The Feudal Monarchy of Maldives

Our resorts, our islands and the bulk of money earned utilizing our natural resources (the resources otherwise collectively owned by all Maldivians on PAPER) are worth billions if not trillions of dollars, yet our economy, our State does not have the capacity to sustain barely a month in recession and our government fails to come up with just one interventionist policy to ease the tense.

Government was swift to demand home quarantine and lockdown from citizens to stop the spread of the pandemic (which is required) but when it came to shutting down the gates of Maldives and other urgent and much needed measures, there was one excuse after another (mostly to save the economy and salvage jobs), up until global air traffic stopped, and the league of resort owners themselves started shutting down one resort after the other without any security and/or paycheck to thousands of employees. Does government intervene? NO! Do you even hear a whimper from the government? NO! There’s nothing but deafening silence. There’s deafening silence from our elected representatives when our jobs are lost, livelihoods gone and local businesses bankrupt and/or on the verge of it. However what we did hear yesterday was added calls for more taxation which is against public policy in an economic recession! Bravo 👏

Moreover, honey traps of double/triple interest loans introduced through BML is not going to restore the jobs and help us pay rent, mortgages, utility and food. While we are at home, while we are not at work, while our jobs are getting evaporated; how are we owing to afford the very basic means of living? Has the government left us out all but to the mercy of our resort owners, our landlords, our telecom operators and to the mercy of OUR “Dhivehinge bank”?

Most of the governments in the world have intervened and halted any/all burdens on people through enacting firm executive orders to halt home eviction, cut off utility bills, rents, mortgages, tax breaks etc. and we are yet to see any such intervention from the government. The other governments of the world understand that a lockdown means no work, no work means no earning, no earning means you won’t even have a dime to pay even 60% of electricity or 70% of water bill; a simple concept our government is grappling to understand.

Tell me, is it such a hard concept for anyone even with half wits to understand? If you and I can understand this then why can’t “our” government? I’ll tell you why!

I have the balls to tell you hush hush taboos in political arenas, be politically incorrect and tell you all about what we’ve been missing and where we’re going wrong. Remember, rights are never served on silver platter– they are always taken either through persuasion or force. If we don’t challenge the current political establishment and the unfair/unjust order it systematically creates, I’m afraid it might be too late to salvage our country. While I have no interest in political romance, I won’t have written this long piece unless too much of our lives were at stake!

Moving on, while the resort sector is shut down without any tangible timeline of reopening, what measures are our government taking to revive the local economies, combat food shortages and provide us with a basic safety net? Not for namesake or to-make-it-look-good-for-the-moment net. A tangible safety net where our lives aren’t immediately at stake or at the mercy of a third party. A solid plan where “we are prepared for the storm to come NOW than wait for the night before the storm arrives to prepare”, where the wordings of Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, last night.

In the spirit of reviving the local economy, I must add that a party that I’m acquainted with have submitted an $800+ Million Social Impact Bond facility (strictly falling under the pledge of Blue Economy by the government) over six months ago via most reputable, sophisticated, state-of-the-art financial Institute of Luxembourg (the Financial Heart of Europe) which could provide at least 15,000 affordable social housing units, create tens of thousands of local jobs and keep the entire operation to local contractors, vendors and businesses; the government is yet to act on it, despite the dire need to revive the local economy and increase liquidity immediately. Yet it’s ironic that the isn’t bothered. It’s not bothered to explore and exhaust all the options they have. Although Blue Economy is the fundamental pledge of the government, when presented with an actual blueprint to implement the Blue Economy model, government without stating any reasons have stated that the financial offer is unacceptable to them even though Ecuador (a country far less improvised than us) raised $400 million in similar Impact Bonds last October.

Apparently the government prefers Exim Finance model from either India, China or any other, created to provide jobs for those countries and boost their export/economy while zero dollar actually gets injected to our economy, zero jobs created for us and zero money circulation in our economy. And on top of that we pay up these loans with our taxpayer money, halting or cutting short the limited flow of money/dollar circulation within our economy. In short, they dump us with their extra goods and we give them our hard earned money! They don’t give us a dime and we give them all our cash. This is the benchmark of unsustainable financing. This is the reason our economy is counterproductive. This is the sort of debt trap IMF and World Bank warns us against. And this has been the continuing policy of our governments.

It was one such policy of President Yameen that resulted in the abrupt and complete decimation of the construction industry- the so called third sector of our economy. When Hiya project was announced and loans borrowed on Exim finance against Sovereign Guarantee, as a vested stakeholder, I officially echoed my concerns to all stakeholder as to the ensuing impact it’ll do on the local economy and construction industry specifically. I specifically warned in writing that without a specialized end-user financing scheme for end users to purchase these flats, wholesale borrowing on Exim finance would overtax Maldivian retail finance sector (BML, HDFC etc), effectively eating away any funds left for home financing and real estate loans, which is exactly what happened within few months. Moreover, with current interest rate for retail finance, at the end of the day these flats can hardly be called “affordable” at all. Of course, my warnings fell on deaf ears and for the previous government, playing politics and sentiments of the people were more pressing needs than implementing a constructive sustainable policy, and thus the construction industry became a victim, jeopardizing thousands of jobs, money-flow and revenue circulation in the nick of just one bad policy!

While housing sector is the backbone of every major economy or any emerging economy for that matter in the world, the policies of our successive governments have been to wholesale outsourcing of our housing sector to foreign parties to the detriment of our economy. Instead of leveraging housing market to create additional wealth and making it the cornerstone on which the foundation for further enhancement of economy is laid on; the policies were/are centered on depleting our economy of any liquidity whatsoever leftover from other economic activities. It’s no rocket science that we’re growing unnecessarily poorer and poorer every passing day while the world around us keeps growing and evolving to our bewilderment. While the world around us are grinding their heads to make capitalism better suit and adapt to their needs, we are still miserably choking on the most medieval form of feudalism- landlordism grappled under the slavery of rent based economy and capitalism is yet to see daylight in the Boggy Side of Life.

It’s no wonder that under this ancient form of feudal economy, President of the Maldives won’t have balls to sign an Executive order to stop home evictions even at a time of unprecedented force major event and continuing global crisis as such we have at hand now. While resort boys are all but left at the mercy of the feudal resort lords and while rent slaves on whose blood the skyline of capital Male’ City is painted on is all but left to the mercy of feudal landlords; it’s farce to call this a representative democracy! The least you can do is know, understand and call it by what it is— yes an early 17th century styled Feudal Monarchy of Maldives! A thing of long gone past!

A feudal monarchy where government can easily dictate regulations that will force you to stay/quarantine at a five star resort or a safari that just served you the revelation that years and years of sweat and toil you sacrificed away from the comforts of your family, and even jumping into the sea to please and bid farewell to the guest of your feudal resort lord simply means nothing, you mean nothing, your existence means nothing and so you are out of employment (or slavery if that’s how you want to put it), without any further notice or a paycheck! Tell me, how is the government that force you to quarantine on your former/place of employment and possibly punish you for any violations, unable to enforce the same courtesy on your employer to provide you with basic form of security at a time of humanitarian crisis?!

No, It won’t because it’s a feudal monarchy serving the interest of feudal lords, not you peasants and slaves! No, it’s not that your government is out of options or out of choice. Governments always has choices and it’s options are wide open always but the choices it makes would hardly be centered on your interest..at least not until you wake up from this nightmare and demand what’s rightfully yours...your right to live..your right to exist as a human being...your right to a decent life...your rightful ownership of Maldives and all that’s in it... The very fundamental rights of being a Maldivian!!