Friday, November 30, 2007

Malaysia's balancing act under pressure

Ethnic Indians mainly Tamils in Malaysia that constitute eight percent of the total population of 27 million but control just 1.5 percent of the economy are dissatisfied that they do not get equal racial privileges.

The Malaysian Indian community also alleged that access to housing, education, financial loans and jobs is given to Malays on a preferential basis. The recent destruction of Hindu temples by the Malaysian government has further inflamed the ethnic Indians' grievances. The declaration by some politicians that Malaysia is an Islamic country has also created problems for freedom of worship.

The 25 November 2007 civil disobedience organized by Tamils in Malaysia against their discrimination and marginalization by the Muslim dominated government represents a significant milestone in their long struggle for equal and democratic rights. The demonstrations in which hundreds and thousands of Tamil converged in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur was a rude shock to the government who has given preferential treatment to the ethnic Malay Muslims.

The Malaysian police crushed a rally of more than 10,000 ethnic Indians who were protesting against marginalisation and also to support a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a rights group demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured laborers and exploiting them.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu, homeland of the Indian Tamils has written a letter to Prime Minister Manomhan Singh, expressing deep concern at the treatment meted out to ethnic Indians in Malaysia. The chief minister has urged Prime Minister Singh and the central government to take appropriate action to end the sufferings and ill treatment meted out to Malaysian Tamils.

It looks like Malaysia's Tamil problems have spilled over its border and gained support from India.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Does this amount to Insulting Islam?

A British teacher has been detained in Sudan after her 7-year-old students called a teddy bear Mohammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, was also charged with inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. The teacher will appear before a Sudanese court and if convicted, she could face 40 lashes, a fine, or one year in jail.

The day before these charges were brought, the British ambassador to the United Nations asked the Security Council to address warrants against a Sudanese official and a militia leader accused of war crimes in Darfur, a troubled region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have died. Some Sudanese analysts wondered if charges had been filed against the teacher in retaliation.

A 7-year-old Sudanese student on Tuesday defended his British teacher saying he had chosen to call a teddy bear Mohammad after his own name.

"The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy," the boy said shyly. "I said Mohammad. I named it after my name," he added.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said in a statement released in London: "This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense."

Friday, November 23, 2007

Islam and the Challenge of democracy

This post comes as a follow through of a post on Simon's blog and a comment by Dr. Freex. Thanks to Dr. Freex for the link of Boston Review, the subject of which I have used here.

My analysis of the the issues in contention is as follows.

Both in Maldives and outside Maldives, our politicians have publicly been talking about making the necessary constitutional amendments and introducing the reforms to take Maldives on the path of a liberal democracy. Both the government and the majority of the opposition in the parliament and the Special Majlis hold this view.

The constitutional amendment for Maldivian citizenship has once again been passed without any opposition by uniformly affirming that Maldivian citizenship is only for Muslims. One aspect of the anticipated problem was highlighted by prominent MDP MP and lawyer Husnu Sood who said that some Maldivian children of other faiths living abroad will lose their citizenship when the bill comes into force.

We know there are many countries in the world, including in the South Asia region, which have adopted a State religion, but do not require all their citizens to adhere to that religion.

The least any one can expect from our Special Majlis on a bill such as the citizenship bill is to have a vigorous debate reflecting the current situation and feelings among the Maldivian community. If the conservatives had won over the liberals after such a debate, then accepting the outcome without feeling squeezed out is part of the democratic process.

In Maldives, the concept of national unity and harmony are linked to the concept of religious unity, and drummed into the minds of the population at every opportunity. A country does not have to be 100 per cent Muslim to have perfect harmony in religious unity. It is a false argument. Maldives has been a 100 per cent Muslims for a long time. As a result of the constitutional requirement for all Maldivians to be Muslims, have Maldivians become better Muslims or are there any who have turned away from Islam? No, we are not better Muslims than any other multi-religious country where the Muslims exist in harmony with people of other faith.

The Maldivian government should not force any Maldivian to be a Muslim through its Constitution.

Coming back to Dr. Freex comment that democracy is no more Godsent than the 'Sharia', while I agree to the premise of that argument, I also believe that it distracts the focus from the issue of the Maldivian citizenship only for Muslims. The two are separate arguments, one about an individual's right to decide the faith without compulsion by the State and the other about the case for democracy in Islam.

I will leave Khaled Abou El Fadl's excellent explanation on democracy to the reader. It is on the Boston Review link above.

Dubai set to introduce VAT

Taxation is not a popular financial instrument in most countries. In the Gulf countries, taxation is a politically sensitive subject.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been urging the Gulf countries to introduce a value added tax (VAT) as it will offer a fiscal cushion to service driven economies such as Dubai and Qatar, and to others a diversified source of income that will hedge the government finances against future oil price volatility.

