Tag: minivan

“Don’t marginalise Sri Lanka”: Nasheed to Human Rights Council

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has submitted a report documenting alleged war crimes in the closing days of the Sri Lankan Civil War to the UN Human Rights Council.

The report accuses the Sri Lankan military of killing tens of thousands of civilians through shelling in the closing days of its war with Tamil separatists, and increases the likelihood that the Human Rights Council may be called on to vote for a full international, independent investigation.

Sri Lanka has meanwhile rejected the report’s findings and stated that it opposes an outside investigation. Instead, the government has appointed its own ‘Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC), which is expected to publish its findings on November 15.

Central to the UN’s case is graphic footage of the execution of bound and gagged prisoners, which the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns, described as reflecting “crimes of the highest order — definitive war crimes.”

Heyns analysed the video in consultation with a forensic pathologist, firearms expert and two forensic video analysts, and concluded that the footage was authentic, however the Sri Lankan government has maintained that the video is fake.

It has also stated that civilian casualties were unavoidable during the final offensive, due to the Tamil Tigers’ use of 300,000 people as human shields.

As an outspoken member of the UN Human Rights Council and a vocal proponent of intervention during the Libyan uprising – and also Sri Lanka’s neighbour – the situation is likely to challenge the Maldives diplomatically.

Yesterday, as the international community was ratcheting up the pressure on Sri Lanka, President Mohamed Nasheed called for an “amicable solution”.

“As long as we argue about Sri Lanka, the government is increasingly marginalised and we are losing the government and the country outside the fold of the international community,” Nasheed warned.

“We must understand that a number of very, very bad things happened but we must be able to move forward,” he said.

Current Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has previously described the UN report as “singularly counterproductive”, while during a recent interview with Minivan News, former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said he felt the government’s position on Sri Lanka “has been misunderstood”, particularly its comparison with the government’s stance on Libya.

“But I think Naseem’s comments and the government’s position on Sri Lanka have been misunderstood. The Libyan situation is different from the current situation in Sri Lanka. Libya is ongoing – things are happening today on the ground, and we need to try to prevent further abuses tomorrow,” he said at the time.

“In Sri Lanka’s case these are post-conflict issues. What we say is that the most important thing in a post-conflict situation is to find a way forward and not live in the past. This does not mean we are condoning abuses, or saying such things are fine. But Sri Lanka needs to find common ground with the UN Human Rights Council in which both parties can move forward. The government of Sri Lanka needs to be able to enter into dialogue with the international community to achieve speedier reconciliation.

“You can’t have reconciliation and long-lasting peace unless you respect human rights and set up mechanisms to do so. But we should steer clear of politicisation, or the divisions that have kept the flame of terrorism alive in Sri Lanka for so long. We are saying let Sri Lanka find a way forward and achieve reconciliation – we are not saying we don’t care about the past,” Dr Shaheed said.

China and Pakistan have also expressed support for Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s special envoy on human rights, has called for the international community to wait for the findings of Sri Lanka’s own commission in November.

“It is disconcerting to note the haste with which some have sought to usurp the government of Sri Lanka’s prerogative in deciding its domestic process,” Samarasinghe has previously told the Council.

“We firmly believe that our home-grown process is capable of addressing the nuances of our unique situation.”

However several international human rights organisations, including International Crisis Group (ICG), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Amnesty International (AI) have refused to appear before the LLRC claiming it fails to meet minimum international standards, noting that its members were appointed by the government, it had no mandate to investigate war crimes in the closing days of the conflict, and lacked any mechanism to protect witnesses.

“The LLRC’s mandate, its composition, its procedures, and the human rights environment in which it is operating all conspire to make a safe and satisfactory outcome for victims of human rights violations and their families extremely unlikely,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific region, Madhu Malhotra, in October 2010.

“Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the lack of any provisions for witness protection and the fact that former officials who have publicly defended the Sri Lankan government against allegations of war crimes serve on the commission.”

