GMR Maldives spat: Maldives' decision against GMR part of political strategy that pits orthodoxy against India
Maldivian politics has become xenophobic and receptive to many shades of religious extremism. The decision against GMRBSE -3.03 % is part of a larger political strategy that pits orthodoxy against India.
Afrasheem Ali returned home after a television appearance on Maldives Television Monday night, October 1. An Islamic scholar and a member ofMaldives Parliament (the People's Majlis), Ali had for sometime been on the radar of religious extremists in Maldives for his moderate views.
He defended the right of the faithful to listen to music or to shave their beards. The previous month, on September 10, when he appeared on a televised 'scholar's dialogue' with Islamic minister Sheikh Shaheem Ali Saeed, the minister remarked that Ali's positions contradicted those of the majority of Maldivian religious scholars.
Ali had been attacked in the past for his views and received death threats from ultra radical Maldivian outfits. On October 1, he repeatedly asked for an opportunity to be a guest on the "Islamic Life" show on Television Maldives.
On air, Ali said he has never taken any stand that is not based on the Quran. He knew people had raised questions about his stands, he said, and this is possibly due to misunderstandings. He sought forgiveness from citizens if he had created any misconception due to his inability to express himself properly.
When he reached home, unknown assailants hacked him to death. His wife found his body lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs in their house. Part of his skull had been chipped off.
Ali's murder was the 11th this year in the small Maldives archipelago, with some 350,000 people, deeply polarised polity, simmering religious intolerance and an economy that is dependent on high-end tourism.
Normally, not more than three or four people are killed in a year, according to British-Australian journalist JJ Robinson, who has lived in Maldives and covered its vagaries for three years now, as editor of Minivannews.com. "What we are now seeing is that with increasing political instability, the criminal elements of Maldives are gaining in confidence," he said.
When Bangalore-headquartered GMR InfrastructureBSE -3.03 % made and won a $529 million bid to modernise and run the Ibrahim Nasser International Airport in Male, it marked the biggest foreign investment in the country's history.
The airport, a World War II British airstrip converted into a full-fledged facility, is a symbol of nationalistic pride in the small nation, its most critical piece of infrastructure, and the only point of entry for the outside world.
Nasser, the first president, believed that Maldivian independence hinged on greater engagement with the outside world, and the airport was critical.
INDIAN 'ERROR'
But long before the current government started the process that ended in the termination of the GMR contract last week, the airport deal was at the centre of a heated political debate in the country.
When Mohammed Nasheed, the young democracy's first elected president, was ousted in February in an alleged coup d'etat, the political forces that had long decried the GMR deal, came to prominence in the new government. India was the first country to grant legitimacy to the government headed by Mohamed Waheed, once the ex-president's deputy.
"Even before I had tendered my resignation as president, India sent its congratulations to the coup government. I'm at a complete loss to understand how India failed to read the writing on the wall. It is very unfortunate," Nasheed, the former president, told ET Magazine, speaking on telephone from Maldives.
In December 2011, as protests against Nasheed's government broke out in many parts of the country, the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) circulated a pamphlet.
The party founder, Hassan Saeed, was an attorney general during president Gayoom's reign and a presidential candidate during the 2008 elections. The pamphlet, titled 'President Nasheed's devious plot to destroy the Islamic faith of Maldivians', attacked the president for establishing relations with Israel, for holding a 'disco' dance party, for a woman minister who wore a skirt to official events and for supporting UN human rights commissioner Navanetham Pillay's stand against flogging women convicted for adultery.
HATE SPEECH
The pamphlet also tore into Nasheed for consuming alcohol during an official visit to India. If Nasheed's rule continued, it declared, "Maldives will not remain a 100 percent Muslim nation".
The pamphlet was decried as hate speech by many parties and sparked a debate about free speech. The government arrested the man believed to be its author, Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, a former law minister during Gayoom's reign.
The chief judge of the criminal court, Abdullah Mohammed, refused to uphold his detention multiple times. The Nasheed administration subsequently arrested the judge. This became a rallying point for the opposition parties and led to a series of events that culminated in Nasheed's ouster.
Nasheed at the time claimed that he was forced to resign at gunpoint. A subsequent investigation by a National Commission of Enquiry, backed by the Commonwealth of Nations, found no evidence to back Nasheed's version of events or to declare the transfer of power illegal.
NEW REGIME'S TOP BOSSES
"These people have been fanning extreme nationalism, bigotry, xenophobia and that kind of rhetoric for the past three years. They got the military to stage a coup," Nasheed told ET Magazine. "One of the rationale was that the airport was given to an Indian company."
The new regime's home minister is Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who had been earlier arrested for writing pamphlets that were a 'threat to national security'.
DQP head Hassan Saeed became a powerful advisor to President Mohamed Waheed. The two, along with defence minister and acting transport minister Mohamed Nazim, were the public face of the campaign to terminate the GMRBSE -3.03 % deal, according to multiple sources in the Maldives who observed its unravelling closely.
They received close support from the Adhaalath Party, an Islamist party that enjoys three seats in the cabinet even though it has no MPs in the Majlis.