Dubai is off the blocks faster than other Gulf countries. Introduction of VAT across the UAE have been backed by the IMF.Quoting a government official, it has been reported that the UAE could implement Value Added Tax (VAT) "in a year's time", which could be supervised by a new federal authority.

The other Gulf states' plans to introduce a VAT could be further delayed due to disagreements among them. The Gulf states have been planning to unify their economies and introduce a single currency by 2010.

VAT would be another tax adding to the already existing taxes like housing fees for rentals in Dubai. VAT being an indirect tax may hold better than a direct tax like income tax or property tax in Dubai, according to tax experts.

Dubai is increasingly developing as a hub for service industries such as IT and finance. It is now focused to diversify from a trade-based, but oil-reliant, economy to one that is service and tourism-oriented. Dubai has become an exciting tourist destination and a thriving business and logistics centre.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Challenging the male dominated hierachy

For too long women in Maldives have been held back from holding important positions in the political hierachy. Often the reasons cited are of tradition and culture, and relatively few women seek or are selected for public office. The percentage of women in government and politics does not correspond to their percentage of the population.

In order to increase participation by women in the political process, women are taking the lead now. The first women attorney general Azima Shukoor and other prominent DRP women, including minister for Presidential affairs Aneesa Ahmed, walked out of the Special Majlis building yesterday when the speaker of the constitutional assembly rejected a measure to boost the number of females in parliament.

While more women are joining the job market and other professions, Maldives remains a very male dominated society. While the modern women are self-reinventing in the public service and private industries, the men it seems still falter when it comes to advancing women to be self-sufficient.

Old traditions will die hard but it is time for men to realise that women can no longer be held back.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Making our public schools purposeful

Maldivian Government will spend MRF 131 million in the free give away books and examination fee of needy students for the year 2008.

The mission of public schools must be to inspire a passion for learning and develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge that will enable all students to maximize their potential as positive, responsible participants in our community and the global community.

If our country's national education policy accepts such a mission, it has to instill the kind of values that can pass down such enthusiasm and creativity for learning. In this respect, the public policy of giving away free books to suit a political objective fails to address the major problems within our education system.

Families, schools and their communities are the primary agencies in the education and behaviour of the child. Not only does the family introduce him to the basic forms of civilized living, but it shaped his attitudes, formed his patterns of behavior, endowed him with manners and morals.

It is important for Maldives to have a debate on the kind of values that are currently passed on to the younger generation. What has made a segment of our young people, even if they are a fringe minority, to fight in the cause of terror? Why did parents, school and the community fail to stop such people getting distracted and taking up to violence? We need to seek answers for some hard questions to restore harmony and avoid having to live in fear.

Our national education must internalise the value of education, the value of hard work, intellectual challenge, curiosity, creativity, etc., that will greatly affect individuals' creative growth and economic prospects. And these positive values are, to a large extent, passed down from one generation to the next.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Bollywood goes global

Here's globalisation in action making the popular Bollywood film industry a major entertainment brand worldwide.

Mumbai film crews are increasingly filming in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are winning more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas and the just released film Saawariya starring the deutants Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. As the first Bollywood film to be co-produced and financed by a Hollywood studio, Saawariya is an example of globalization reaching across far distances and cultures. The movie is the first product of a recent wave of alliances between Indian producers and the likes of Disney, Warner and Sony which backed Saawariya, released worldwide on Friday.

When Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s most popular star, arrived on the red carpet launch of his film Om Shanti Om in London, he spelled out his ambition: “I want to make the first Indian film that the whole world will watch.”

The night before the Om Shanti Om bandwagon rolled into London, rival 'Saawariya' had its world premiere in New York. Saawariya is the first Bollywood film produced by a leading Hollywood studio, Sony, and the two films have been vying for publicity in the Indian media before their release on Diwali, 9th November, traditionally a peak box-office slot.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Fight for climate change begins with Maldives



The Maldives, a country that is entirely dependent on oil to run its economy and tourism has to start walking the talk and cut down on its own greenhouse gas by reducing the emissions from vehicles that are jam packed on our streets in Male'. We must use less energy and be more efficient in our use of energy. We need to promote energy efficiency and conservation measures, and our Government has to help the population achieve these aims by offering incentives and creating awareness. We need stringent efficiency standards for appliances, homes and offices, industrial processes and vehicles. We need more renewable energy. We need more public transport.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Retain talent with challenging jobs

The National Fund for Higher Education and Training has opened applications for 24 scholarships. Candidates applying for the scholarship scheme will come from various government departments chosen and announced for this year.

According to this article from Haveeru, the Ministry of Higher Education has offered scholarships on the basis that successful candidates on completion of their course must payback 25% of the total cost within a period of 12 years.

