Skip to main content

It should have come before the Muthaqadhim Party!

We may be more than 1000 year old country but, we do not have the backbone needed for any economic growth; that is a Nationwide Affordable Transport system. We do not have such a system, in spite of having a government Ministry named after transport. Being a small island state, we need two things.

-Access to bigger markets
-Mobility of labor and resources.

We cannot have those without, a nation wide affordable transport mechanism and port (air or sea) facilities. Absence of such a mechanism connecting islands that have hospitals or schools in an atoll, is one of the main reason that lead to congestion in Male’ area. It is cheaper to travel to Male’ than to the nearest island in your atoll.

Furthermore, it also makes traveling by air doubly expensive. Setting up airports without a ferry system does not make good economic sense. Within the atolls they do not travel, they do not talk and they do not exchange goods and services. Consequently, cash is generated in Male’ and ends up in Male’. It dose not stay long in any part of the country. Hence, in comparison, productivity is nil in 199 islands of the Maldives except Male’.

Actually this should have come before or at the same time as the Muthaqadhim party and the countless campaigns (literacy campaign, rebuilding island offices etc) afterwards. It is sad that none of our leaders realized the importance of such a mechanism or even if realized, did not do anything to change it.

One may think that such a mechanism will be very expensive for the state to implement. I disagree. For instance, the state is able to provide each and every atoll chief, with an expensive vessel for travelling. It lay idle most of the time. What if, the money is used to buy a vessel that can be used to give minimum ferry services within the atoll. The atoll chief could use the same vessel for traveling.
State money should first be used to ease hardships of the citizens and perks to top officials should come later if only we can afford it, after providing all the basic services.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Two or three years ago, ADB had committed a huge some of money for technical assistance in developing a transportation master plan. The TA failed because, as I heard from a reliable source from within the Min of Transport, " it was not put together cohesively and comprehensively and did not include a lot of needs expressed by the stakeholders ... in short the consultants were not competent enough to take up such a tast as to do a masterplan for a large sector as that of transportation ..."

There is now talk of a second TA and consequently a second round of consultants coming in for second round of money just to develop a plan. A waste in my opinion. All that money could effectively be used to pilot a good transportaion system in one of the atolls at least.
27 December 2007 at 14:00
Muna Mohamed said…
what if the money spent on consultants were given to the people and asked them to develop the system on their own. the latest in thing is get some dhonmeehaku and spent million of dollars for him to tell what we need and what we already know.. the dhonmeeha in return ask the locals and reproduce it and get all the money!
27 December 2007 at 14:43
Unknown said…
Exactly, Muna. We would be building their capacity and their ability to plan and implement development activities on their own. It is the best way that we could give ownership to the people. Its simple logic.

But the govt. likes to make our communities dependant on them so that when its time for elections they can always buy votes by promising them things that never materialize.
28 December 2007 at 02:54
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can we, women of this country, have some space to grow food and offer food security to our family?

Illustration by Aishath Rishtha   Translation: “When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money”  2014: Think about it? In 2014, I started writing a book using census and all available economic data on every atoll including data on how many uninhabited islands each atoll has. I thought that showing demographic, geographic and economic data will make people realize we need to do something about abandoning such rich resources for a congested living in Male’…. I shared the first draft with friends and mother thinking everyone will be very pleased. They weren’t happy. Major problem seemed to be - “just throwing data on people is not enough… we need to talk about some solutions. Take food security for one…..” 2016: Write about it? The book (Falhu Aliran Muy)- now twice bulky, with economic history (on the suggestion of Late Ali Hussain of Novelty Printers) and 11 interventions on future of ato...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dark Side of Life; Maldivians marginalized in the Maldives

The article published in Tourism Watch . To read the full article click link at end  In the Maldives, the tourism industry is touted as the goose that lays golden eggs. According to the World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita ballooned from 600 USD in 1985 to over 9,000 USD by 2017. The nation graduated from one of the 20 poorest countries in the world in 1980 to a middle income country by 2017. A quarter of the overall GDP comes from tourism. While the country got rich, the majority of the population got poor in comparison. Centralization policies and the excessive tourism development on uninhabited islands benefit only a chosen few. Centralization on Male’ The Maldives consists of more than 1200 islands - 188 of them are inhabited – stretching over more than 750 kilometers.  Fifty years ago, inhabitants of the islands in the north and south were living a prosperous life based on agriculture and fishing. Raw materials for agricultural products we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everybody hates 'bed tax'!

It’s strange! It is not this governments’ idea that Maldives should be divided into regions and developed by creating 4 or 5 urban areas where quality services are available. The creator of the policy and ‘champions of decentralization’ (aka previous government on the advise of countless local  and international experts) disowning their own creation is a bit of a mystery. Look into each and every plan developed by previous government and you will find the same thing emphasized, magnified again and again in bold letters.  Everybody hates bed tax! That’s why honourable mps in the majlis got rid of it from the  balance sheet of their companies by law! Who would entertain the idea of indefinitely paying 80 percent of their income as  'bed tax' to live like refugees in a match box size flat with no air or natural light just to get  a decent education, health services and jobs?  So have a heart! We too want live in our own home  and where decent...
4 comments
Read more