According to MDP spokesperson Hamid Abdul Gafoor,Maldives TV telecast the handing over ceremony of the airport live. "Alongside they also telecast a victory celebration, rife with xenophobic rhetoric, by the Adhaalath Party," he added.
Throughout the week-long legal wrangling to terminate the GMRBSE -3.03 % contract and take over the airport, the Maldives president's office always maintained that the deal was terminated because it was becoming ruinous for the country.
On Friday, the president's press secretary told ET Magazine that the administration did not see the Singapore court of appeals verdict that allowed the government to take over the airport as a victory.
"We are not celebrating. This is a moment for reflection for us. How such a thing was allowed to happen. And how to prevent it from happening again. GMR is not being kicked out. It is being escorted out," he said.
NO COUNTRY FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION
GMR and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad won a $511 million contract in November 2010 to modernise and the run the airport for 25 years.
The finances of the deal went awry when a local court struck down the provision for a $25 airport development fee as illegal. While the then government guaranteed to protect the project's revenues, a regime change saw the airport deal becoming an emotive and politically charged issue. The current government, under president Mohammed Waheed, terminated the concession agreement on November 27, sparking off a legal battle.
In recent years, Maldives has witnessed a rise in religious intolerance. A September 2007 bomb blast in Maleinjured 12 foreign tourists. Recent newspaper reports have said that in some atolls, girls are not allowed to pursue education and in others, people are boycotting government mosques due to the belief that prayers there will be invalid as the government receives money from the tourism industry that sells alcohol.
In December 2011, a silent protest for religious tolerance was attacked and the blogger Ismail Rasheed was attacked. He sustained head injuries and is now in exile. In December 2011, an Adhaalath Party rally demanded the removal of Saarc monuments in Addu, opposed permitting Israeli flights to fly to Male, demanded the closure of spas and massage parlours and opposed a move to liberalise alcohol sales.
When the new government came to power on February 7, 2012, acting foreign secretary Madhusudan Ganapathi went to Male as India's special envoy. At a press conference at the Indian high commission in Male on February 10, he said that he had met with several members of the new government and they had assured him that Indian interests will be protected, according to a person who was present at the presser.
One Indian journalist asked why India was supporting a government where the home minister was Mohamed Jameel, whose opposition to the airport deal and Indian interests were well known. "Have you heard him say anything against India in the last three days?" Ganapathi asked.
Now, perhaps, we have.
Source : SRUTHIJITH KK,ET BUREAU
GMR Infrastructure Ltd. share price closes at Rs 19.
Long before the current government started the process that ended in the termination of the GMR contract last week, the airport deal was at the centre of a heated political debate in Maldives
Maldivian politics has become xenophobic and receptive to many shades of religious extremism. The decision against GMRBSE -3.03 % is part of a larger political strategy that pits orthodoxy against India.
Afrasheem Ali returned home after a television appearance on Maldives Television Monday night, October 1. An Islamic scholar and a member ofMaldives Parliament (the People's Majlis), Ali had for sometime been on the radar of religious extremists in Maldives for his moderate views.
He defended the right of the faithful to listen to music or to shave their beards. The previous month, on September 10, when he appeared on a televised 'scholar's dialogue' with Islamic minister Sheikh Shaheem Ali Saeed, the minister remarked that Ali's positions contradicted those of the majority of Maldivian religious scholars.
Ali had been attacked in the past for his views and received death threats from ultra radical Maldivian outfits. On October 1, he repeatedly asked for an opportunity to be a guest on the "Islamic Life" show on Television Maldives.
On air, Ali said he has never taken any stand that is not based on the Quran. He knew people had raised questions about his stands, he said, and this is possibly due to misunderstandings. He sought forgiveness from citizens if he had created any misconception due to his inability to express himself properly.
 |
Ali's murder was the 11th this year in the small Maldives archipelago, with some 350,000 people, deeply polarised polity, simmering religious intolerance and an economy that is dependent on high-end tourism.
Normally, not more than three or four people are killed in a year, according to British-Australian journalist JJ Robinson, who has lived in Maldives and covered its vagaries for three years now, as editor of Minivannews.com. "What we are now seeing is that with increasing political instability, the criminal elements of Maldives are gaining in confidence," he said.
When Bangalore-headquartered GMR InfrastructureBSE -3.03 % made and won a $529 million bid to modernise and run the Ibrahim Nasser International Airport in Male, it marked the biggest foreign investment in the country's history.
The airport, a World War II British airstrip converted into a full-fledged facility, is a symbol of nationalistic pride in the small nation, its most critical piece of infrastructure, and the only point of entry for the outside world.
Nasser, the first president, believed that Maldivian independence hinged on greater engagement with the outside world, and the airport was critical.
INDIAN 'ERROR'
But long before the current government started the process that ended in the termination of the GMR contract last week, the airport deal was at the centre of a heated political debate in the country.
 |
When Mohammed Nasheed, the young democracy's first elected president, was ousted in February in an alleged coup d'etat, the political forces that had long decried the GMR deal, came to prominence in the new government. India was the first country to grant legitimacy to the government headed by Mohamed Waheed, once the ex-president's deputy.
