which has rendered the code inoperative.”
The report noted a protest in October where four journalists from the private radio station DhiFM “were compelled to undertake a protest against their own employer when it turned out that the management had revealed the identity of a source used for a report on a tourist resort.”
“Irked by the content of the report, the resort management sacked the employee. The journalists who protested against their management’s unethical decision to reveal the identity of a news source, were in turn fired,” the report noted.
The report also highlighted the arrest of two Haveeru journalists in February 2011 “for interrogation” over leaked pornographic videos obtained from a Facebook blackmailing ring, which reportedly included material involved known public figures, and police efforts to obtain a warrant to search the newspaper’s offices, which was not executed.
A consistent concern throughout the year was the government’s decision to remove all government advertising from the media and publish an official gazette, depriving the industry of income, the report noted.
“By limiting the visibility of government advertisements, it has led to fears of bid-rigging and corruption in the award of official contracts. It has also caused considerable financial distress to the independent media,” the report stated.
The Miadhu newspaper had been compelled to move offices as a result of the decision, it claimed.
A second night of violent protests in the capital city ended with the arrest of several demonstrators after petrol bombs were thrown at police in the early hours of this morning.
Protesters gathered last night near the Tsunami Monument in Boduthakurufaanu Magu and marched towards the intersection of Male’s main road of Majeedhee Magu and the tourist street of Chandhanee Magu; the same location as Sunday morning’s sit-down protest.
Protesters demanded the government lower the cost of living and called on President Mohamed Nasheed to resign, claiming people were increasingly unable to afford basic commodities following the government’s effective devaluation of the rufiya.
Police blockaded the area to vehicles and maintained a presence, but unlike Sunday used no tear gas or force on the crowd.
Riot police at the scene were bombared with petrol bombs, stones, water bottles, chilli sauce, “and a hammer”, according to police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam.
“The protesters were trying to incite police. Some police were injured but not seriously,” he said.
Police yesterday issued a statement claiming that the the first round of violent protests was premeditated after discovering a ready supply of rocks stashed near the intersection.
Several police were injured when the protest turned violent
During last night’s protests, “police received information that petrol bombs were being made in the toilet area of a nearby mosque. Police attended the mosque and found petrol bombs and equipment used to make them.”
Police water cannon and tear gas were deployed in the area, but were not used. A number of violent protesters into custody who were later identified as known gang members. No MPs were arrested.
“We saw two journalists injured by a stone, although not seriously,” Shiyam said.
Senior political figures at the protest included dismissed DRP Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, and DRP MPs Ahmed Mahlouf, Ahmed Nihan. Jumhoory Party (JP) leader MP ‘Burma’ Gasim Ibrahim, and DRP leader MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali visited the scene at around 1:00am.
Gasim addressed the crowd but did not stay long, while Thasmeen joined the protesters.
Spokesperson for the DRP, Irahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef, confirmed to Minivan News that the protest was authorised by the DRP Council – significant, as Umar Naseer was dismissed from the party last year for leading similar protests on behalf of the opposition without approval.
Meanwhile, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group leader and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik led a group of around 100 MDP activists in an apparent attempt to clash with the DRP supporters, but were quickly cut off from the demonstration by riot police.
Both crowds threw objects at each other, with Moosa’s crowd yelling that they did not believe that living costs had risen.
After warning protesters several times to leave the area, police dispersed the crowd by slowly moving into the intersection. The protest was finally dispersed around 3am early this morning.
Thrown rocks left on the street in the aftermath of the protest
Speaking to Minivan News, DRP MP and leader of the party’s youth wing Ahmed Mahlouf claimed that last night’s crowds were larger than the previous protest – particularly the number of young people present.
“The crowds are much greater than last night and I am confident that the turnout will be even bigger tomorrow night,” he said.
The protests would be begin at the artificial beach area every night at 8:45pm ahead of a “huge” protest scheduled for Friday, Mahlouf said.
He acknowledged that the protests had descended into levels of violence that “could not be accepted” with some groups of people throwing stones and cans of petrol at police that at one point also threating to set a shop on fire.
“There is some suspicion that the MDP may have paid these individuals to do this. There were so many stones and petrol bottles thrown at police as well as hitting stores,” he said.
“We cannot accept these levels of violence and as protestors we just want to raise our voices and get our point across about high prices. Even last night we were asking police to arrest these people, though this difficult to do in large groups of people.”
The protests have been claimed by some opposition politicians to have been organised by, and represent, youth groups in the country rather than a single partisan interest.
Amidst plans by organisers for further protests throughout the week, Mahlouf said his party would nonetheless be having a meeting today to decide whether to talk with police about possible means to reduce potentially violent confrontations.
“A lot of these techniques were used by the MDP before they came into power,” he claimed. “I do not want to see a repeat of that.”
However, the MP claimed that a number of senior MDP activists had also joined the protests and spoke out concerning government economic policy, including some friends of President Mohamed Nasheed.
