Crescent International’s Managing Editor, Zafar Bangash, recently visited the Maldives Islands; this report is based on his observations.

Visitors arriving in the Indian Ocean Island State of Maldives are handed a Customs and Immigration declaration form. In addition to seeking the visitor’s personal details, there is also a list of banned items printed on the back of the form, among them pornographic material, alcohol and drugs. To emphasize the seriousness of drugs, there is a further warning that drug carriers will face severe punishment.

It is not difficult to see why. The drug problem is widespread. One in four Maldivian youth is a drug addict. This is quite surprising since the country is quite isolated from the world; it is spread over 1902 islands of which only 192 are inhabited. Drugs are smuggled in from Sri Lanka and India. Organized gangs are involved in this deadly trade devastating the country of only 314,000 inhabitants. Most informed observers say that the drug business was and perhaps still is officially sanctioned and conducted by people linked with the former regime. There are huge profits to be made. Opposition parties were also not above such dealings. Many drug dealers seem to have close links with political figures thereby escaping punishment. 

Maldives is 100 percent Muslim. The few non-Muslims, mainly Hindus, in the country are from India or Sri Lanka who have come for work. There are nearly 100,000 foreign workers most of them in the tourism industry. Some 600,000 tourists, mainly from Europe, India and now increasingly from the Middle East, also visit the islands each year making tourism the principal source of earning. But Western tour operators take almost all tourism income — about $1 billion annually — out of the country, leaving only 20 percent for Maldives. The results are obvious. There is widespread poverty; some 50 percent of the population lives below the UN poverty level, earning less than $2 per day.

Fishing and fruit, the latter abundant because of tropical climate make up other parts of the economy. The fishing industry is quite advanced. Special quality yellow tuna, for instance, is exported. There are also fish processing plants but as a sparsely populated country with few resources, it does not have the means to protect its continental shelf from predator fishing vessels and trawlers. In recent years, the fish catch has declined. Given that rice is the staple diet, it also has to be imported, putting a strain on an already limited resource base.

Male, the capital city, is located on an island barely 1.5 square miles in area. According to the last census, there are 105,000 Maldivians and another 20,000 foreign workers, making it the most congested place on earth surpassing even Tokyo. Living space is so limited and expensive that most people are forced to live in overcrowded conditions. It is not uncommon to find six or seven people sharing a single room, leading to major social problems. Because of unstable soil conditions — the islands are located on coral reefs — tall buildings cannot be built to increase accommodation space. There are height restrictions: no building can be higher than 12 storeys; most are five or seven storeys high. Streets are narrow and congested. Sidewalks are even narrower and pedestrians, motorcycles and cars compete for every inch of space. Mercifully, there are no cows, buffalos or donkeys clogging the streets as they do in India and Pakistan.

There are tens of thousands of motorbikes. One wonders why the government has not encouraged people to use bicycles. This would be both environmentally friendly as well as cheap. Given its small size, people could easily get around. Most places are within five to ten minutes’ walking distance. Each island is self-contained. Transportation between islands is by boats but there are only a few islands close together. Others are hundreds of miles away; just as well.

Most holiday resorts are located on remote islands where the tourists come to have fun. Almost everything is permissible on the resorts: alcohol consumption, women sunbathing in bikinis, surfing, scuba diving, rides in speedboats and, fishing. It is not difficult to imagine what else goes on there for which Western — and now increasingly Arab — tourists flock to these islands. Some resorts are extremely high priced: upward of $15,000 per night. They are designed to cater to the tastes of the super-rich. Because most resorts are located on remote islands, the lifestyle there does not directly affect the local Muslim population.

There is widespread concern about immorality among Maldivians. Di-vorce rate is very high creating its own social problems. A Madivian youth put it best when this writer asked him about the problem, “We are Europeans in all respects except that we have brown skins.” There are no effective government programs to address such issues or provide support. Even if it wanted, the government does not appear to have the means to do so. Its main concern seems to be cling to power. The new president, Mohammad Nasheed was elected last October ousting the long-serving former president, Mamoun Abdul Gayum but Nasheed does not have a majority in parliament. During the last parliamentary elections earlier this year, voters gave the ousted president’s party 38 out of a total of 78 parliamentary seats. President Nasheed’s coalition has only 28 while there are 12 independents. His critics accuse him of resorting to gimmicks to overcome voter resentment at the lack of progress since becoming president.

There is an element of truth in it even if the judgment appears harsh. For instance, he made a dramatic appeal at the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh (September 24–25) to save his island country from sinking. Rising sea levels because of climate change threaten to inundate the islands, most of which are barely one meter above the water. He has even toyed with the idea of buying land in Sri Lanka or India to relocate his people should there be a threat of any island sinking. On October 17, he held a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to climate change, evoking the charge that it was a publicity stunt.

When he recently announced that his government had agreed to allow Israeli businessmen to develop agriculture and that diplomatic relations would be established with the Zionist State, there was an immediate outcry. Even his foreign minister, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed who had not been consulted, advised against such a move informing the president that Israeli presence would pose a serious security threat. Alarmed by this, Nasheed backtracked but most people believe the idea has not been abandoned, merely postponed. What motivated him to seek Israeli links is not clear.

There is another dilemma the country faces. Literacy is extremely high: above 98 percent. All students sit in the GCE exams linked with Cambridge University in England but the pass rate is about 20 percent. Thereafter, smart students go abroad to study because Maldives has no university. Most educated people do not return because the salaries offered are extremely low. Thus, there is a growing brain drain that is affecting the country’s ability to make progress. Some political parties have programs to address the issue but they do not have a major say in government or parliament to implement such proposals.

Thus a country comprising many islands with a tiny population located in the middle of the Indian Ocean is slowly sinking; its educated class seeks greener pastures elsewhere while drugs ravage its young. Since the country opened up, Saudi trained preachers are flocking to push their literalist interpretations of Islam. Unless checked, can it be very long before narrow-minded sectarianism takes hold and fatwas of takfir are hurled at opponents creating the kind of chaos that has engulfed Pakistan today? 

Our Note:

Maldives has no far received any problems due to Saudi trained Scholars but has faced many problems due bad behavoour and character from Egypt trained scholars, including homio sexual problems.

Students pass rate is 26- 32 percent in olevel exams.

Drugs

Drugs come from Pakistan too. Also please note till 1982 no Maldivian has even seen drugs. But Former President Gayoom brought Drugs to Maldives through his own brothers and spread all over to keep youth silent and away from politics and also he has made good money selling them. His government agreed and comment in his presence on youth day 2008 the over 2 million rufiyaa drugs are sold daily in Maldives.