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(This article was written after a visit to the Maldives in the early nineties)
The beauty and splendor of these islands have been written of during the past several centuries by well known travellers. Marco Polo described them as “Flowers of the Indies”, Ibin Batuta said these were ‘One of the Wonders of the World,” Fah Hsien, the Chinese, Papas of Alexandria, Scholastics of Thebes and H.C.P. Bell of the Ceylon Civil Services are other notables who have written about this archipelagic nation.
It was Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller, who remained in the Maldives for only about 18 months and lost no time in marrying four noble women of the Court of Kadihah, daughter of Sultan Ahbendjaly whose husband was her Chief Vizar. Unfortunately for Batuta, who having won the confidence of some members of the Royal family and having been offered the post of Kazi, was compelled to flee the country (with or without his wives it is not known) in about 1345 due to the apparent jealousy of the Chief Vizar who was himself the second husband of the lady Sultan Kadihah.
H.C.P. Bell, the first Commissioner of Archaeology of the Government of Ceylon, in Sessional Papers of 1881 which were laid before the Legislative Council of Ceylon wrote that the “Early history of these islands is buried in obscurity — the natural result of their complete isolation and comparative insignificance. Indeed, except for scant glimpses afforded by the accounts of a few causal travellers, whom accident has taken them there from time to time, the world in the later half of the 19th century knows little or nothing of the whole or part of the history of the Maldives.
“The Maldivians themselves possess no known historical records of any antiquity and would seem to be utterly ignorant of their antecedents beyond such vague and unreliable shreds of information as may have been handed down by traditions.” That is quite a mouthful, but it was Bell’s usual style.
From the earliest of times, trading contacts with the Arabs, Persians, Malaysians, Indians, Indonesians, Sinhalese and with even some African countries have certainly left their influence on the people and culture of the Maldivians. Their language itself, known as Dhivehi is derived from Sanskrit, with both Arabic and Hindi influence which is unmistakable to linguists.
After the Malabar raiders were got rid of the Maldivians formed a closer association, with strengthened diplomatic representations with Ceylon, a relationship which has existed from as far back as 1645. Thereafter, in 1887 the Maldivians accepted British Suzerainty for the benefit of military protection from them and this arrangement ended in 1965. The British did not station their representative in the islands nor did they interfere in their administration.
It is to the credit of the Maldivians that such a small nation was able to remain independent for so long with several powerful nations around them. This is on account of their farsighted diplomacy and on account of the country not being rich in natural resources except fish, which in those times was not as valuable as it is now because it could not be preserved for transport over long distances.
The period of British Suzerainty covered the years of the Second World War and Gan and Cocoa islands were important British bases with large numbers of Ceylonese serving in them with distinction and a few who were said to have not been amenable to discipline. That however, is another story.
Archaeological findings bear ample evidence of the prevalence and practise of Buddhism in the country prior to 1153 AD. In that year, Shaikh Yusuf ud-din of Tabriz, a pious Saint introduced Islam to the country during the rule of King Komala who changed his name to Mohommed Ibin Abdulla and assumed the Islamic title of Sultan after his conversion to Islam.
Ibn Batuta wrote of this conversion to Islam giving credit to Abdul Barakath Yusuf but that version does not appear to be accepted. It could be that Yusuf accompanied the Saint and remained in the islands to spread the religion. What is important is, historically, socially culturally and since 1153 AD the Maldivians have been true followers of Islam and that there is no other religion practised in the republic.
“Islam is the strength and backbone of Maldivians society permeating as it does the entire educational system….” It is the State Religion but there is, a “delicate blend of tradition and modernity.” Women are not in purdah and have equal opportunities with men in regard to education and employment. Hence, their contribution to the economic and social development of their country is no less than that of the contribution made by their men. They are seen and heard and listened to all over the republic.”
As mentioned earlier the country gained independence in 1965. This was during the tenure of office of the President, Ibrahim Nasir who was the Prime Minister under the titular Sultan. It became a Republic in 1968 with an elected President and a national Assembly. The current President, His Excellency Maumoon Abdul Gayoom assumed office on November 11, 1978, having polled 92.9% of the votes at a referendum. He is a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies from Alazhar University and lectured in Islamic Law and Philosophy at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria.
