Maldives - HISTORY
Maldives
MALDIVES IS AN ISOLATED nation and is among the smallest and poorest
countries in the world. In olden times, the islands provided the main
source of cowrie shells, then used as currency throughout Asia and parts
of the East African coast. Moreover, historically Maldives has had a
strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes
of the Indian Ocean. Maldives' nearest neighbors are Sri Lanka and
India, both of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives
for centuries. Although under nominal Portuguese, Dutch, and British
influences after the sixteenth century, Maldivians were left to govern
themselves under a long line of sultans and occasionally sultanas.
Maldives gained independence in 1965. The British, who had been
Maldives' last colonial power, continued to maintain an air base on the
island of Gan in the southernmost atoll until 1976. The British
departure in 1976 almost immediately triggered foreign speculation about
the future of the air base; the Soviet Union requested use of the base,
but Maldives refused.
The greatest challenge facing the republic in the early 1990s was the
need for rapid economic development and modernization, given the
country's limited resource base in fishing and tourism. Concern was also
evident over a projected long-term rise in sea level, which would prove
disastrous to the low-lying coral islands.
Maldivians consider the introduction of Islam in A.D. 1153 as the
cornerstone of their country's history. Islam remains the state religion
in the 1990s. Except for a brief period of Portuguese occupation from
1558-73, Maldives also has remained independent. Because the Muslim
religion prohibits images portraying gods, local interest in ancient
statues of the pre- Islamic period is not only slight but at times even
hostile; villagers have been known to destroy such statues recently
unearthed.
Western interest in the archaeological remains of early cultures on
Maldives began with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of
the Ceylon Civil Service. Bell was shipwrecked on the islands in 1879,
and he returned several times to investigate ancient Buddhist ruins.
Historians have established that by the fourth century A.D. Theravada
Buddhism originating from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) became the
dominant religion of the people of Maldives. Some scholars believe that
the name "Maldives" derives from the Sanskrit maladvipa,
meaning "garland of islands." In the mid-1980s, the Maldivian
government allowed the noted explorer and expert on early marine
navigation, Thor Heyerdahl, to excavate ancient sites. Heyerdahl studied
the ancient mounds, called hawitta by the Maldivians, found on
many of the atolls. Some of his archaeological discoveries of stone
figures and carvings from pre-Islamic civilizations are today exhibited
in a side room of the small National Museum on Male.
Heyerdahl's research indicates that as early as 2,000 B.C. Maldives
lay on the maritime trading routes of early Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and
Indus Valley civilizations. Heyerdahl believes that early
sun-worshipping seafarers, called the Redin, first settled on the
islands. Even today, many mosques in Maldives face the sun and not
Mecca, lending credence to this theory. Because building space and
materials were scarce, successive cultures constructed their places of
worship on the foundations of previous buildings. Heyerdahl thus
surmises that these sun-facing mosques were built on the ancient
foundations of the Redin culture temples.
The interest of Middle Eastern peoples in Maldives resulted from its
strategic location and its abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of
currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East
African coast since ancient times. Middle Eastern seafarers had just
begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the tenth century
A.D. and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes. The
importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the twelfth
century A.D. may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives
converted to Islam in the year 1153. The king thereupon adopted the
Muslim title and name of Sultan Muhammad al Adil, initiating a series of
six dynasties consisting of eighty-four sultans and sultanas that lasted
until 1932 when the sultanate became elective. The person responsible
for this conversion was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat. His venerated tomb
now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Mosque, or miski, in the
capital of Male. Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives.
Arab interest in Maldives also was reflected in the residence there in
the 1340s of the well-known North African traveler Ibn Battutah.
In 1558 the Portuguese established themselves on Maldives, which they
administered from Goa on India's west coast. Fifteen years later, a
local guerrilla leader named Muhammad Thakurufaan organized a popular
revolt and drove the Portuguese out of Maldives. This event is now
commemorated as National Day, and a small museum and memorial center
honor the hero on his home island of Utim on South Tiladummati Atoll.
In the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch, who had replaced the
Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over
Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local
matters, which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.
However, the British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included
Maldives as a British protected area. The status of Maldives as a
British protectorate was officially recorded in an 1887 agreement in
which the sultan accepted British influence over Maldivian external
relations and defense. The British had no presence, however, on the
leading island community of Male. They left the islanders alone, as had
the Dutch, with regard to internal administration to continue to be
regulated by Muslim traditional institutions.
During the British era from 1887 to 1965, Maldives continued to be
ruled under a succession of sultans. The sultans were hereditary until
1932 when an attempt was made to make the sultanate elective, thereby
limiting the absolute powers of sultans. At that time, a constitution
was introduced for the first time, although the sultanate was retained
for an additional twenty-one years. Maldives remained a British crown
protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First
Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin
Didi. This first elected president of the country introduced several
reforms. While serving as prime minister during the 1940s, Didi
nationalized the fish export industry. As president he is remembered as
a reformer of the education system and a promoter of women's rights.
Muslim conservatives in Male eventually ousted his government, and
during a riot over food shortages, Didi was beaten by a mob and died on
a nearby island.
