Do Tourism Ministry, MTPB harbor racist policies against locals?

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| DATE: 2007-11-04 |
By Hilath Rasheed

MALE, November 4, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- The photography contest exclusively held for locals by Maldives Tourism Promotion Board recently concluded with much celebration and success.

But the “Sunny Side in Frames” contest, with prizes amounting to Rf275,000, may be a move to deflect criticism that both the Tourism Ministry and the MTPB harbor racist feelings against Maldivians according to critics.

According to a local professional photographer who won accolades from the contest, both the Government agencies held prejudices against Maldivian photographers and prefer foreign professional photographers, assigning them works that amount to thousands of dollars.

“There are many Maldivian photographers who are quite competent and take photographs that would match the work of any foreign professional photographer,” another contestant told Haveeru, asking to remain anonymous.

In fact, if one goes through the photo galleries on Flickr website, it is obvious that sometimes Maldivian photographers, both amateur and professional, are more creative and artistic than foreign professional photographers.

This led to Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed to meet the Maldivian “Flickr Group” whereby he pledged to find avenues and opportunities for local photographers to have their photographs sold and published for Maldives’ tourism industry promotion.

Both the Ministry and MTPB deny they have a negative attitude towards Maldivian photographers.

“What we are concerned about is the quality of the pictures. If they are of high quality, we will accept them regardless of whether the photographs are taken by Maldivians or foreigners,” a Tourism Ministry official said in comments to Haveeru on condition of anonymity.

However, an MTPB official, who also wished to remain anonymous, told Haveeru that both MTPB and the Ministry harbor some form of bias in favor of foreign professionals.

“But this is not an affliction that is exclusively plaguing the MTPB or the Tourism Ministry only. Many Government authorities and private companies have an unsubstantiated belief that locals cannot do a good job professionally,” he said.

The issue became much heated years earlier when local divers complained that dive schools, especially those operated by foreigners in resort islands, were laying off Maldivians in favor of their Western or European counterparts. When Haveeru gave much coverage to the issue, it actually “improved” the situation, according to local divers.

“Dive schools like Euro Divers rehired local divers,” a diver who worked in a nearby resort told Haveeru.

But he also pointed out another problem.

“It is only when the media highlights such issues that the Government scrambles to right the wrongs. When the media hype dies down, the Government then becomes slack, and the vicious cycle starts again,” he said.

However, this “trend” may not come to pass this time as MTPB head Dr. Abdulla Mausoom promised to hold the locals-only photography contest every year and also pledged to use submitted photographs for promotional materials.

“The Government needs to remain vigilant about issues like this because unless it continuously monitors the situation, prejudices against Maldivians will always keep surfacing and we will always be at a disadvantage,” said a local diver who works at a dive school in a North Male atoll resort island.