In his own country he held several high positions in Government since 1971 and was his country’s permanent representative at the United Nations in 1976 and 1977. He is a true friend of Sri Lanka and once said “Sri Lanka and the Maldives have embraced warm friendly relations for centuries. Our countries bondage of friendship stretches beyond geographical proximity.” President Gayoom’s administration is committed to an open Government ensuring the observance of the principles of democracy.
The first written Constitution of the Maldives was proclaimed in 1982 but is is said that there is evidence of the system of Government and administration accepting traditional principles of democracy as time honoured customs. The present constitution is that of a sovereign and independent Republic with Islam as its State Religion and Dhivehi as the State Language. However, English is widely used in Government’s administration and in the private sector.
The Maldive islands are on the equator in the Indian Ocean consisting of 26 atoll formations, the word atoll being derived from the word `atholu’ in Dhevehi. These atolls are groups of islands of varying numbers in each, all making a total of 1,190 islands. Of these, only 199 are inhabited and 74 others are set apart exclusively as tourist resorts.
The republic is some 720 km. South West of Sri Lanka and cover a total area of about 90,000 Square km. measuring 820 km. from North to South and 120 km. East to West at the longest and broadest points. The islands which consist of only about 1% of the total area are formed from layers of coral and none are more than six feet above sea level at the highest point. Gan with several garment factories, the longest island was developed by the British when they closed their base in Ceylon in 1956 by mutual agreement with the government of Ceylon which came into power that year. The British left Gan 20 years later leaving a fully developed island with roads and infrastructure which the Maldivians took over and set up industries with foreign investors.
The soils of the islands are poor and are alkaline due to their derivation from coral rock. There are no rivers or springs and all crops are dependent on the rains from the South West Monsoon. Hence the only crops grown are on a ‘chena’ or shifting agriculture basis in some of the inhabited islands and consist of various kinds of millets, tubers such as manioc, chillies, onions, cabbage, beans, brinjals, various gourds etc. and fruits such as watermelon, banana, papaw, mango and lemon. Coconut is an important crop and is found on many of the islands including the resorts.
To the tourist fishing is an important sport as diving. Fishing trips both by day and night are organized for modest fees for a few hours by local motorized Dhonis or baththal the traditional boat, or for very high fees in modern yachts and speed boats with sophisticated gear. The sportsmen and women bring in skipjack, groupers, snappers and other reef fish. Big game fish outside the atoll enclosures consist of marlin, barracuda, yellow fin tuna etc.
There are no indigenous animals but the islands area haven for large numbers and species of seabirds.Conservation of its wealth in its waters is important to the Maldivians. ‘Hence the use of harpoons and catching dolphins, whales, whale shark etc. is strictly prohibited and observed.
The most spectacular floral and fauna are found from just below the surface of the sea to hundreds of feet below. Fish with all the colours of the rainbow in their thousands, corals, crustaceans, turtles etc. and numerous varieties of sea weed make a world of psychedelic colour which defy description. Fishing accounts for about 40% of those in gainful employment with a catch of some 99,000 metric tons in 1993. This was for home consumption, local sale and for export, canned or frozen.
The per capita consumption of fish in the Maldives is about the highest in the world and is about the only form of animal protein consumed by its people. Skipjack is the main catch and upto about 1972, it was the main export product, in the form of Maldive Fish after a process of boiling, salting, smoking and sun drying. The sole buyer of the product was Sri Lanka and on account of our foreign exchange problems and restrictions on imports of all but essentials the Maldivians were forced to find other markets for their foreign exchange earnings from fish. They were thus compelled to freeze or can their exportable fish.
The climate in the Maldives is humid and hot (average 86 degrees Fahrenheit) in spite of the influence of the cool sea breeze. The South West Monsoon from April to November brings about 84 inches of rain while the North – East Monsoon from December to March is a dry period in most years.With little or no resources for significant industrial or agricultural development and to support a growing population with its increasing needs from outside the country, the Maldivians turned to tourism for its foreign exchange earnings.