Beginning in the 1950s, political history in Maldives was largely
influenced by the British military presence in the islands. In 1954 the
restoration of the sultanate perpetuated the rule of the past. Two years
later, Britain obtained permission to reestablish its wartime airfield
on Gan in the southernmost Addu Atoll. Maldives granted the British a
100-year lease on Gan that required them to pay �2,000 a year, as well
as some forty-four hectares on Hitaddu for radio installations. In 1957,
however, the new prime minister, Ibrahim Nasir, called for a review of
the agreement in the interest of shortening the lease and increasing the
annual payment. But Nasir, who was theoretically responsible to then
sultan Muhammad Farid Didi, was challenged in 1959 by a local
secessionist movement in the southern atolls that benefited economically
from the British presence on Gan. This group cut ties with the
Maldives government and formed an independent state with Abdulla Afif
Didi as president. The short-lived state (1959-62), called the United
Suvadivan Republic, had a combined population of 20,000 inhabitants
scattered in the atolls then named Suvadiva--since renamed North Huvadu
and South Huvadu--and Addu and Fua Mulaku. In 1962 Nasir sent gunboats
from Male with government police on board to eliminate elements opposed
to his rule. Abdulla Afif Didi fled to the then British colony of
Seychelles, where he was granted political asylum.
Meanwhile, in 1960 Maldives allowed Britain to continue to use both
the Gan and the Hitaddu facilities for a thirty-year period, with the
payment of �750,000 over the period of 1960 to 1965 for the purpose of
Maldives' economic development.
On July 26, 1965, Maldives gained independence under an agreement
signed with Britain. The British government retained the use of the Gan
and Hitaddu facilities. In a national referendum in March 1968,
Maldivians abolished the sultanate and established a republic. The
Second Republic was proclaimed in November 1968 under the presidency of
Ibrahim Nasir, who had increasingly dominated the political scene. Under
the new constitution, Nasir was elected indirectly to a four-year
presidential term by the Majlis (legislature). He appointed Ahmed Zaki
as the new prime minister. In 1973 Nasir was elected to a second term
under the constitution as amended in 1972, which extended the
presidential term to five years and which also provided for the election
of the prime minister by the Majlis. In March 1975, newly elected prime
minister Zaki was arrested in a bloodless coup and was banished to a
remote atoll. Observers suggested that Zaki was becoming too popular and
hence posed a threat to the Nasir faction.
During the 1970s, the economic situation in Maldives suffered a
setback when the Sri Lankan market for Maldives' main export of dried
fish collapsed. Adding to the problems was the British decision in 1975
to close its airfield on Gan in line with its new policy of abandoning
defense commitments east of the Suez Canal. A steep commercial decline
followed the evacuation of Gan in March 1976. As a result, the
popularity of Nasir's government suffered. Maldives's twenty-year period
of authoritarian rule under Nasir abruptly ended in 1978 when he fled to
Singapore. A subsequent investigation revealed that he had absconded
with millions of dollars from the state treasury.
Elected to replace Nasir for a five-year presidential term in 1978
was Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former university lecturer and Maldivian
ambassador to the United Nations (UN). The peaceful election was seen as
ushering in a period of political stability and economic development in
view of Gayoom's priority to develop the poorer islands. In 1978
Maldives joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank. Tourism also gained in importance to the local
economy, reaching more than 120,000 visitors in 1985. The local populace
appeared to benefit from increased tourism and the corresponding
increase in foreign contacts involving various development projects.
Despite coup attempts in 1980, 1983, and 1988, Gayoom's popularity
remained strong, allowing him to win three more presidential terms. In
the 1983, 1988, and 1993 elections, Gayoom received more than 95 percent
of the vote. Although the government did not allow any legal opposition,
Gayoom was opposed in the early 1990s by Islamists (also seen as
fundamentalists) who wanted to impose a more traditional way of life and
by some powerful local business leaders.
Whereas the 1980 and 1983 coup attempts against Gayoom's presidency
were not considered serious, the third coup attempt in November 1988
alarmed the international community. About eighty armed Tamil
mercenaries landed on Male before dawn aboard speedboats from a
freighter. Disguised as visitors, a similar number had already
infiltrated Male earlier. Although the mercenaries quickly gained the
nearby airport on Hulele, they failed to capture President Gayoom, who
fled from house to house and asked for military intervention from India,
the United States, and Britain. Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi
immediately dispatched 1,600 troops by air to restore order in Male.
Less than twelve hours later, Indian paratroopers arrived on Hulele,
causing some of the mercenaries to flee toward Sri Lanka in their
freighter. Those unable to reach the ship in time were quickly rounded
up. Nineteen people reportedly died in the fighting, and several taken
hostage also died. Three days later an Indian frigate captured the
mercenaries on their freighter near the Sri Lankan coast. In July 1989,
a number of the mercenaries were returned to Maldives to stand trial.
Gayoom commuted the death sentences passed against them to life
imprisonment.
The 1988 coup had been headed by a once prominent Maldivian
businessperson named Abdullah Luthufi, who was operating a farm on Sri
Lanka. Ex-president Nasir denied any involvement in the coup. In fact,
in July 1990, President Gayoom officially pardoned Nasir in absentia in
recognition of his role in obtaining Maldives' independence.
