New Presidency In The Maldives: Can Paradise Be Restored?

The Maldives / Photo by Kimberley Mair

While Barack Obama’s victory dominated the headlines, it has perhaps been lost that another new president recently took office. On 11th November 2008 Mohamed Nasheed, a long-time human rights activist, took over the reigns of power in the Maldives.  Tourism Concern is thrilled at this new presidency and wishes the new Government every success. The Maldives has immense problems to tackle including global warming, poverty, chronic unemployment and drug addiction. The Maldives boasts some 1,200 islands, making tourism the biggest foreign exchange earner for its economy. Just 250 are inhabited, with the majority of the population largely confined to the capital city, Malé, by a government wary of its people interacting with foreigners and of the negative influence this could have on the Maldives’ strict Muslim society.

Tourism Concern’s work on the Maldives dates back to 2004, when a group of Maldivian political exiles approached us seeking support. The Maldives, they told us, was not the holiday paradise so expertly marketed and sold to the public, but was a repressive, tortuous group of islands run by a single president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, for over 26 years who, through serious corruption, had become wealthy from tourism revenues whilst the population went hungry. Tourism Concern rapidly launched a campaign to support them, seeking to raise awareness of these important issues amongst the general public:

• Maldivian people live in poverty despite high revenues from tourism. 42% of the local population are living very close to the internationally recognised poverty line of US $1.50 a day and have an average income of just $4,600 a year.
• Tourism workers often face exploitative conditions. Research has found that some workers only receive one day off a month and work 12 hour shifts within the resorts. Wages are low and the situation is exacerbated by employers choosing to employ expatriates from even poorer countries in order to lower their costs. Maldivians have little or no choice but to work in these conditions if they are to make enough money to support their families. (A revised Employment Act was passed in August 2008, which was officially extended to include the rights of tourism workers in October 2008).
• The UN reports that malnutrition rates among Maldivian children are as acute as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 1 in 3 children under the age of 5 suffering from the condition. This is in a country which opens up at least 11 new luxury resort islands each year and where GDP (gross domestic product) per capita is the highest in South Asia.

Due to the political climate in the Maldives, local people and tourism workers have been frightened to speak out about their working conditions, as this could mean losing their job, imprisonment or worse. Clearly something needed to happen to improve working rights and living conditions for local people. Tourism has such huge potential to bring people out of poverty, but the Maldives under Gayoom put to shame any such idea.  Nasheed has been in jail 23 times, tortured and spent a long time in solitary confinement. However, his agenda now is to move on and we are assured that this will include spreading the benefits from tourism in the Maldives more equitably amongst its people.  We wish him well.