Hence, from an almost non-existent industry in 1972 with just a handful of tourists 1993 recorded 241,000 arrivals, in 1994 it rose to 279,600 and in 1995 to 300,000 arrivals. The main reasons for this rapid growth is of course on account of ‘the gem like islands depict the rare vision of a tropical paradise. Palm fringed islands with sparkling white beaches, turquoise lagoons, clear warm waters and coral reefs teeming with abundant varieties of marine flora and fauna.” Apart from these, there are no ogling oafs and gawking peddlers of bead chains, cheap clothing or even other wares as in some Sri Lankan sea side holiday resorts.
This makes the Maldives an ideal destination for the holiday maker in search only of, and with no interest other than in tranquillity and peace with sunshine and warm clear waters to laze in. Other reasons for this phenomenal growth is the opening of the Male International Airport in late 1981 to receive wide bodied jets from Colombo, Singapore and Trivandrum; a Cabinet Minister solely in charge of the subject and more than likely the comparatively slower growth of the industry in Sri Lanka since about 1978. About 85% of the visitors are from Western Europe with West Germany and Italy forming the majority and with smaller numbers from France, Sweden etc.
A typical visit to the Maldives is one in which the visitor arrives at Hulule Airport and goes through immigration with little bother except that the odd official may want to know, particularly from dark skinned people, whether they have a minimum of US$ 25 for each day of stay. The Customs check is quick if one does not carry alcohol or firearms both of which are strictly taboo. After awhile, the Tour Guide with whose Company one has booked escorts him to a Dhoni many of which are now powered by 15 or 20 HP Honda or Yamaha diesel engines.
The journey starts with leaping from one Dhoni to another (if his particular boat is some distance away) with plenty of willing hands to ensure that he does not end up squashed between two boats in the lapping waters below!
Ziaraarafushi in Kaafu Atoll the destination in this case is two and half hour journey with the first hour or so on the open top deck on foam rubber cushions admiring the beauty of the changing colours of the waters from clear light blue to shades of green and finally to deep blue as the depth of the water increases. Fish, corals and other islands and their beaches in the distance add to the beauty of the view. Retirement to the enclosed lower deck becomes necessary as the sea gets rough and waves hit the upper deck. It is hot and humid down there and exhaust fumes from the engine somehow find their way adding to the discomfort.
The Captain of the boat has three helpers who once the going is steady hasten to the lower deck and promptly fall fast asleep on the cushioned benches. Fishing is second nature to the Maldivians hence on these trips too they throw a few lines and haul a skipjack or two every now and then; a bonus payment or a bigger fish curry for dinner!
The Captain stands with his back to the starpole and guides the boat with his bare foot or even his shoulder blades without the aid of a compass, and in total dependence on his experienced eye, never flinching even when accepting one of the many lighted cigarettes his assistants, when they are awake, pass on to him throughout the journey.
Ziaraarafushi is one of the 74 resort islands, leased to foreign developers and has some one hundred chalets. Visitors are met at the jetty by the staff with wheel barrows marked ‘Luggage’ in bold red letters. The complex consists of the single and double room chalets, large dining hall, a reception area with a shop displaying beach wear, toiletries, handicrafts made from bones of large fish, picture post cards etc.; the main indoor recreational area is a large hall with the bar at one end. Liquor is expensive, a can of beer is sold at US$ 3.5 to 4 with a peg of Sri Lankan Gin selling at about the same price. In these circumstances, the price of Scotch is prohibitive.
Floors of all common areas are sand covered with half walls all round. Roofs are covered with woven coconut palm fronds with wire mesh spread over as a protection against strong winds. The chalets have cement floors which are sometimes covered with linoleum and consist of a shower and toilet and sit-out. The furniture and linen are simple and adequate but the charges are about double or a little more for more comfortable accommodation and very much better food at Sri Lankan three or four star hotels in the coast.
