(Banner hanging on the net of Henveiru stadium in Male' facing the city's main thoroughfare Majeedhee Magu [street] which proclaims that 50 percent of staff of Maldivian diplomatic missions abroad are women and that 33 percent of staff at local councils are also women. PHOTO: HILATH)
NOTE: This is an English translation of a Maldives’ native Dhivehi language article sent to this blog by Haseena Habeeb on 8 September 2023.
By Haseena Habeeb
As I was walking on Lonuziyaaraiy Magu (street in the Maldives’ capital Male’), I inadvertently came to a stop to read the proclamation on a yellow colored cloth banner. The phrase stated that “50 percent of the staff at foreign diplomatic missions are women”. It is largely true. Can an ordinary person understand that? Those women serving in the posts of ambassadors now are land owners, other property owners, and the "upper class" Maldivians we call "Beyfulhun". Is it a coincidence that no “islanders” (Maldivians from islands other than Male’) are in those positions, I asked myself.
I was transported to my memory lane back to the past – to the day when I was summoned to the interview of the job I had to enter (at the time, after completing school, we were required to get employed at the government agency The President’s Office [PO] dictates). A senior official of PO asked us, around 10 interviewees, “Who are those among you from Male’?”, and requested a show of hands and 3 of us did.
It’s now around 30 years after that. Maldives has changed. In 2008, Maldivians obtained a completely new Constitution. Only a few countries in world history are lucky to get a new Constitution without the shedding of blood. This was a golden opportunity for Maldivians to get the kind of governance in line with their wishes.
The topics of empowerment of women and protection of their rights is hotly discussed today. It is a very popular discourse that emphasizes succeeding governments’ efforts towards women’s empowerment, as well as the subject of the aforementioned “50 percent”. International organizations pour support on the Maldives due to this.
Why are women found in small numbers where high posts in civil service is concerned? And why are high positions (posts of Director-General or posts at similar level) comparatively lower? Is it an excuse that budget restraints constrain the formation of such posts? According to the Constitution’s Clause 115 and its sub-clause Lhaviyani, “under the authority made available to the President”, the President can appoint anyone to any post. With regard to the interpretation of this clause, if there is a change of government, the newly elected President, if so he wishes, he can allow such employees to remain in their posts. Salaries and allowances for such staff are plentiful. The allowances include housing allowance as well.
The salary for civil servants and presidential appointees is set under a component titled “State staff remuneration” when the government submits its annual budget to the parliament. Hence, there is no room to claim that the state’s astronomical sums of money allocated for governmental staff are only for civil servants. A governmental “National pay commission” has been established. Even if the mandate of this commission is to harmonize pay, to date it is not clear from the commission’s website which pay has been harmonized. The website contains a lot of documents. Papers given various names and titles. These documents are too technically complicated to be understood by the ordinary layperson. Therefore, since the establishment of the civil service in 2010, talk of raising salaries is a dream that has not become reality.
When my thinking arrived at this point, I became frustrated. Then suddenly came to my mind the television series titled “Muhammad Rasoolul Allah” broadcast on state run Television Maldives every Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which features a character called King Namrood. When prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) was thrown into the fire but escape unscathed, the onlookers told Namrood that it was Ibrahim’s God (Allah) who had protected him and that Allah is the one who gives life and takes life. Namrood shot back saying that he was God who gives life and takes life. When his subjects asked him how that was so, he told them to summon two people to him, whereby he will murder one and free the other one. He reasoned that it will demonstrate his ability to give life and take life, to which some of the people admitted that they accepted this reasoning, while others said they did not believe in his twisted logic.
Is the manifesto’s declaration of women constituting 50 percent of Maldives’ foreign diplomatic missions similar to the principle Namrood subscribed to lay his claim that he was God?
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