“We know people aren’t with them any more and that they don’t believe what he [President Nasheed] says,” he said. “Even in the MDP leadership elections where he supported the appointment of both Ibrahim Zaki and Mohamed Aslam, the party has voted against him.”
MDP spokesperson Ahmed Haleem Zaki claimed that the intervention of opposition groups like the DRP in the protests formed part of wider plans to create “drama” that distracted from a failure to pass so-called anti-gang legislation in the Majlis this week.
“Today parliament is supposed to be considering passing a bill that would give more power to police to arrest gang members,” he said. “This is a political problem where we have an important bill needing to be passed and the opposition parties do not want it to go through.
Haleem did confirm that fellow MDP MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik had turned up with some supporters during the protest, but said he was not himself responsible for instigating violence.
“Moosa was hit by stones and was then taken to hospital, but I can’t confirm if he was seriously injured or not,” he said.
Haleem claimed that Moosa intended to try to call for an end to violent confrontations and denied that his presence may have exacerbated confrontations at the protest site.
“We do not want violence as we are the [country’s] ruling party. Moosa was there to support police and ask protests to go home peacefully,” he claimed.
When questioned over whether MDP supporters were amongst the young people protesting, Haleem said that the party accepted that the cost of living was a major issue and that the last two years had thrown up a number of difficulties for the government in balancing the nation’s finances.
“However, we had the previous government who treated Maldivian money as if it was their own family fortune for many years,” he said. “They left the economy in such a situation that the government has been forced to take drastic measures. People know that the cost of living is high all over the world from China, to the US and the UK.”
According to Haleem, opposition parties had sought to use the protests to court drama and political instability in order to try and garner negative press coverage of President Nasheed through major news networks like CNN and Al Jazeera.
“I think [Nasheed] is very popular right now and that is why the opposition want drama,” he said. “[The opposition] thought they could compare the protests to mass movements in Egypt’s Tahrir Square – a site linked to the fall of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak – but people are not stupid and know very well that this isn’t the case. After four or five months we expect the economic situation to have improved.”
Meanwhile, MDP coalition partner the Adhaalath Party, led by State Islamic Minister Sheikh Hussein Rasheed, has issued a press statement in support of the anti-government protests.
The Adhaalath Party said it believed that the youth protest was “a peaceful gathering.”
”Lowerer living expenses is one of the main pledges of this government,” said the party. ”We call on the government to find a wise solution for this issue.”
The Adhaalath Party said that the protest was conducted lawfully and that ”it is not acceptable to use tear gas and batons to disperse a lawful protest.”
The party also expressed concern that police officers and protesters were injured during Sunday night’s protest.
Currency in crisis
The government has struggled to cope with an exacerbating dollar shortage brought on by a high budget deficit – triggered by a spiralling public sector expenditure – in comparison with the foreign currency flowing into the country. Civil service expenditure has increased in real terms by 400 percent since 2002.
Banks subsequently demonstrated reluctance to sell dollars at the pegged rate of Rf 12.85, and high demand for travel, commodities and overseas medical treatment forced most institutions to ration their supply or turn to the flourishing blackmarket.
After a short-lived attempt to crack down on the illegal exchange of dollars, the government floated the rufiya within a 20 percent band, effectively allowing it to be sold at up to Rf 15.42 to the dollar.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been critical of the government’s growing expenditure despite a large budget deficit, praised the decision as a step towards a mature and sustainable economy.
Police extinguish a thrown petrol bomb
“Today’s bold step by the authorities represents an important move toward restoring external sustainability,” the IMF said in a statement. “IMF staff support this decision made by the authorities. We remain in close contact and are ready to offer any technical assistance that they may request.”
However, many companies dealing in dollar commodities immediately raised their exchange rates to Rf 15.42, along with the Bank of Maldives.
The government’s move, while broadly unpopular, acknowledges the devaluation of the rufiya in the wake of increased expenditure and its own inability to overcome the political obstacles inherent in reducing spending on the country’s bloated civil service.
Yet as Maldives relies almost entirely on imported goods and fuel, and many ordinary citizens have found themselves harshly affected by short-term spike in prices of up to 20 percent as the rufiya settles.
“We do not really know, based on the breadth of the domestic economy, what the value of the Maldivian rufiyaa is right now,” Economic Development Minister Mahmoud Razee admitted at a recent press conference.
The government has said it hopes the rufiya will stabilise within three months.
A 51 year-old man from Hithadhoo in Seenu Atoll died of a heart attack while on a fishing trip with 15 others last night.
Ibrahim Mohamed ‘Ibrahim Kalo’ was fishing from the boat ‘Shaan’ within a one nautical mile of Hithadhoo when he died, reports Haveeru.
“He looked fine when we set out. We were just off the island of Hulhudhoo catching bait when he fell down and was completely still. There was no pulse and he wasn’t breathing. We immediately set off for Hithadhoo,” another man on the vessel told Haveeru.
GMR Male International Airport (GMIAL) today sought to clarify the payment of the airport service charges, fuel re-export royalty and concession fees to the government, following reports in newspaper Haveeru that it was undergoing a tax audit due to “inconsistencies”.