The food is simple, consisting of baked or boiled fish with cabbage, beans, tomatoes and cucumber for both main meals and an egg with limited quantities toast for breakfast. The meals are bland and monotonous and the food served to the staff is more appetising to the Sri Lankan pallet as it consists of rice and hot fish curry with grated coconut. Talking about food, an European woman said “As long as I don’t have to cook and wash I don’t care as the sun, sea and sand are there for my annual holiday.” Perhaps she speaks for large numbers of the tourists who come to the Maldives. There are, however, some resorts which boast of several coffee shops and restaurants in each offering varied and excellent cuisine at relatively higher prices.
There are no Maldivians permanently resident on Ziaraarafushi just as in all the other resort islands as the Government wishes to preserve the culture of its people uninfluenced by foreign habits and customs. Likewise inhabited islands have no hotels and visits to them by tourists are allowed only with guides for a few hours in the day in what is described as ‘proper attire’. This is a most laudable practice.
The staff at all levels consist mostly of Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis and they like the visitors are birds of passage leaving the unspoilt Maldivians to their traditions and religion uninterfered with.Those resorts in the islands, hotels and guest houses in Male, had a bed strength of just under 10,000 in 1993 with about 65% utilization bringing the Government about three fifths of its ‘visible export receipts.”
To service the tourists and the local population with their requirements of internal transport by sea, there were 1,434 mechanised Dhonis, a few luxury yachts and 313 trolling vessels in 1993. A mere 15 sailing Dhonis and 22 rowing boats were available mostly for pleasure rides.Male, the capital and Seat of Government and main commercial centre is entirely different from the resort islands “for, if the islands depend on Male for all their trading and administration, Male depends on the islands for its livelihood.” It is busy town with Government Offices, Schools, Shops of all grades and sizes, Hospitals and residences of all the important officials and the not so important with a population of around 60,000 out of a total of just over 238,000 in the Republic in 1993.
In that year, Male, Hulule and Gan had most of the 5,330 bicycles, 3,466 motor cycles and 454 cars, vans and trucks. The authorized vehicles, more often than not are driven on low gear most of the time due to the crowded and narrow roads.The President’s residence or Mulee Aage, the Grand Friday Mosque which can accommodate 5,000 worshipers at a time, National Museum in the Sultan Park, marine drive, docks and fish markets are important land marks in clean, tidy and bustling Male.
WHAT NEXT? HOW DO WE PROCEED TO REBUILD SRI LANKA
Ranil is flying showing his colours
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Monkeypox is very unpleasant and it spreads very fast, but it’s not a real killer: 16,000 cases in 75 countries in just a couple of months is impressive, but there have been only five deaths.Yet the World Health Organisation (WHO) has just declared monkeypox a global health emergency, which is a big deal. The only other infectious diseases in that category are Covid-19, which has already killed 6.4 million people, and polio (which is trying to make a come-back). Targeting monkeypox seems disproportionate, but there’s a reason.
“Covid-19 is broadly viewed as being a ‘once in a lifetime’ or ‘once in a century’ pandemic. Modelling work, based on historical data, shows that this is not necessarily the case,” reported the epidemiological start-up Metabiota last year. That’s because “the frequency of ‘spill-over’ infectious diseases, like Covid, is steadily increasing.”
It’s increasing because quick-killer pandemic diseases only started thriving in human societies when we began living together in large numbers. Lethal viruses, and bacteria, probably always ‘spilled over’ into human populations from time to time, but if they infected little hunter-gatherer groups of 50 or 100 people, they just died out along with the victims.
The natural home of those diseases were birds and animals that lived in big flocks and herds: lots of potential victims to sustain the transmission. But when human beings started living in big civilisations and domesticated some of those animals, the pandemic diseases happily transferred across and thrived amongst us, too.
For most of the history of civilisation, successful transfers didn’t happen all that often: big new killer pandemics only came along every 500 years, or so. However, now that there are eight billion people, and millions criss-cross the planet every day, the disease vectors have more opportunities to spread, and they move much faster.
At the moment, according to Metabiota’s calculations, it’s even odds that we will have another new pandemic on the scale of Covid-19 in the next 25 years. More precisely, they estimate the probability of another global pandemic, as deadly as Covid, to be between 2.5-3.3 percent each year. It could even arrive next year.