Warning: some readers may find the following footage disturbing

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Bodu beru dancers and water cannon salute welcome first scheduled flight from Seoul

Tourists on the first Mega Maldives flight arriving in Male’ direct from Seoul in South Korea this morning were greeted by bodu beru dancers and airport staff handing out coconuts.

As the plane taxied off the runway, two of the airport’s fire engines shot water cannon in an arc over the plane. The 158 bemused passengers were greeted at the top of the stairs by CEO of Mega Maldives George Weinmann, and accompanied through immigration by pilots and flight crew.

Speaking at a press conference of local and South Korean journalists later this morning, Weinmann observed that while the flight was not the first direct flight from Seoul, it was the first such scheduled service and the first for a Maldivian carrier.

All four of the airline’s routes launched this year, he observed, were to cities not previously served by direct flights including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and now Seoul.

“We believe this will increase the total demand for the Maldivian [tourism] product, and also create new opportunities for trade such as exports to Korea,” said Weinmann, a former rocket and satellite engineer with aerospace giant Boeing.

Weinmann said the decision to fly to Korea was influenced by the discovery that South Korea was operating five flights daily to Hawaii, such was the appeal of the iconic tropical destination to the Korean market.

“The flight time to Hawaii from Seoul is nine hours, similar to the flight time to Male’, and the total price of hotels is also similar,” he noted. “This will allow for the development of a lot of new business and trade.”

A water cannon salute greets Mega's first flight from Seoul

Korean arrivals to the Maldives increased 54 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, from 16,000 to 24,000, suggesting that the country was a rapidly growing market for the Maldives. Weinmann has previously told Minivan News that Mega’s niche is to have flights from Asia that arrive during the day, thus avoiding the need for Asian visitors to overnight in Male’ or Hulhule’ while waiting for daytime transfers.

MD of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), Simon Hawkins, acknowledged that the South Korean market had been neglected as far as tourism promotion was concerned, in favour of traditional markets such as Europe.

“We aim to remedy that, now that we have identified South Korea as an emerging market. We want to appeal not just to honeymooners, but also families and organisers of meetings, conferences and exhibitions,” he said.

Chief Commercial Officer of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Prasad Gopalan, meanwhile cited a report stating that South Korea was ranked third in rising numbers of millionaires, after India and China.

“We have done our research – South Korea is an emerging market for the Maldives,” he said.

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Wataniya launches Blackberry service in the Maldives, enabling secure private communications

Mobile operator Wataniya last night launched the Blackberry service in the Maldives, at a ‘black suit’ event held in the National Art Gallery.

Beyond just a range of smart-phones allowing for ‘push’ email connectivity, the Blackberry service is one of the world’s largest private networks with 67 million subscribers and 14.8 percent of the global smartphone market.

The device, produced by Canadian technology company Research in Motion (RIM), grew in popularity on the back of business and corporate users, attracted by its security features, reliability and strong encryption.

The event last night opened with a dance by a man in a glow-in-the-dark jumpsuit, and a band playing the Beatles tune ‘All you need is love’.

Vice President of the Maldives Dr Mohamed Waheed remarked that RIM’s decision to enter the market in the Maldives “is a vote of confidence in the business environment of our country, and for that we are grateful.”

Dr Waheed also noted that the introduction of consumer and business-grade secure communications in the Maldives was “an indication of how our country has matured”, and “an indication that our country is comfortable with the freedoms that we have; particularly the freedoms of expression and democracy.”

“This is an important step towards the improvement of commerce and business in the Maldives,” Dr Waheed said, adding that the country’s “dynamic, highly literate and IT savvy youth” would ensure “a bright future” for Blackberry in the Maldives.

Chief Operating Officer of Wataniya Stephen Smith said the company was proud to enter in partnership with RIM, “to provide the highly anticipated service to customers in the Maldives for the first time. Blackberry provides a meaningful and secure connection to enterprise email and other important systems, and we’re glad to be able to provide this capability to our customers.”

Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Bruce Levy, meanwhile observed that without their Blackberries, the Canadian government “would shut down overnight.”

“The first thing I saw when I landed in the Maldives was a fleet of twin otter seaplanes, many of which are piloted by Canadians. The delegation tonight is staying at Four Seasons, an eminient Canadian hotel chain, and the President is off to the Toronto International Film festival this weekend,” Levy said.

“It is a great time to be Canadian in the Maldives.”

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Pirates release Danish family taken hostage in February

A Danish family who were captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean after departed Haa Alif Atoll in the Maldives have been freed.

Jan Quist Johansen, Birgit Marie, their three teenage children and two members of crew were taken hostage on February 24.

All seven hostages were released. Pirates claimed a ransom of US$3-4 million was paid.

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Marine current energy could help Maldives meet 2020 carbon neutral ambition

A team of researchers from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen have recommended that the Maldives seriously consider marine current energy as part of meeting its ambition to become carbon neutral by 2020.

The team visited the country in April and met with assorted energy stakeholders, interviewed divers, fishermen and boat captains, and hired a vessel to conduct current measurements.

According to the pre-feasibility report, “marine current energy in particular might provide a potential resource to add to the national energy mix.”

“Marine renewable energy has the distinct advantage of being very scalable, being to small mini-grid applications in communities, as well as larger scale installations for areas of high demand such as Male’. Furthermore, it is the only renewable energy that can have no visual footprint, an important consideration in a tourist dependent country such as Maldives,” the report stated.

The researchers noted that existing investigations of renewable resources, such as solar, wind and biogas, each had particular limitations in the Maldivian context.

“Solar shows the best resource potential of these but its implementations is restricted due to space restraints,” the report noted, while “despite numerous proposed wind projects, NREL (the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) indicates that the Maldives wind resource is ‘poor to marginal’.”

Biogas was more promising, the scientists said, particularly plans for a 3-5 megawatt waste energy plant near Male’, but this represented only a fraction of the current 38.76 megawatt installed capacity of STELCO’s existing fossil fuel setup.

The team investigated the potential for marine current and ocean thermal generation.

Marine current

The team modelled a number of channels to determine the power resource that would be technologically and economically exploitable, and found a significant variation depending on which direction the current was flowing.

The difference in total extractable resource was significant: when the current flowed east to west, the extractable power of all channels modelled was 106 MW, but only 28 MW when the flow was reversed.

The largest resources for east to west currents were found at Dhiffushi Kandu (31 MW), Gaadhoo Koa (25 MW), Thilafushi (14 MW), Emboodhoo Kandu (13 MW) and Gulhi Falhu (12 MW), while few of the channels provided much resource when the flow was reversed: just Kandu (15 MW) and East of Vadoo Island (9 MW). Gulhi Falhu and Emboodhoo Kandu, as marine protected areas, were unable to be developed as marine energy installations due to existing legislation, the report found.

“The reduced power available when the current flow in the west to east direction is partly due to the lower mean current speed in this direction, and partly due to the position of North Ari Atoll to the west of Male’ and South Male’. When the flow is from west to east it is slowed by North Ari Atoll before it reaches the Male’ and South Male’ Atolls,” the researchers noted.

They did however note that the monsoonal current model used for the calculations “did not take into account the effect of the other factors that affect the overall current speeds, such as tidal currents.”

The researchers suggested that the most applicable technologies for developing marine renewable resources in these channels would be “those designed for slower current speeds and shallow water sites”, but advised the government to remain “technology agnostic” until a detailed study of flows was completed over a longer period, “ideally a year”.

“Partnering too early with specific technology providers could result in a scenario whereby the Government of the Maldives is obliged to use technology that is not suited to the particular channel and current characteristics, and will not deliver maximum energy at the most economical cost,” the researchers warned.

Ocean thermal

The researchers also examined the potential for ocean thermal in the Maldives, a technology that converts thermal energy into kinetic energy by taking in deep cold water at depths of up to 1000 metres.