Maldives
Maldives - GEOGRAPHY
Maldives
Physiography
Maldives consists of approximately 1,200 coral islands grouped in a
double chain of twenty-seven atolls. Composed of live coral reefs and
sand bars, these atolls are situated atop a submarine ridge 960
kilometers long that rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean
and runs from north to south. Only near the southern end of this natural
coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship navigation from
one side of the Indian Ocean to the other through the territorial waters
of Maldives. For administrative purposes the Maldives government
organized these atolls into nineteen administrative divisions.
Most atolls consist of a large, ring-shaped coral reef supporting
numerous small islands. Islands average only one to two square
kilometers in area, and lie between one and 1.5 meters above mean sea
level. The highest island is situated at three meters above sea level.
Maldives has no hills or rivers. Although some larger atolls are
approximately fifty kilometers long from north to south, and thirty
kilometers wide from east to west, no individual island is longer than
eight kilometers.
Each atoll has approximately five to ten inhabited islands; the
uninhabited islands of each atoll number approximately twenty to sixty.
Several atolls, however, consist of one large, isolated island
surrounded by a steep coral beach. The most notable example of this type
of atoll is the large island of Fua Mulaku situated in the middle of the
Equatorial Channel.
The tropical vegetation of Maldives comprises groves of breadfruit
trees and coconut palms towering above dense scrub, shrubs, and flowers.
The soil is sandy and highly alkaline, and a deficiency in nitrogen,
potash, and iron severely limits agricultural potential. Ten percent of
the land, or about 2,600 hectares, is cultivated with taro, bananas,
coconuts, and other fruit. Only the lush island of Fua Mulaku produces
fruits such as oranges and pineapples partly because the terrain of Fua
Mulaku is higher than most other islands, leaving the groundwater less
subject to seawater penetration. Freshwater floats in a layer, or
"lens," above the seawater that permeates the limestone and
coral sands of the islands. These lenses are shrinking rapidly on Male
and on many islands where there are resorts catering to foreign
tourists. Mango trees already have been reported dying on Male because
of salt penetration. Most residents of the atolls depend on groundwater
or rainwater for drinking purposes. Concerns over global warming and a
possible long-term rise in sea level as a result of the melting of polar
ice are important issues to the fragile balance between the people and
the environment of Maldives in the 1990s.
<>Climate
Maldives
Maldives - Climate
Maldives
The temperature of Maldives ranges between 24�C and 33�C throughout
the year. Although the humidity is relatively high, the constant sea
breezes help to keep the air moving. Two seasons dominate Maldives'
weather: the dry season associated with the winter northeast monsoon and
the rainy season brought by the summer southwest monsoon. The annual
rainfall averages 2,540 millimeters in the north and 3,810 millimeters
in the south.
The weather in Maldives is affected by the large landmass of the
Indian subcontinent to the north. The presence of this landmass causes
differential heating of land and water. Scientists also cite other
factors in the formation of monsoons, including the barrier of the
Himalayas on the northern fringe of the Indian subcontinent and the
sun's northward tilt, which shifts the jet stream north. These factors
set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over the
subcontinent, resulting in the southwest monsoon. The hot air that rises
over the subcontinent during April and May creates low-pressure areas
into which the cooler, moisture-bearing winds from the Indian Ocean
flow. In Maldives, the wet southwest monsoon lasts from the end of April
to the end of October and brings the worst weather with strong winds and
storms. In May 1991 violent monsoon winds created tidal waves that
damaged thousands of houses and piers, flooded arable land with
seawater, and uprooted thousands of fruit trees. The damage caused was
estimated at US$30 million.
The shift from the moist southwest monsoon to the dry northeast
monsoon over the Indian subcontinent occurs during October and November.
During this period, the northeast winds contribute to the formation of
the northeast monsoon, which reaches Maldives in the beginning of
December and lasts until the end of March. However, the weather patterns
of Maldives do not always conform to the monsoon patterns of the Indian
subcontinent. Rain showers over the whole country have been known to
persist for up to one week during the midst of the dry season.
Maldives
Maldives - Population
Maldives
Based on the 1990 census, the population was 213,215. The country's
population in mid-1994 was estimated at 252,077. The high 1994 birthrate
of 44 per 1,000 will lead to a population of more than 300,000 by the
year 2000 and 400,000 by 2020. Although the high population growth rate
was a serious problem, Maldives lacks an official birth control policy.
The population growth rate also poses problems for the country's future
food supply because the dietary staple of rice is not grown in the
islands and must be imported.
The largest concentration of Maldives' population is in Male, a small
island of approximately two square kilometers, whose 1990 population of
55,130 represented slightly more than 25 percent of the national total.
Giving meaningful average population density is difficult because many
of Maldives' approximately 1,200 islands are uninhabited. Of the
approximately 200 inhabited islands in 1988, twenty-eight had fewer than
200 inhabitants, 107 had populations ranging from 200 to 500, and eight
had populations between 500 and 1,000. A government study in the
mid1980s listed twenty-five places with a population of more than 1,000.
Maldives has few towns besides the capital of Male. Villages comprise
most of the settlements on the inhabited islands. The 1990 census
recorded an average population density for the Maldives of 706 persons
per square kilometer.
The first accurate census was held in December 1977 and showed
142,832 persons residing in Maldives, an increase of 37 percent over a
1967 estimate. The next census in March 1985 showed 181,453 persons,
consisting of 94,060 males and 87,393 females. This pattern has
continued in Maldives, with the 1990 census listing 109,806 males and
103,409 females.
