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Maldives honours her real Friends
Editorial Comment, Hussain Umar
Editorial Comment, Hussain Umar
(olhuala.com) – A founder member of the real Friends of Maldives, Ms Toni de la Roque, has been recognised for her tireless work in promoting the Maldives in the tourism industry. For the past few years, she has had to fight against the illicit band run by David Hardingham who is illegally using the charity’s name in his equally tireless efforts to cause political turmoil in the Maldives and ruin the country’s economy.
Ms de la Roque, one of the foreign nationals honoured, on behalf of the Maldivian people for outstanding services to the Maldives, was presented with her Special Award on the 22nd January by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Ms de la Roque, better known as the “Maldive Lady” is a British national who has worked tirelessly over the years to promote the Maldives tourism industry in Europe and the UK.
The real Friends of Maldives is a UK based charity organisation formed to help the Maldivian people following the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. The objectives of the charity are stated as
“1. The relief of poverty of people and communities who are suffering hardship as a result of drought, earthquake, flooding or any other disaster or who by reason of their Social and Economic conditions are in need of assistance, in particular those persons and communities adversely affected by the earthquake and tsunami disaster that occurred on 26 December; 2. The relief of sickness, hardship and distress, particularly by the development of Education, Health and other Social services, the improvement of transport infrastructure, Water supplies and the other communal facilities and the promotion of self-help activities amongst those people or communities”.
UK Charities Commission Website
This charitable organization is not to be confused with the illicit ‘Friends of Maldives’ which is the international wing of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP). Hardingham has opted to use the registered name illegally in order to promote the MDP’s propaganda campaigns such as the failed and infamous ‘boycott’ campaign, where Hardingham’s illegal band called on European tourists to boycott resorts in the Maldives.
A source close to Ms de la Roque who wished to remain anonymous told olhuala.com: “He [Hardingham] has been harassing Toni [de la Roque] ever since she registered the charity [the real FoM]. He [Hardingham] has left horrendous abuse on her answering machine on numerous occasions”. Hardingham is known for his hard hand militant tactics. Presidential security stopped Hardingham in Geneva and London, in 2005 when he attempted to physically attack President Gayoom.
“Dave [Hardingham] is a very persistent man. He will not stop at anything. He will achieve his goals by any means necessary Juha [Mohamed Zuhair] told me, recently in Lanka” Ibrahim Rasheed (also known as IC) told olhuala.com.
Analysts have repeatedly questioned ‘the real intentions’ of Hardingham’s shady organization, as they hide behind the registered name of Ms de la Roques’s charity and openly calls on tourists to boycott the Maldivian tourism industry while insisting that they are indeed ‘friends of Maldives’ in the same sentence.
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