However a small 40 megawatt commercial facility requires a large displacement of water and can have a large environmental impact on the immediate area, due to noise and changing water temperatures, the scientists noted.

Moreover, the technology is exceedingly expensive with even a small 5-10 megawatt demonstration plant costing upwards of US$200 million.

“[Ocean thermal] was conceived over a century ago, yet there are still no operational commercial plants, and only one operational pilot plant (Hawaii). This is despite numerous feasibility studies and investigations by both countries and private enterprises, none of which have resulted in an actual installation,” the researchers noted.

“One of the main reasons that commercial OTEC power plants have not been built to date is their unfavourable economics in comparison to fossil fuel. Thus the challenge is to finance a capital intensive technology that does not have an operational record. The plant would need to be >50MW to be cost competitive in terms of $/kWh,” the report said, suggesting that this would price out the Maldives.

A small-scale water cooling system working on the same principle was trialed at Soneva Fushi resort, the report noted, whereby the cold water was to be used for air-conditioning and thus reduce the resort’s electricity consumption by 25 percent.

“Cold water (11-12°C) was pumped through a pipe from the 300m shelf approximately 3 km southeast of Soneva Fushi Resort. From the pump station, it was distributed to guest rooms and offices via an insulated underground piping system,” the report explained.

“Non-corrosive fan units in each room enabled the heat exchange between water and the surrounding air to bring the temperature down to comfortable levels. Unfortunately the project had some design flaws that resulted in it not delivering on cooling requirements as anticipated and it was thus decommissioned by Soneva in 2009.

“One of the problems encountered was that the pipeline wasn’t weighted down sufficiently, as with all the weights on it was still floating. Because the anticipated depth wasn’t reached, the water that was pumped in from the deep water intake pipe was not cold enough,” the researchers noted.

The report observed that while the current installed fossil fuel plants met Maldivian needs, “a very ambitious transition towards a renewable energy portfolio is needed to deliver on the ambition to become carbon neutral in 2020.”

“The Maldives is blessed with abundant renewable energy resources, but the ongoing energy programs in the Maldives until recently have had a substantial focus on electricity generation through diesel-run generators,” the researchers observed, “and little attention was given to promoting renewable energy production in remote islands to meet their energy needs.”

“There was a glut of proposed renewable energy projects announced subsequent to the declaration of the Maldives’ carbon neutral ambitions. Numerous MOU’s were signed, however, the absence of progress in these projects is causing concern,” they concluded.

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President awards Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy

World Champion Surfer Mark Occhilupo has won all three divisions of the inaugural Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy, defeating longboard champion Josh Constable in the final and taking home US$19,000 in prize money.

President Mohamed Nasheed presented the trophy to Occy on board the Four Seasons Explorer, a luxury three-storey catamaran anchored near the Sultans surf break.

“We are people of the sea. We grow up with the elements around us, and the sea is never very far away. We are taught to swim from a tender age,” Nasheed said.

“44 percent of our workforce are fishermen, who spend more than half their lives on the sea, and many Maldivians looked up to famous surfers while growing up,” he said.

Nasheed dancing Bodu Beru with the surf champions

The relative seclusion of the country’s surf breaks compared to more famous surfing destinations such as Hawaii and Indonesia was not necessarily a bad thing, Nasheed said, “because we are not always clear about how to manage our resources. We have to use them wisely to benefit everyone.”

Nasheed told Occy that the Maldivian cabinet was not unfamiliar with the water, having conducted a cabinet meeting underwater in 2009. Occy asked if that was “the same as a cone of silence”.

Occy dedicated the champion’s trophy to Tony Hussain Hinde, the Australian-born surfer who pioneered modern surfing in the Maldives after becoming shipwrecked in the country, and who died in 2008.

Following the prize presentations, the six surfing legends, together with the President, Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair, cabinet ministers and several MPs of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) erupted into a spontaneous traditional Bodu Beru dance.