Despite rapid population growth, family planning programs in Maldives
did not begin in a well-funded and planned manner until the UN
implemented several programs in the 1980s. These programs focused on
improving health standards among the islanders, including family
planning education emphasizing the spacing of births and raising the
customary age of marriage among adolescents. Abortion was not a legally
accepted method for child spacing in Maldives. In the mid-1980s, a World
Health Organization (WHO) program monitored the extent and use of
various contraceptive methods over a four-year period. As of the early
1990s, the government had taken no overt actions toward limiting the
number of children per couple or setting target population goals.
<>Ethnic Groups and
Language
<>Social Structure
Updated population figures for Maldives.
Maldives
Maldives - Ethnic Groups and Language
Maldives
The contemporary homogeneous mixture of Sinhalese, Dravidian, Arab,
Australasian, and African ethnicity in Maldives results from historical
changes in regional hegemony over marine trade routes. Clarence Maloney,
an anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Maldives in the 1970s,
determined that an early Dravidian-speaking substratum of population
from Kerala in India had settled in the islands, leaving its legacy in
the language and place-names. This group was subsequently displaced by
Dhivehi-speakers who arrived from Sri Lanka and whose language became
the official one. Arabs compose the last main group to arrive beginning
in the ninth century. However, a rapidly disappearing endogamous
subgroup of persons of African origin called the Ravare or Giraavaru
also existed. In 1970, facing the loss of their home island in Male
Atoll because of erosion, the Ravare moved to Hulele. But a few years
later, the community of 200 people were transferred to Male to permit
the expansion of the airport on Hulele.
The only distinct ethnic minority is found in Male among the trading
community of Indians, who settled there in the 1800s. Several hundred in
number, they are also a religious minority, belonging to the Shia branch
of Islam. In addition, a small number of Sri Lankans have come to
Maldives in recent years to work in the tourist resorts because
Maldivians, as devout Muslims, refuse to work in facilities serving
alcoholic beverages. This situation has created some resentment on the
part of local Maldivians facing unemployment.
The language Maldivian Dhivehi belongs to the Indo-European language
family. Derived from Elu, an archaic form of Sinhalese (the language of
Sri Lanka), it has numerous loanwords from Arabic, from Hindi--which is
used in trade with Indian merchants- -and from Tamil. It has contributed
one word, "atoll," to international usage. In Dhivehi, the
numbers from one to twelve are of Sinhalese origin, and after twelve,
Hindi. The names of the days are Sinhalese and Hindi. The names of
persons are Arabic.
Dhivehi is spoken throughout the atolls. Dialect differences are
pronounced in the four southernmost atolls, however. The traditional
script, Thaana, is written from right to left. This locally invented
script contains twenty-four letters, the first nine of which are forms
of the Arabic numerals. In 1977 a romanized script was introduced to be
used along with Thaana for official correspondence, but since 1979 the
requirement is no longer mandatory.
Maldives.
Maldives
Maldives - Social Structure
Maldives
Maldives was a caste society well into the 1920s. Modernization
efforts however, have helped make Maldives more homogeneous in the early
1990s. Traditionally, a significant gap has existed between the elite
living on Male and the remainder of the population inhabiting the outer
islands--those atolls distant from Male. President Gayoom's development
philosophy has centered on decreasing this gap by raising the standard
of living among the 75 percent of Maldivians who live in the outer
atolls as well as making Maldives more self-sufficient. Fortunately,
social tensions that might have affected these two distinct societies
were lessened by the isolation of the outer islands. The geographical
advantage of having many islands, for example, has enabled Maldives to
limit the impact of tourism to special resorts.
Male, the traditional seat of the sultans and of the nobility,
remains an elite society wielding political and economic power. Members
of the several traditionally privileged ruling families; government,
business, and religious leaders; professionals; and scholars are found
there. Male differs from other island communities also because as many
as 40 percent of its residents are migrants.
The island communities outside Male are in most cases selfcontained
economic units, drawing meager sustenance from the sea around them.
Islanders are in many instances interrelated by marriage and form a
small, tightly knit group whose main economic pursuit is fishing. Apart
from the heads of individual households, local influence is exerted by
the government appointed island khatib, or chief. Regional
control over each atoll is administered by the atolu verin, or
atoll chief, and by the gazi, or community religious leader.
Boat owners, as employers, also dominate the local economy and, in many
cases, provide an informal, but effective, link to Male's power
structure.
The family is the basic unit of society. Roughly 80 percent of
Maldivian households consist of a single nuclear family composed of a
married couple and their children rather than an extended family.
Typically, unmarried adults remain with relatives instead of living
alone or with strangers. The man is usually the head of the family
household, and descent is patrilineal. Women do not accept their
husbands' names after marriage but maintain their maiden names.
Inheritance of property is through both males and females.
As Muslims, men may have as many as four wives, but there is little
evidence to suggest that many have more than one. Islamic law, as
practiced in Maldives, makes divorce easy for men and women. Divorce
rates are among the highest in the world. According to the 1977 census,
nearly half the women over the age of thirty had been married four times
or more. Half of all women marry by the age of fifteen. About 60 percent
of men marry at age twenty or later.
The status of women has traditionally been fairly high, as attested
to in part by the existence of four sultanas. Women do not veil, nor are
they strictly secluded, but special sections are reserved for women in
public places, such as stadiums and mosques.