"Even before I had tendered my resignation as president, India sent its congratulations to the coup government. I'm at a complete loss to understand how India failed to read the writing on the wall. It is very unfortunate," Nasheed, the former president, told ET Magazine, speaking on telephone from Maldives.
In December 2011, as protests against Nasheed's government broke out in many parts of the country, the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) circulated a pamphlet.
The party founder, Hassan Saeed, was an attorney general during president Gayoom's reign and a presidential candidate during the 2008 elections. The pamphlet, titled 'President Nasheed's devious plot to destroy the Islamic faith of Maldivians', attacked the president for establishing relations with Israel, for holding a 'disco' dance party, for a woman minister who wore a skirt to official events and for supporting UN human rights commissioner Navanetham Pillay's stand against flogging women convicted for adultery.
 |
HATE SPEECH
The pamphlet also tore into Nasheed for consuming alcohol during an official visit to India. If Nasheed's rule continued, it declared, "Maldives will not remain a 100 percent Muslim nation".
The pamphlet was decried as hate speech by many parties and sparked a debate about free speech. The government arrested the man believed to be its author, Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, a former law minister during Gayoom's reign.
The chief judge of the criminal court, Abdullah Mohammed, refused to uphold his detention multiple times. The Nasheed administration subsequently arrested the judge. This became a rallying point for the opposition parties and led to a series of events that culminated in Nasheed's ouster.
Nasheed at the time claimed that he was forced to resign at gunpoint. A subsequent investigation by a National Commission of Enquiry, backed by the Commonwealth of Nations, found no evidence to back Nasheed's version of events or to declare the transfer of power illegal.
NEW REGIME'S TOP BOSSES
"These people have been fanning extreme nationalism, bigotry, xenophobia and that kind of rhetoric for the past three years. They got the military to stage a coup," Nasheed told ET Magazine. "One of the rationale was that the airport was given to an Indian company."
The new regime's home minister is Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, who had been earlier arrested for writing pamphlets that were a 'threat to national security'.
DQP head Hassan Saeed became a powerful advisor to President Mohamed Waheed. The two, along with defence minister and acting transport minister Mohamed Nazim, were the public face of the campaign to terminate the GMRBSE -3.03 % deal, according to multiple sources in the Maldives who observed its unravelling closely.
They received close support from the Adhaalath Party, an Islamist party that enjoys three seats in the cabinet even though it has no MPs in the Majlis.
According to MDP spokesperson Hamid Abdul Gafoor,Maldives TV telecast the handing over ceremony of the airport live. "Alongside they also telecast a victory celebration, rife with xenophobic rhetoric, by the Adhaalath Party," he added.
Throughout the week-long legal wrangling to terminate the GMRBSE -3.03 % contract and take over the airport, the Maldives president's office always maintained that the deal was terminated because it was becoming ruinous for the country.
On Friday, the president's press secretary told ET Magazine that the administration did not see the Singapore court of appeals verdict that allowed the government to take over the airport as a victory.
"We are not celebrating. This is a moment for reflection for us. How such a thing was allowed to happen. And how to prevent it from happening again. GMR is not being kicked out. It is being escorted out," he said.
NO COUNTRY FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION
GMR and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad won a $511 million contract in November 2010 to modernise and the run the airport for 25 years.
The finances of the deal went awry when a local court struck down the provision for a $25 airport development fee as illegal. While the then government guaranteed to protect the project's revenues, a regime change saw the airport deal becoming an emotive and politically charged issue. The current government, under president Mohammed Waheed, terminated the concession agreement on November 27, sparking off a legal battle.
In recent years, Maldives has witnessed a rise in religious intolerance. A September 2007 bomb blast in Maleinjured 12 foreign tourists. Recent newspaper reports have said that in some atolls, girls are not allowed to pursue education and in others, people are boycotting government mosques due to the belief that prayers there will be invalid as the government receives money from the tourism industry that sells alcohol.
In December 2011, a silent protest for religious tolerance was attacked and the blogger Ismail Rasheed was attacked. He sustained head injuries and is now in exile. In December 2011, an Adhaalath Party rally demanded the removal of Saarc monuments in Addu, opposed permitting Israeli flights to fly to Male, demanded the closure of spas and massage parlours and opposed a move to liberalise alcohol sales.
When the new government came to power on February 7, 2012, acting foreign secretary Madhusudan Ganapathi went to Male as India's special envoy. At a press conference at the Indian high commission in Male on February 10, he said that he had met with several members of the new government and they had assured him that Indian interests will be protected, according to a person who was present at the presser.
One Indian journalist asked why India was supporting a government where the home minister was Mohamed Jameel, whose opposition to the airport deal and Indian interests were well known. "Have you heard him say anything against India in the last three days?" Ganapathi asked.
Now, perhaps, we have.
Source : SRUTHIJITH KK,ET BUREAU
GMR Infrastructure Ltd. share price closes at Rs 19.
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