Commissioner General of Taxation Yazeed Mohamed was reported in Haveeru as saying that the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) was conducting an audit of the payments as “we looked into the speculations and found that there are some issues with the amounts paid.”
Yesterday, Haveeru reported the Managing Director of the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Mohamed Ibrahim as saying that the concession fee GMR had paid was US$2.6 million less than predicted.
“The payment was made in the first week of this month. We have informed the company that the amount does not match our estimations. The Finance Ministry has also informed the company that the actual amount would be more than that,” Ibrahim was reported as saying.
GMIAL issued a statement today claiming that concession fees up until March 31 had been paid “in full and complete compliance with the concession agreement.”
“MACL had certain observations to which GMIAL responded on April 11. MACL has not approached GMIAL with any further comments on the issue,” the statement read.
GMIAL further claimed the airport service charge was collected from airlines on behalf of the government until March 31 and paid to the MIRA on April 24, while the fuel re-export royalty was paid to MIRA on April 24 “as per the terms of the fuel re-export agreement.”
“GMIAL has not received any official communication from MIRA, other than acknowledgement of receipt, in relation to the above,” the statement concluded.
Speaking to Minivan News today, MIRA’s Director of Assessment and Audit Aiman Ibrahim said that the audit was “routine, as conducted for all tax types” and that the only inconsistency was that the airport service charge payment “was lower than our forecast.”
“Our forecast for the first three months, based on arrival and departures and factored into our 2011 budget, was that the airport service charge revenue would be US$4 million. The payment for November 25 to March 31 was US$3.9 million, so either there has been an underpayment or our forecasts were optimistic,” Ibrahim said.
The confusion was complicated, he said, “by an administration failure on behalf of the government. The Ministry of Finance was not aware it was supposed to be receiving the money. There is also conflict in the concession agreement: the agreement itself states that the [airport service charge] is to be paid monthly, but an annex in the agreement says payments are to be made on a quarterly basis. GMR had been keeping the money in a separate bank account.”
MIRA had not formally notified GMIAL that it was being audited, he said, as it was a routine audit and no notification was required unless further documentation from GMIAL was required.
GMR had met with MIRA today, Rasheed added, “and were very cooperative. They were concerned about the negative publicity.”
Indian infrastructure giant GMR, in consortium with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), last year won a bid to develop and manage Male’ International Airport under a 25 year concession agreement which includes a spend of almost US$400 million on a new terminal.
Under the agreement the consortium paid the government US$78 million upfront, and will pay one percent of its profits and 15 percent of fuel trade revenue until 2014. From 2015 it will pay the government 10 percent of airport profits and 27 percent of the fuel trade until 2035.
The agreement has been a major point of contention with the political opposition in the Maldives, which opposed it on nationalistic grounds.
Maldivian students in Malaysia will hold an annual futsal tournament, the Krolickz Raajje Cup, in Malaysia at the Subang Grand Sports Planet, Sunway.
The one day event this Saturday April 30 begins at 9am in the morning until 8pm that evening. 21 teams will take part in the event, with many players travelling to Malaysia from Male’.
The event is sponsored by Krolickz, a Malaysia based education consultant agency, which represents a number of colleges and universities in Malaysia. Other sponsors include Malaysian university Segi University College and several Maldivian companies, including Happy Market Traders, Airplus Travel and Tours, Net Solutions and one Malaysian university Segi University College.
Futsal is an indoor game similar to five-a-side football, played with a smaller ball with less bounce that a conventional football.
An Oscar and Emmy-winning film production company based in San Franscisco, Actual Films, has produced a 90 minute documentary charting the Maldives’ efforts to raise awareness of climate change in the lead up to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.
The Maldivian government was approached by Actual Films in early 2009 seeking behind-the-scenes access to President Mohamed Nasheed and cabinet ministers.
After two years, US$1.5 million, 140 hours of footage and a soundtrack by Radiohead, the company has produced a 90 minute documentary ‘The Island President’, to be released in cinemas later this year.
The film was entirely funded by the US Ford Foundation, American Corporation for Public Broadcasting, MacArthur Foundation, Atlantic Foundation and the Sundance Institute.
The Maldivian government insists it had no editorial input into the film, which was left completely to Actual Films and Emmy-winning Director Jon Shenk.
“It felt a bit weird for the first two hours but after that the ministers seemed to forget the cameras were there,” said a senior government source.
“It is unprecedented for a documentary maker to be given round-the-clock access to a head of state, probably for very good reason.”
The source, who was shown a pre-release version of the film, described it as “somewhat like a real-life episode of the West Wing”; giving a unique perspective on the high-level machinations of world powers that would make it of interest to politics buffs as well as environmental activists, “and it will probably do wonders for tourism.”
“Everyone who’s seen it so far says it’s made them proud to be Maldivian,” the source said, adding that it was the first time a film about the Maldives was to be shown at international film festivals.
The film will be released in US cinemas later this year and aired in the Maldives in early 2012.
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