Maldives.
Maldives
Maldives - RELIGION
Maldives
With the exception of Shia members of the Indian trading community,
Maldivians are Sunni Muslims; adherence to Islam, the state religion
since the twelfth century, is required for citizenship. The importance
of Islam in Maldives is further evident in the lack of a secular legal
system. Instead, the traditional Islamic law code of sharia, known in
Dhivehi as sariatu, forms the basic law code of Maldives as
interpreted to conform to local Maldivian conditions by the president,
the attorney general, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Majlis. On
the inhabited islands, the miski, or mosque, forms the central
place where Islam is practiced. Because Friday is the most important day
for Muslims to attend mosque, shops and offices in towns and villages
close around 11 a.m., and the sermon begins by 12:30 p.m. Most inhabited
islands have several mosques; Male has more than thirty. Most mosques
are whitewashed buildings constructed of coral stone with corrugated
iron or thatched roofs. In Male, the Islamic Center and the Grand Friday
Mosque, built in 1984 with funding from the Persian Gulf states,
Pakistan, Brunei, and Malaysia, are imposing elegant structures. The
gold-colored dome of this mosque is the first structure sighted when
approaching Male. In mid-1991 Maldives had a total of 724 mosques and
266 women's mosques.
Prayer sessions are held five times daily. Mudimu, the
mosque caretakers, make the call, but tape recordings rather than the
human voice are often used. Most shops and offices close for fifteen
minutes after each call. During the ninth Muslim month of Ramadan,
Muslims fast during the daylight hours. Therefore, caf�s and
restaurants are closed during the day, and working hours are limited.
The exact occurrence of Ramadan varies each year because it depends on
the lunar cycle. Ramadan begins with the new moon and ends with the
sighting of the next new moon.
The isolation of Maldives from the historical centers of Islam in the
Middle East and Asia has allowed some pre-Islamic beliefs and attitudes
to survive. Western anthropologist Maloney during his 1970s fieldwork in
Maldives reports being told by a Muslim cleric that for most Maldivians
Islam is "largely a matter of observing ablutions, fasting, and
reciting incomprehensible Arabic prayer formulas." There is a
widespread belief in jinns, or evil spirits. For protection against such
evils, people often resort to various charms and spells. The extent of
these beliefs has led some observers to identify a magico-religious
system parallel to Islam known as fandita, which provides a
more personal way for the islanders to deal with either actual or
perceived problems in their lives.
Maldives
Maldives - EDUCATION
Maldives
Only primary and secondary education, neither of which is compulsory,
is offered in Maldives. Students seeking higher education must go abroad
to a university. Maldives has three types of schools: Quranic schools,
Dhivehi-language primary schools, and English-language primary and
secondary schools. Schools in the last category are the only ones
equipped to teach the standard curriculum. In 1992 approximately 20
percent of government revenues went to finance education, a significant
increase over the 1982 expenditure of 8.5 percent. Part of the reason
for this large expenditure results from recent increases in the
construction of modern school facilities on many of the islands. In the
late 1970s, faced with a great disparity between the quality of
schooling offered in the islands and in Male, the government undertook
an ambitious project to build one modern primary school in each of the
nineteen administrative atolls. The government in Male directly controls
the administration of these primary schools. Literacy is reportedly
high; the claimed 1991 adult literacy rate of 98.2 percent would make
Maldives the highest in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region.
In Maldives primary education comprises classes one through five,
enrolling students in the corresponding ages six through ten. Secondary
education is divided between classes six through ten, which represent
overall secondary education, and classes eleven and twelve, which
constitute higher secondary education. In 1992 Maldives had a total of
73,642 pupils in school: 32,475 in government schools and 41,167 in
private schools.
Traditionally, education was the responsibility of religious leaders
and institutions. Most learning centered on individual tutorials in
religious teachings. In 1924 the first formal schools opened in Male.
These schools were call edhuruge, and served as Quranic
schools. Edhuruge were only established on two other islands at
this time. The basic primary school on the islands in the 1990s is the makthab,
dating from the 1940s. Primary schools of a slightly larger scale in
terms of curriculum, enrollment, and number of teachers, are called madhrasaa.
During the 1940s, a widespread government campaign was organized to
bring formal schooling to as many of the inhabited islands as possible.
Enthusiastically supported by the islanders, who contributed a daily
allotment of the fish catch to support the schools, many one-room
structures of coral and lime with thatched roofs were constructed. The makthab
assumed the functions of the traditional edhuruge while also
providing a basic curriculum in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But
with the death of reformist president Didi and the restoration of the
sultanate in the early 1950s, official interest in the development of
education in the atolls waned.
Throughout the 1960s, attention to education focused mainly on the
two government schools in Male. In 1960 the medium of instruction
changed from Dhivehi to English, and the curriculum was reorganized
according to the imported London General Certificate of Education. In
the early 1990s, secondary education was available only in Male's
English-medium schools, which had also preschool and primary-level
offerings. Dhivehi-medium schools existed, but most were located in
Male. These schools were private and charged a fee.