Monkeypox is not that disease. Despite its rapid spread to so many countries, it is transmitted mainly between men who have sex with men. There is an existing, fully effective vaccine for it (the same one that eradicated smallpox, which no longer exists in the wild). And hardly anybody dies from it.
So, WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had some explaining to do when he broke a stalemate at his ‘emergency committee’ and decreed that monkeypox is a global emergency.
He explained that it was to speed up research on “the new modes of transmission that have allowed it to spread”, and to press countries to use vaccines and other measures to limit the numbers infected. These are all sensible things to do, but they really don’t justify declaring a global health emergency.
What he carefully avoided saying is that he really intends it as a reminder of our peril and a spur to action. The whole pandemic response system needs an exercise that incorporates all the lessons learned from our stumbling response to Covid, and monkeypox provides an excuse to do it.
Ghebreyesus is manipulating the system in a well-meant attempt to persuade the world to build better systems for containing dangerous emergent diseases in general, and he may come under serious fire for doing so.But you can see his point, because we haven’t learned enough from our harrowing experience with Covid. The vaccines were developed faster than in any previous pandemic, and two-thirds of the world’s population has been fully vaccinated in about 16 months, but the rate of immunity in the poorest countries is abysmal.
That leaves reservoirs of high infection that serve as breeding grounds for new variants of the virus, some of which may be able to evade the vaccines. This is an issue of distribution and organisation, not a medical issue, and doing it on a smaller scale for monkeypox could improve the system for the next time something truly dangerous appears.The same goes for the initial phases of detection and containment, which were badly bungled with Covid. There will be much worse pandemics coming down the road in the future – WILL BE, not ‘may be’ – and the world needs to be better prepared.
Just spending one-hundredth of what the world spent on fighting Covid to improve global readiness for dealing with the next pandemic – building local vaccine production facilities, regional labs with good analytical capabilities, and stronger reporting networks – could spare us another two years of the misery and loss we had with this pandemic.If that’s Ghebreyesus’s real goal with this monkeypox business, it’s all right with me.
Two popular sayings come to mind – the old Sinhala one – “miti thenen thamai watura yanne (water flows from the lowest end). The other – ” Going with blinkers). Both are very aptly applicable to the goernment’s decision to permit three-wheelers to obtain fuel only from their local registered shed. Considering the possibility, or probability, of any three-wheeler running short of fuel in a long distance run, or even otherwise, way out of his registration point, both the vehicle and the passenger will be completely stranded and be victims of another kind of “chandiya” or hawk. Given the need to introduce systems and methods in this crisis situation, the powers-that-be need to act with circumspect, reasonableness and responsibility without leaving room for people to mock at irresponsible governance, inhumanity and blinkered vision, bringing the administration into more disrepute. The QR system has its merits but not if introduced in the copy-book style, catering more to the blocks with power than to the voiceless majority. It needs to be tailored to suit local conditions.
If not for the Aragalaya, the world would only have seen the Sri Lanka, which had been reduced to charity from a generous beggar in Tamil Nadu, who had obviously managed his personal finances better than the Sri Lankan state had managed ours. Sri Lanka had become a pathetic place.
Our dignity was restored not by the unelected Ranil Wickremesinghe but by the Aragalaya. The world witnessed a renaissance of Sri Lankan society of the public space, thanks to the civic resistance movement, drawn from all age groups, and finally, starting April 3rd, 2022 on Galle Face green by the Aragalaya. The world saw on July 9th, the people of Sri Lanka, led by the youth, liberating the President’s House and then swarming up like a tsunami wave up the steps and through the doors of the Presidential Secretariat.The Sri Lankan story was turned into a dramatic triumph of social self-assertion by the people of the island.
Does – will – the Aragalaya story, the story of the most massive and successful popular uprising in our history, the most successful assertion of democratic-republican popular sovereignty since Independence, end with the Constitutional coup, the Constitutional equivalent of the Central Bank bond scam, and the installation in the seat of power by the reviled Rajapaksa ruling clan, of Ranil Wickremesinghe, the most unpopular and hitherto unsuccessful political leader of our lifetime?