Even now Maldives is seeing a brain drain where highly qualified individuals are seeking more challenging and rewarding jobs outside the country. Even if a formal Deed of Agreement is kept between the scholarship applicant and the Government, returning graduates will find that it is not easy for them to payback the 25% of the scholarship within the compensation they earn from one job, either in the public or private sector.

Maldives will also find that in a globalised world, there are many countries in our region and beyond that compete for our top talent. Even now our talent is being lured out of Maldives, and unless our work conditions, compensation, job satisfaction and quality of life are improved dramatically, the exodus will accelerate hollowing important sectors like health care, as more people become highly qualified and are sought after by overseas demand.

Just to give an example of this problem, let us take another developing country: the Philippines. With medical tourism expanding in several in countries, at least 15,000 nurses and other medical professionals are leaving the Philippines each year for better-paying jobs abroad, mainly to United States, Britain and lately to Australia and even Asian destinations, threatening the country's health infrastructure. WHO officials have called it a serious situation for the Philippines. The starting pay for a graduate nurse in government hospital is 10,000 pesos (Sin.$322) about the average wage of a maid in Singapore. Hospitals and administrators in Philippines are grappling to keep up with high leaving rates.


The challenge for our Government will be how to meet from limited financial resources rapidly rising social demands for education scholarships, jobs, infrastructure, health and other social services while retaining our best talent in Maldives.

Extreme poverty leads 11-year-old girl to suicide

By hanging herself a day after All Saints' Day, 11-year-old Mariannet Amper of Davao City, has become the embodiment of the Filipinos' worst nightmare, a saint of poverty for a nation that continues to deny the blighted reality of its impoverishment.

As this news quickly spread around the world, the Philippines promised yesterday to investigate the apparent suicide of the 11-year-old girl due to poverty after the incident generated angry public reactions and street protests.

She wrote a letter to a television network asking for a new pair of shoes, a bag, a bicycle and better paying jobs for her parents, local newspapers said. She also left a diary narrating her family’s difficulties in sending her and a younger brother to school and how she wished her father’s health would improve and get him a good job other than doing small carpentry work.

She was in the sixth grade and eager to catch up so as to finish her elementary education. It is reported that Mariannet killed herself out of quiet desperation over her school absences and her inability to catch up with school work.

Mariannet's diary is similar to Anne Frank's: both prefigured the unyielding doom in their lives--Anne's, the holocaust of the gas chambers; Mariannet's, the holocaust of extreme poverty.

These incidents are immensely tragic and shows humanity's inability to take care of the most vulnerable in society. World Bank estimates that 40 per cent of the Phillipines population of 87 million live on less than US$2 a day. While the country's economy is currently improving and making good economic progress, the economic gap between the rich and poor is also widening thereby deepening the despondency of the poor. In most third world countries, corruption and mismanagement have made their governments the key perpetuator of poverty.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Perils on the path of democracy

Recent developments in Fiji where the elected government was forcibly removed from office, and Zimbabwe where the members of the Opposition were not only prevented from holding a rally but were arrested and beaten by the police while in custody brings into sharper focus the perils on the path of a liberal democracy. Closer to home, Pakistan where the chief justice was suspended under circumstance which undermines the separation of powers and the rule of law is a clear indication of how a system is manipulated by a military dictator. These are situations when the majority consent through the process of an election is withheld and it calls for a re-examination of the Rule of Law and the concept of democracy as mentioned here on the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative newsletter.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is an international non-governmental organisation formed to support Human Rights and particularly to support the implementation of the Harare Declaration which set out the Commonwealth's core principles and values, for the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The developed West imposes upon developing countries, the traditions of democracy as experienced by them. The starting point for most countries like Maldives, struggling on the path of democracy could be the public voting and majority rule, most people can choose for all of us, and majorities can impose their will on minorities.

Collective decisions affect us all only because the majority is empowered to force its will on everyone. We have begun to see this process get played out in Maldives. For example, recently when a constitutional amendment was proposed by a leading critic of police powers from the MDP, even activists from the MDP reacted with horror. Clause twenty five of the draft bill of rights had read, “no person shall be arrested or detained without reasonable and probable grounds to believe he has committed an offence.”

The MDP sponsored amendment allows a police officer to detain anyone, “he believes may commit an offence.”

The amendment was passed in the Special Majlis with the MDP splitting its vote on both sides. Thus sweeping powers are given to law enforcement by the collective will of majority. Now the people could be faced with situations of saving themselves from the tyranny of the majority who get to choose something for everyone.

As Fareed Zakariya, Editor of Newsweek International who explained the term "illiberal democracy", the real key to freedom is to secure people from tyranny by the majority, or freedom from democracy.