As of the early 1990s, education for the majority of Maldivian
children continues to be provided by the makthab. In 1989 there
were 211 community and private schools, and only fifty government
schools. The results of a UN study of school enrollment in 1983 showed
that the total number in the new government primary schools on the
atolls was only 7,916, compared with 23,449 in private schools. In Male
the number of students attending government schools was 5,892, with
5,341 in private schools. Throughout the 1980s, enrollment continued to
rise as more government-sponsored schools were constructed in the
atolls. In 1992 the first secondary school outside Male opened on Addu
Atoll.
In 1975 the government, with international assistance, started
vocational training at the Vocational Training Center in Male. The
training covered electricity, engine repair and maintenance, machinery,
welding, and refrigeration. Trainees were chosen from among fourth- and
fifth-grade students. In the atolls, the Rural Youth Vocational Training
Program provided training designed to meet local needs in engine repair
and maintenance, tailoring, carpentry, and boat building. On the island
of Mafuri on Male Atoll, a large juvenile reformatory also offered
vocational training. Established by the Ministry of Home Affairs in
1979, the reformatory provided training courses in electrical and
mechanical engineering, carpentry, welding, and tailoring, as well as a
limited primary school academic curriculum.
International organizations enabled the creation of the Science
Education Center in 1979 and an Arabic Islamic Education Center opened
in 1989. Japanese aid enabled the founding of the Maldives Center for
Social Education in 1991. In the latter half of 1993 work began on the
Maldives Institute of Technical Education to help eliminate the shortage
of skilled labor.
Maldives
Maldives - HEALTH
Maldives
Health Conditions
Life expectancy at birth in Maldives in 1994 was 63.2 years for
males, 66.1 for females, and 64.7 overall. The death rate was estimated
at seven per 1,000 in 1994. Infant mortality was estimated at 53.8 per
1,000 live births in 1994, a dramatic decrease from the rate of 120 per
1,000 in the 1970s. Nutrition is an important factor affecting health.
In the 1980s, the daily average intake of calories was estimated at
1,781.
Waterborne and tropical communicable diseases are prevalent as the
result of an inadequate drinking water supply. In Maldives the
freshwater table is shallow and easily contaminated by organic and human
waste. To combat these problems, the Male Water Supply and Sewerage
Project was launched in 1985. Its completion in 1988 allowed sewer pipes
to collect sewage for pumping into the sea. However, in the outer
islands no such sewage systems exist. The government has promoted the
construction of ferrocement rainwater tanks in recent years to help
ensure safe drinking water in the outer islands. Major diseases include
gastroenteritis, typhoid, and cholera. Malaria, tuberculosis,
filariasis, eye infections, poliomyelitis, venereal diseases, and
leprosy are also reported. Since the late 1970s, a number of
disease-eradication projects have been organized with assistance from
the WHO.
<>Health Care
Maldives
Maldives - Health Care
Maldives
In Maldives the Ministry of Health is responsible for the delivery of
health services. Despite government efforts, a major constraint facing
the health sector in the early 1990s is a shortage of skilled personnel
and health facilities. The WHO reported in 1989 that the population per
physician was 7,723. However, when the ratio for Male was separated from
that for the atolls, the acute shortage of physicians for the majority
of Maldivians became even more obvious. Whereas the population per
doctor in Male in 1989 was 2,673, in the atolls it was 35,498. These
ratios were derived from a 1989 total of sixteen physicians: twelve in
Male and four in the atolls. Also, in 1989 only one dentist was located
in Male.
Maldives' medical establishment in the early 1990s consisted of the
Male Central Hospital, four regional hospitals, two in the north and two
in the south, and twenty-one primary health care centers. The Central
Hospital maintains ninety-five beds, and the four regional hospitals
have a combined total of sixty-one beds. In 1992 thirty physicians and
seventeen medical specialists worked in the Central Hospital.
Furthermore, the government opened the Institute for Health Sciences in
1992, and the 200-bed Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital was scheduled to
open in 1994.
Each administrative atoll has at least one health center staffed by
community health workers. Most of the inhabited islands also have
traditional medical practitioners. However, it was reported in the early
1990s that the atoll hospitals and health centers could only treat minor
illnesses. Routine operations could be performed only in Male Central
Hospital, which had Russian physicians.
To provide better health facilities in the outer islands, the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Maldives
government, outfitted two boats to be used by mobile health teams. In
1985 two mobile health teams were dispatched from Male, one to the north
and one to the south. Each team included a primary health care worker, a
nurse, a family health worker, a malaria fieldworker, three community
health workers, and a government official. The services they provided
included immunization, communicable disease control, family health,
nutrition, and health education. In the late 1980s, a third team was
added.
Maldives
Maldives - ECONOMY
Maldives
Gross Domestic Product
In the early 1990s, Maldives was ranked by the UN as one of the
world's twenty-nine least developed countries. The World Bank estimated
Maldives' gross national product (GNP) in 1991 at US$101 million and its
per capita income at US$460. The 1993 estimated real growth rate was 6
percent. Between 1980 and 1991, GNP was estimated to increase at an
average annual rate of 10.2 percent.
President Gayoom's development philosophy centers on increasing
Maldives' self-sufficiency and improving the standard of living of
residents of the outer islands. In 1994 a considerable gap continued to
exist between the general prosperity of the inhabitants of Male and the
limited resources and comparative isolation of those living on the outer
islands. The Third National Development Plan (1991-93) reflected these
objectives and aimed to improve overall living standards, to reduce the
imbalance in population density and socioeconomic progress between Male
and the atolls, and to achieve greater self-sufficiency for purposes of
future growth.