Final day of the competition

The six surfers, including two-time world champion Damien Hardman, four-time world champion Mark Richards, world longboard champion Josh Constable, 1966 world champion Nat Young and seven times female world champion Layne Beachley competed in one-, two- and three- fin divisions over the three days.

On the last day the Sultans reef break served up consistent four-foot right hand waves. During the final event, Occy required an 8.10 score to reclaim his lead, and waited patiently for a wave on which he delivered a 9 with full rail-to-rail maneuvers.

“I made a couple of mistakes, including losing priority, and I had to tell myself to just calm down,” Occy said of his performance.

“So I cleared my head and moved up the point where I needed to be and then a gem of a wave came through and I surfed it as good as I could and got that nine. I didn’t have one heat where I felt I was not under pressure. All those memories of being on tour came back and I had to rely on my instincts to win this event and now that I have, I am over the moon.”

Constable praised Occy as a “solid competitor”.

Reehan surfing with Layne Beachley

“I just couldn’t get him. He was on his game all week. I felt solid in the final and I had a good score but couldn’t get that back up so hats off to Occy.”

Sole female competitor Layne Beachley came close to taking the single fin division title from Occy in the final of the first day, and was only narrowly defeated.

“It’s been surreal competing against five male world champions and being a contender,” said Beachley, noting that such match-ups were rare in the surfing world due to the anatomical disadvantages women faced: “our hips get in the way.”

“I knew it was always going to be challenging but I stepped it up and gave them a run for their money,” she said.

Four-time world champion Mark Richards was forced to withdraw from the final day of the competition after suffering a hamstring injury, opening the way for Maldivian surfer Ali Reehan Mohamed to take to the water as a wildcard entry.

Grinning, the 18 year-old described that surf as “the best experience of my life.”

Confessing to an attack of nerves at being out among the world champions, Reehan said “I did my best to show them something.”

"Best experience of my life" - wildcard entry Reehan

“It was very friendly, we were sharing waves,” he said.

Reehan has been surfing for two years, after upgrading from “fighting the white water on a body board”. He has since made his hobby into his work, freelancing as a professional surf guide.

“I stopped my last trip just to come here – I gave it to someone else,” he said.

General Manager of the Kuda Huraa Four Seasons Resort, Sanjiv Hulugalle, said the HSBC, Billabong, Wataniya, Surfing World and Singapore Airlines-sponsored event would return next year.

“The aim was to showcase the Maldives as a world-class surfing destination,” Hulugalle said, “and the international media has broadcast it all over the world.”

Reehan agreed: “With the media here, Maldives surfing is only going to get bigger,” he said.

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Tourist volunteers collecting data to protect Maldives reef ecosystems

A team of 15 volunteers from around the world have begun an expedition in the Maldives to collect data that will be used to compare and protect the health of the country’s vulnerable reef ecosystems.

The amateur marine biologists from countries as diverse as Germany, Russia, Australia and the Maldives have departed on a week-long tour aboard the luxury live-aboard Carpe Diem, during which they will be trained up on the Reef Check program and conduct as many as three research dives a day under the supervision of a team of professional biologists.

The hands-on ‘voluntourism’ trip is organised by not-for-profit wildlife conservation organisation Biosphere Expeditions and Six Senses resorts, which has provided a grant of US$79,000 over the four year program, and scholarships for two young Maldivians – Nishan Thoufeeg and Ahmed Shan – to participate on the trip.

At a press conference launching the expedition this morning, Executive Director of Biosphere Expeditions Dr Matthias Hammer explained that the objective was to involve ordinary people in conservation efforts while generating scientifically-rigorous data that can be used to recommend and implement policy.

Previous expeditions have focused snow leopards in Central Asia, turtles in Australia and jaguars in Brazil, “usually charismatic megafauna,” Hammer said.

Dr Jean-Luc Solantt, a scientist from the Marine Conservation Society in the UK who is accompanying the volunteers, noted that there was a lack of “basic, coarse-level data” required for monitoring reef ecosystems.