It will cause terrible psychological damage to our collective psyche, if we permit the story to end in that manner. It would be as if we had lost the war to the Tigers. We didn’t. We write this story and it needs to be completed satisfactorily, with the people as the rebellious, victorious heroes.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s rule became untenable when the day he decided on an overnight ban on chemical fertiliser, pesticide and weedicide. It was not only the economic consequences that caused the slide. It was the moral crime involved. He had won on a manifesto that pledged to make things much better and as part of that, to undertake a decade-long transition to organic agriculture. Instead, he devastated the peasantry that had voted for him, in 2019, and his family, for seven decades. It was a moral upending. When Gotabaya lost the moral high-ground, it was inevitable he would lose his grip on power.
Wickremesinghe has made a similar blunder, committed a moral crime, under less affordable circumstances. He has turned on, and cracked down on, the very Aragalaya that unintentionally, but quite definitely, brought him to power by removing Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a massive collective heave-ho.
Of course, this is but a large-scale version of how he double-crossed Sirisena Cooray, former UNP General-Secretary, who gave him the Prime Ministership he was himself offered in 1993. I know. I was there when it happened, in 1997. He also double-crossed Karu Jayasuriya from the very moment he handsomely won the Colombo mayoralty. I was there then, too, and warned Karu J that it would happen. Treachery is the trademark political ‘step-style’– as Gail Sheehy puts in, in ‘Passages’—of Mr. Wickremesinghe.
This time, the political and historical price will be far higher. Mr. Wickremesinghe has betrayed a mass democratic revolution, the Aragalaya, in full view of the world’s media. And he has only just got started.
Already his Cabinet Ministers are talking about “terrorism” and “terrorists” lurking in or hiding behind the Aragalaya. This is not just stuff and nonsense; it is very dangerous stuff. “Terrorism” is the organized and intentional use of lethal violence for political purpose, against unarmed, non-combatant civilians.Not every armed struggle is terrorism or contains terrorism, though in Sri Lanka it notoriously did—and in any case there was no armed activity in the Aragalaya or in support of it.
Homicide or manslaughter by a mob, as on the afternoon/night of May 9th, though a heinous crime, which must be punished by the full force of the normal law, is not terrorism.There was and is no “terrorism” within, alongside or behind the Aragalaya.
RANIL AND THE RANCID RIGHT
President Wickremesinghe has inherited the burdens of the Rajapaksa-created economic crisis, and cannot be sympathized with for his predicament because he was chosen by the soon-to-be deposed autocrat Gotabaya Rajapaksa as PM and more conspicuously, was voted in by the Rajapaksa-dominated ruling SLPP parliamentarians, as the President.
The economic recovery is deadlocked not only by the obvious problems of the chicken-and-the egg, IMF and the creditors conundrum. It is deadlocked even tighter now, by President Ranil’s choices and actions. He should have stepped down and made way for a political leader with some mass base, who could have made a fresh start and had a better shot at managing the crisis. Since Sajith Premadasa bravely ran against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in November 2019, and lost by only 10%, missing the magic 50% mark by only 8%, he would have been the logical first option.
Instead, Mr. Wickremesinghe discredited himself by being the Rajapaksa’s man in the race, thereby reinforcing the impression of continuity rather than discontinuity with the ancien regime, the Old Guard. He, therefore, causes the forfeiture of the global wave of support we could have obtained and can still obtain as the country where the young people rose up and threw out an autocrat.
Ranil does more damage than even this, by cracking down on the Aragalaya activists and being seen as the repressive unpopular ruler he is. Why should world opinion bail out a country with that kind of narrative; that kind of story? Where’s the catharsis? Where’s the bounce? Where’s the happy ending?
For this story to end with a real catharsis, the unfinished Aragalaya must be taken to a logical conclusion, with a generational shift from the 70-something Establishment. The Aragalaya was not meant to and cannot be allowed to end with the installation of an unelected leader who becomes, or reveals himself, as an autocrat overnight.
Ranil is trying to kill the Aragalaya by repression, suffocation. He must not be allowed to. That is not how this great story must end; must go into the continuous chronicle of this island’s history.
That is why “RANIL RESIGN!” must resonate and resound in the final phase of the great national liberation struggle for freedom and democracy in our lifetimes: the Aragalaya!
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