:: Dhivehi Observer :: Peoples Press ::

British concerns behind Maldives agony

By Mariyam Mohamed - Tuesday, 17 August 2004

British concerns are ostensibly behind the agonies being suffered by the Maldivian people. The Maldives is now "free" in that they don't pay tribute and are not protected by Her Majesty's government. But the few trinkets paid then in tribute are now replaced by millions of dollars paid to Cable & Wireless who had since cornered the communications market in Maldives. The state-cum-British-company run monopoly of the national telecoms company Dhiraagu is a joint venture between Cable & Wireless and the Maldives government. Internet costs US$6 per hour and a call to the nearest neighbour costs as much as US$2 a minute. Exorbitant rates, unregulated and rampant by reason of that company being a monopoly are helping them clean up the Maldives population on an enormously larger scale than the times of British "protection". To add insult to injury, the noble Britishers of Cable & Wireless blatantly block communications services, cut off SMS messages, cut off telecoms links to the world and generally trample on Maldivian citizen's rights and constitution (as well as their own laws and convictions) for days on end with impunity. This was most recently made evident during the brutal crackdown on 13 August 2004 by the unpopular government of a man now exposed as a despot.

Through letters of 16th and 23rd December, 1887, exchanged between the Governor of Ceylon on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Victoria of Britain and His Highness the Sultan of the Maldive Islands, an agreement was made for the protection of the Maldive Islands by Her Majesty. During the period 1887 and 1948, Maldivians paid a tribute for their protection, of a few mats, lacquer items sweet-meats and ornamental gifts.

The British, to "protect" us were in the Maldives until 1969. Changes in policy of the then labour government made them leave Maldives, leaving the islanders at the mercy of autocrats, without the institutions, safeguards, checks and balances against excesses of the would be rulers, as opposed to neighbouring colonies (such as India and Sri Lanka) ruled by Britain. No political associations, parties, no guilds, no trade unions etc. Her Majesty's government after being there for so many years does not even have a consular office in Maldives. Maldivians who wish to travel to Britain these days are at the mercy of Sri Lankan travel agents and have to travel hundreds of miles by boat to Male', and then fly another few hundred miles to Colombo to obtain a visa. Even then they are treated with suspicion by officials who in cahoots with their Maldivian counter-parts have probably spent all expenses-paid luxury holiday cum official visits to the islands. And what about the BBC? They are strangely playing a cat and mouse game, highlighting statements from the government without so much as checking the facts and without having the common decency to look out for a nation of peaceful islanders that Her Majesty's subjects protected and abandoned. Not a word about Cable & Wireless and their practice of cutting off the masses from their loved ones abroad, spreading fear and confusion amongst the many islanders who innocently look up to her Majesty's subjects as the most civilized in the world. In the present climate of revised opinions and views, of fear and loathing, no-one would be surprised if some misguided Maldivians demand the eviction of all Britishers from their soil, misled by the actions of a few corrupt greedy entrepreneurs in Cable & Wireless and the BBC who are upstaging a whole host of British well-wishers such as Friends of Maldives and other forthright people who bode well for their nation as the forbears of the greatest civilization in the world.