For much of modern history, what characterized governments in Europe and North America, and differentiated them from those around the world, was not democracy but constitutional liberalism. The "Western model of government" is best symbolized not by the mass plebiscite but the impartial judge. (Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom, p. 20.)


Eighty years ago, Woodrow Wilson took America into the 20th century with a challenge to make the world safe for democracy. As we enter the 21st century, Fareed Zakariya envisions our task is to make democracy safe for the world.

With all its flaws, democracy — represents the “last best hope” for people around the world. But it needs to be secured and strengthened for our times. Maldives is at the threshold of this challenge now.

Monday, November 05, 2007

State welfare can lead to a crutch mentality

Maldives is hitting the election fever and political parties are positioning to appease the voters.

The Maldivian government has announced that it would increase the wages of the state employees in 2008 . Further measures include the government funding the books and stationary needed by all students from Grades 1 to 12. In addition, the fee for participating in the O' level and A' Level exams are to be paid by the government for those who can't afford it.

While we welcome a little benevolence from the Government, when the budget for 2008 is presented to the parliament, members will have to find out how this social welfare scheme is being financed. Who is paying for this handout? While many needy children will benefit from this programme, the rich don't need government handouts for their children for the rich are blessed with an abundance of wealth. Such schemes need to be designed to help the needy and to help them become self-reliant. While the social realities of our country make it necessary to help the needy through such programmes, it is also worth noting that most of the countries that practice such welfarism find that lifelong handouts is not the solution to the low income group. Such action tends to create a mentality of dependency on the those who are able to give. It is important to empower the people at the lower income levels, for them to have the self determination to help themselves. It is important to create the conditions and provide the incentives for such people to build up their own capability and to earn their living.

The main opposition party MDP has said the party will ensure all Maldivians benefit from tourism the mainstay of our economy, give more tourism jobs to Maldivians, open doors for Maldivians in the industry, and use tourism to strengthen the economy. MDP has also said it wants to dismantle the present patronage system by taxing the businessmen with corporation tax and introducing income tax and at the same time allow ownership of property rights. They will reduce import duties and remain committed to free market economics. MDP's detailed policies on health care, education, taxation and the economy will be made public only a month prior to the 2008 general election.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Social enterprises- the true answer to happiness?

Singapore Management University (SMU) alumni Shashank Nigam writes that living in Boston has a number of upsides. One of them is the opportunity to meet world-renowned luminaries such as Dr Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen bank. He writes an interesting perspective on social enterprises, about doing more than just increasing the profit-making behaviour in order to help lift the poor out of poverty. Read more here.

Despite the multitude of benefits that free market capitalism has brought, it still leaves vast number of people trapped in poverty. Professor Yunus believes that social businesses can help people in this group more effectively. Yunus’ idea of social business is catching on in many countries. Unlike the regular concept of business to maximise profit, social business is to maximise "doing good" for the benefit of other people.

Speaking to The Singapore Straits Times recently, Professor Yunus said, "Social business" is not charity but more in keeping with the adage: it's better to teach a man how to fish than give him fish."

Professor Yunus gave a lecture at the International Islamic University, Malaysia on how to empower the poor through social business.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Radicalism cannot be defeated with hypocrisy

Maldives is facing a growing problem of radical Islam and with the crude home-made bomb that went off recently in the Sultan Park, it is clear that hard line views and intolerance has exploded into dangerous violence.

Last year a UN rapporteur on Freedom of Religion who visited the country was accused of, "trying to undermine the Islamic Unity of the Maldives," by then Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel. Now UN has sent another Shari’ah Law expert to Malé. Mohammad Hashim Kamali who is Shari’ah advisor to Government bodies in Malaysia and South Africa has said the ban on freedom of religion in the Maldives is a “disservice to Islam.” He urged that the 64,000 expatriates living in the Maldives, “should be able to open schools for their children and practice their faith openly.”

It appears that political unity is only possible in Maldives when it comes to religion. All the four main parties uniformly rejected Kamali's appeal. Radical Islam feeds off on this kind of intolerance and their agenda is to promote extremism and violence. The main opposition party MDP has said, it would be “political suicide” to advocate freedom of religion. Politicians do not resort to such desperate tactics for they are too busy looking after their personal interests. Some of them can't even trust Maldivians to believe in their own religion. What these people fail to understand is that the freedom of religion is given to human beings by Islam that imposes no compulsion of faith on its believers. They don't deny that this is a fact revealed in Quran. Yet, they continue the intolerance as though it is politically correct to do so. We need to change this attitude if are we to reverse the tide of radical Islam and its extremism. We have witnessed the folly of misinformation in Hinmadhoo and elsewhere in Maldives that has led us to unexpected crisis.

Muslims should live as good Muslims because of the personal conviction in their faith and not only because some experts or politicians force them to do so.