“We need to know what is happening on a national scale. The [Reef Check] program has a very basic methodology but it is very scientifically robust.”

The data would contribute to the monitoring and understanding of commercial fish populations, determine the reefs most resilient to environmental pressures, and serve as an early warning system for problems related to warming, bleaching and algae.

“In 1998 the water temperature reached 32 degrees for 4-6 weeks, and that caused most of the reefs down to 30 metres in the Maldives to die,’ he explained. “This data will help us see the pattern of recovery from that global impact, and recommend places that should be made marine protected areas.”

Solantt will check and evaluate the data collected by the group and produce a report based on the expedition. The data will then be collated and made available to scientists worldwide, as well as the Maldives Marine Research Centre (MRC) and the Maldives Whale Shark Research Project, if any of the creatures are spotted.

The group also presented 2500 copies of a colouring book, ‘The Adventures of Anees the Anemonefish’, to State Minister of Education Ibrahim Rasheed.

The book, written by Soneva Fushi’s Marine Biologist Kate Wilson and illustrated by Maldivian artist ‘Angel’, is intended to raise awareness around reef protection and inspire children to seek a career in environmental protection.

“Our country is the most beautiful in the world and we want to keep it that way,” said Deputy Minister Rasheed, “but we can only make policies based on the information and data we receive.”

“We need to make sure people are aware of the fragility of our environment. Education can create this awareness, which is why environment studies is a compulsory subject in the new curriculum,” he said.

Presenting the book "The Adventures of Anees The Anemonefish" to the Deputy Minister of Education

Program participants arrived last night from Europe, North America, Russia, Australia, Asia and the Maldives. Some had participated in previous Biosphere projects.

Tina Kuersten from Germany said the biggest results of a Biosphere expedition are seen long-term. “After my first expedition in Altai, I would get emails and updates about the project. It was great to see the results of our work, and to see how I had contributed to something significant.”

Kuersten’s husband Uwe said, “The value of these trips is that you can do something valuable, and learn more about biology.” He said seeing results motivated him to stay involved.

Riswil Ismail, who is from Malaysia, had followed Biosphere’s work for several years. She said in spite of the prohibitive cost, the diving aspect was very attractive.

“I’ve done a lot of dives, and I think because Malaysia and the Maldives are similar it would be great to learn about conservation in this way.”

Ismail said that the concept of paying to go on a volunteer work vacation was “not so popular” in Malaysia.

“People can donate money to a cause, but they don’t always get to see what their money can do. Paying to work on a vacation is a harder concept to understand in Asia, but I think it’s a really valuable way to contribute to a cause. If Maldives is doing this, why not Malaysia?”

Curnow said the average participant is “a well-educated person with a good job who wants to learn something new.” She said that scholarship programs are designed to attract students from the target location. This year, Six Senses’ Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili resorts are co-sponsoring two Maldivians to take part in the expedition.

Biosphere Expeditions will run trips this week and next week; results are usually published six to eight months afterwards.

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Three MNDF officers arrested on robbery charges

Police have arrested three officers of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) accused of entering an expatriate residence in Male’ in army uniform and robbing the Bangladeshi workers with threats of violence.

Lance Corporal Ali Ibrahim, 26, of Lhaviyani Hinnavaru Aaramuge, and Private Hussein Mahir, 23, of Laamu Mundhoo Finifenmaage, were taken into custody Monday night with stolen cash.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News today that the third suspect, Saad Ibrahim, of Kaafu Gaafaru Noovina, was arrested yesterday after conducting a search for the accomplice.

All three were working at the MNDF coastguard. Ali Ibrahim, who joined the force in November 2004, was employed at coastguard operations while Hussein Mahir, who joined in June 2008, was a security officer at the coastguard building.

In a statement on Tuesday (August 30), the MNDF said it was “working with the police to take the harshest legal action possible” against the errant officers.