The fishing and tourist industries are the main contributors to the
gross domestic product (GDP). In 1992 the fishing industry provided
approximately 15 percent of total GDP. Revenues from tourism were
comparable to 80 percent of visible export receipts in 1992,
contributing approximately 17 percent of GDP. The country had no known
mineral resources, and its cropland--small and scattered over the
approximately 200 inhabited islands--was inadequate to sustain a
burgeoning population. Agriculture employed a little more than 7 percent
of the labor force in 1990 in the limited production of coconuts,
cassava, taro, corn, sweet potatoes, and fruit, and accounted for almost
10 percent of GDP. These basic foodstuffs represented only 10 percent of
domestic food needs with the remainder being imported.
<>Fishing
<>Tourism
<>Employment
Maldives
Maldives - Fishing
Maldives
Formerly, Maldives shipped 90 percent of its fishing catch of tuna in
dried form to Sri Lanka. However, because Sri Lanka cut back its imports
of such fish, in 1979 Maldives joined with the Japanese Marubeni
Corporation to form the Maldives Nippon Corporation that canned and
processed fresh fish. Also in 1979 the Maldivian government created the
Maldives Fisheries Corporation to exploit fisheries resources generally.
Maldives has an extensive fishing fleet of boats built domestically
of coconut wood, each of which can carry about twelve persons. In 1991
there were 1,258 such pole and line fishing boats and 352 trawlers.
Based on a US$3.2 million loan from the International Development
Association (IDA), most of the boats have been mechanized in the course
of the 1980s. Although the addition of motors has increased fuel costs,
it has resulted in doubling the fishing catch between 1982 and 1985.
Moreover, the 1992 catch of 82,000 tons set a record-- for example, in
1987 the catch was 56,900 tons.
Progress has also been made as a result of fisheries development
projects undertaken by the World Bank. Harbor and refrigeration
facilities have been improved, leading to a fourfold increase in
earnings from canned fish between 1983 and 1985. Further construction of
fisheries refrigeration installations and related facilities such as
collector vessels were underway in 1994, with funding both from Japan
and the World Bank.
Maldives
Maldives - Tourism
Maldives
Because of its clear waters, distinctive corals, and sandy white
beaches, Maldives has many features to attract tourists. As a result,
tourism by 1989 had become the country's major source of foreign
exchange, surpassing fishing. In 1992 tourism income constituted 17
percent of GDP. Furthermore, tourism is expected to increase as the
government infrastructure improvement projects in the areas of
transportation, communications, sanitation, water supply, and other
support facilities are put into place.
Since the 1970s, approximately fifty resorts, mostly consisting of
thatched bungalows, have been built on many uninhabited islands on Male
Atoll. In 1990 a dozen new resorts were under construction on Maldives.
In the following year, 196,112 tourists visited Maldives, primarily from
Germany, Italy, Britain, and Japan in that order.
Tourist facilities have been developed by private companies and in
1991 consisted of sixty-eight "island resorts" with nearly
8,000 hotel beds. Tourists are not allowed to stay on Male so as not to
affect adversely the Muslim life-style of the indigenous people.
Wilingili Island has also been off limits for tourist accommodation
since 1990 to allow for population overflow from Male to settle there.
Maldives
Maldives - Employment
Maldives
In 1992 the fishing industry employed about 22 percent of the labor
force, making it the largest single source of employment in Maldives.
However, a high level of disguised unemployment existed on a seasonal
basis as a result of climatic conditions.
Despite its importance as a source of government revenues, tourism
provides little meaningful employment opportunities to Maldivians.
Tourism accounts for only about 6 percent of the country's labor force.
Because most Maldivians have no education beyond primary school, most
lack the required knowledge of foreign languages to cater to foreign
tourists. As a result, nonMaldivians filled most of the best jobs in the
tourist industry. Indigenous employment on the resort islands was also
discouraged by the government's efforts to limit contact between
Maldivians and Westerners to prevent adverse influence on local Islamic
mores. Also, the low season for tourists, the time for rainy monsoons
from late April to late October, coincides with the low season for the
fishing industry.
After fishing, the largest source of employment is in the industrial
sector, including mining, manufacturing, power, and construction.
Although this sector also accounted for nearly 22 percent of the labor
force in 1990, most employment was in traditional small-scale cottage
industries. Women are mainly employed in these activities, such as coir
rope making from coconut husks, cadjan or thatch-weaving from
dried coconut palm leaves, and mat weaving from indigenous reeds. The
ancient task of cowrie-shell collecting for export is another occupation
in which only women participate. In the early 1990s, a small number of
modern industries were operating, mostly fish canning and garment
making. The largest garment factories are Hong Kongowned and occupy
abandoned hangars and other maintenance buildings at the former British
air station on Gan. They employ about 1,500 local women who are bused in
and about 500 young Sri Lankan women who reside at the site working
nightshift.
Other forms of employment in 1990 were minor. Government
administration accounts for about 7 percent of workers; transportation
and communications, 5 percent; trade, 3 percent; and mining of coral, 1
percent.
