Beggars (islanders) cannot be choosers!

Aren’t you surprised at people who are surprised by the very predictable results of elections in the Maldives?

Think of an island. In practice, do they have permission to carry out any activity mentioned in decentralization law to maintain or develop their island? The central government in Male’, is one and only way through which provision of even basic services necessary for humans to survive in an island, is allowed. Islands can’t even dump their garbage, provide water, electricity, even housing plots, without the direct approval of central government.

The island councils elected by the people, have been reduced to the role of a messenger to beg and plead, to central government, on behalf of people, thanks to the Local Government Authority given the task of empowering them! In Maldives everything works backwards or just the opposite of what is written because Maldives is where even good theories on governance or anything else, comes to die!

Reports note that governance is even more centralized after the new constitution and decentralization law was passed. As in Maldivian history, rural Islands are forced to have a master slave relationship with government instead of the latter becoming a development partner who assists and empower them. In such an autocratic disempowered state, do the islanders in Maldives have any other choice other than electing representatives of government?

Only when island communities are allowed to carry out developmental activities as mandated by Decentralization Act, they will start thinking about who can best assist them, on merit, rather than electing government backed candidates by default. International or locals, taking Maldives local elections as a sign of support for any ruling party of the day, needs to do a reality check!

Comments

A Nation Sold Out!

We often talk about how corrupt are the politicians and those who are in high offices. I would say all of us are bonded through the chain corruption. First we sell our vote to the highest bidder, digging our own grave. The members than sell his/her vote to the Ultimate Buyer for money, position, power and so on The Ultimate Buyer, instead of meeting our demands, controls the members through the chain of corruption; we become helpless and our hopes for a decent life and a prosperous future gone. We cry, and whine saying how corrupt is the Majlis, the government and each and everyone who are in positions of power. After 21 days* we forget about everything and go about our lives and in between if some need arise, we beg the member or the Ultimate Buyer the member or the Ultimate buyer fulfills the need, on the promise of selling our vote again. It’s a vicious circle My request to Mps - to include vote buying/selling undue inducement as a criminal offence ...

1000 islands, 1000 opportunities

Often we are bombarded with messages stating, we do not have any natural resources and therefore we are poor. Just because we do not have oil does not mean we lack natural resources to move our economy forward. When you think of it, the 1000 more islands are the natural resources we have. We are using less than 150 islands for industrial purposes. The rest is untouched and unused. Tourism has shown that each island can be turned into multi million dollar cash generating investments. However, the problem is policy makers seems unable to think beyond tourism. Policies in assigning islands for industrial purposes need to be reviewed and prevent over concentration on tourism in a single atoll. Within the atolls (including Kaafu and other atolls that has high concentration of tourism), islands can be leased to fisheries, agriculture, education, health, and many more other industries and make them easily accessible for people to go for jobs or to acquire goods and services. Build...

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...

Voice of Maldives Islands

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