According to local media reports, the three officers robbed the expatriate workers living in Maafanu Pink Rose on Fareedhee Magu on a number of occasions during Ramadan.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that the uniformed officers entered the house on three consecutive nights and took Rf30,000 (US$1,945), Rf24,000 (US$1,556) and Rf12,000 (US$778) respectively.

The two officers were reportedly confronted by members of the public on the third night, who informed the police.

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Comment: Parliament is laughing at you

What a laugh the Majlis is having at the people’s expense. If voting to give themselves the extra MRF20,000 (US$1300) was like spitting people in the face, having the pay cheque backdated is like rubbing the polity’s face in the MPs’ bejewelled excrement.

For what is this money being rewarded? For emotional distress caused by having to bend to the people’s will for eight arduous months? Has life really been that tough on MRF60,000 US$(3900) a month that MPs need financial redress for their suffering?

It really must have been difficult coming up to Ramadan, having to forgo one or many of all those pre-Ramadan MP necessities. No pre-fasting trips to Bangkok, no spiritual rejuvenation trips to Sri Lanka, no shopping trips to Malaysia, no tri-annual holiday abroad for the parliamentary off spring.

Having had to endure a month in which the prices from fish to furniture have gone beyond the common man’s reach, the collective empathy of the people are no doubt with the Majlis.

Kudos to the 17 who have said they do not want the allowance.  Most fascinating, though, are the 16 who abstained. Would the allowance have been possible without them?

How complex and nuanced a question is: do you think you deserve the MRF20,000 a month at a time of grave national debt? It requires a simple yes or no answer – you are either with the people or you are not. Sitting on the fence on this question is even more self-serving than those who voted to keep the allowance – at least they were honest.

And then there are the MPs who are speaking out against the proposed income tax. On the grounds that it applies only to a small percentage of the population! Taxing the small percentage of the mega rich who have this country in a stranglehold, and letting the poor escape the burden – that is the purpose of it, one would have thought. In some MPs’ books, taxes should be equal – this is some people’s understanding of democracy, alas.

The avarice in the parliament is widespread, and its connections to big money are many. On the day of the salary vote at the Public Accounts Committee, its Chairman Ahmed ‘Jangiya’ [Panties] Nazim was in court for allegedly embezzling money from the public coffers to the tune of US$400,000.

If MPs stuck the polity’s face in their excrement, the Criminal Court’s decision to ban the media from MP Nazim’s court hearings buried the public in shallow graves dug in the same matter.

The accused is the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the man who chairs the meetings at which decisions are made on how public accounts are to be balanced. He stands charged with fraud. If this is not a matter of public interest, then what is?

And what does the Criminal Court’s justification for the decision to ban the media even mean? Article 42 of the Constitution, to which the Court referred in its decision, says courts can only exercise their discretion to exclude the media if doing otherwise would disrupt public order, public morality or national security. None of these issues are at play here.

If the Criminal Court’s decision to gag the media refers to ‘other special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice’ as said in Article 42, what the Court is effectively saying is that it is open to suggestion by every lowly hack out there.

The ‘democratic norms’, only according to which the discretionary powers in Article 42 are to be exercised, has long established that dangers of prejudice by media criticism arises where a jury is involved – not in cases where judges are sitting alone.

Unlike a jury of 12 ordinary people, judges – assumed to have achieved higher levels of education and higher levels of ethics and morality than ordinary people – are seen as above outside influence, and able to make a ruling based solely on the evidence before him.

By saying the court cannot come to a fair and impartial ruling because of what is being said in the media, it is clearly admitting that the judge sitting alone is easily influenced and cannot be trusted.

Perhaps balancing the people’s right to freedom of expression with an accused person’s right to a fair trial was not a module covered in the Sentencing Certificate?

The media should be in an uproar over this gagging order. Apart from a statement from the Media Council, however, there has been nothing.

Where is the Maldives Journalists Association with their usual indignation? Where is the Maldives National Journalists Association? Where are the highly paid members of the Broadcasting Commission? Where is the burgeoning ‘free press’?

Will the real Fourth Estate please stand up?

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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