Maldives
Maldives - GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Maldives
Constitution
Government organization is based on the 1968 constitution, as revised
in 1970, 1972, and 1975. The document provides the basis for a highly
centralized, presidential form of government. Its philosophical frame of
reference is derived from Islam; thus the distinction between secular
and religious authority is often academic. The constitution vests final
authority for the propagation of Islam in the president, who in turn is
empowered to appoint all judges who interpret and apply the sharia in
the adjudication of civil and criminal cases. In Maldives, therefore,
the courts are not independent of the executive branch, but rather are
under the minister of justice, who is appointed by the president.
Constitutional provisions regarding the basic rights of the people
are broadly phrased. They refer to freedom of speech and assembly,
equality before the law, and the right to own property, but these rights
are to be exercised within the framework of the sharia. In 1990 younger
members of the recently expanded president's Consultative Council called
for the repeal or amendment of Article 38 in the penal code, which
allows the jailing or banishment "for any gesture, speech or action
that instills malice or disobedience in the minds of Maldivians against
lawfully formed government."
The president is elected for a renewable five-year term by the
Majlis, or legislature. The election must be formalized through
confirmation in a popular referendum. The chief executive is assisted by
a cabinet, or Council of Ministers, whose members serve at his pleasure.
The post of prime minister, which had existed under the sultan and in
the early years of the republic, was eliminated in 1975 by President
Ibrahim Nasir because of abuses of the office. Cabinet ministers need
not be members of the Majlis. The legislature is unicameral, with
members elected for five-year terms by citizens aged twenty-one and
above, or appointed by the president. Eight of its forty-eight members
are appointed by the president, and the rest are chosen popularly, two
from Male and two from each of the nineteen administrative atolls.
<>Politics
<>Foreign Relations
<>Media
Maldives
Maldives - Politics
Maldives
The presidential and Majlis elections are held on a nonpartisan basis
because there are no organized political parties in the country.
Candidates run as independents on the basis of personal qualifications.
Although in 1994 Maldives had no organized political competition in
the Western sense, partisan conflict occurred behind the scenes. Battles
were intensely fought on the basis of factional or personal alliances
among elite circles. For more than twenty years, until late 1978, the
dominant faction had been led by former President Nasir, who ran the
government with a firm hand and who seldom appeared in public. His
sudden departure from Maldives, subsequently revealed as connected with
malfeasance, ended a political era.
Transition was smooth under the new leadership group presided over by
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former cabinet member and diplomat who took
office on November 11, 1978, after a peaceful election. The new
president pledged to administer the country in a fair and more open
manner by restoring civil rights, by establishing rapport at the
grass-roots level, and by remedying the long neglect of popular welfare
in the outer islands. However, criticism of alleged nepotism and
corruption has continued through the 1980s and early 1990s.
Gayoom's presidential cabinet, including his relatives in key
positions, is considered a "kitchen cabinet" of traditional
power holders that exert a strong influence against democratic reforms
on a weak but relatively popular president. Events in the spring of 1990
tended to confirm that Gayoom's announced support for democratic reform
was not being honored throughout the governmental power structure. In
April, three pro-reform members of the Majlis received anonymous death
threats. A few months later, all publications not sanctioned by the
government were banned, and some leading writers and publishers were
arrested. These actions followed the emergence of several politically
outspoken magazines, including Sangu (Conch Shell). The
circulation of this magazine increased from 500 in February 1990 to
3,000 in April.
Gayoom reshuffled the cabinet in May 1990, dismissing his
brother-in-law, Ilyas Ibrahim, as minister of state for defense and
national security. Ibrahim had left the country suddenly, apparently
before being called to account for embezzlement and misappropriation of
funds. Gayoom placed him under house arrest when he returned in August
1990. He was cleared by an investigatory commission in March 1991 and
appointed minister of atolls' administration. In April 1991, President
Gayoom established a board to investigate charges of malfeasance against
government officials. As a result of Gayoom's increasing assertion of
his power in the early 1990s, by 1992 he had assumed the duties of both
minister of defense and minister of finance, posts which he still held
in August 1994 as well as that of governor of the Maldives Monetary
Authority. Gayoom was reelected to a fourth five-year term as president
in national elections in 1993. His principal rival, Ilyas Ibrahim, was
sentenced to fifteen years' banishment after being found guilty of
"treason" because of his attempts to win the presidency.
Maldives
Maldives - Foreign Relations
Maldives
Maldives has traditionally sought to maintain a status independent of
the great powers while simultaneously preserving cordial relations with
all members of the world community. The purposes of this stance are to
receive additional aid and to keep the Indian Ocean area at peace. An
instance of Maldives' nonalignment was its refusal of a Soviet offer of
US$1 million in October 1977 as rental for the former British air base
on Gan, which Britain evacuated in 1976. Historically, Maldives has had
close relations with Britain, its former colonial power, and has been a
full member of the British Commonwealth since 1985.
Maldives participates in a variety of international organizations. It
joined the UN in 1965 and the World Bank and the IMF in 1978. In
connection with its concern over the security of the Indian Ocean area,
Maldives became a founder of the South Asian Association for Regional
Co-operation (SAARC) in 1985--it has been a member of the Colombo Plan
designed to promote economic and social development in Asia and the
Pacific since 1963. In 1990 the fifth SAARC annual conference was held
in Male. Maldives is also a member of the Asian Development Bank.
Although a Muslim nation, Maldives has remained apart from most of
the problems associated with the Islamist (also seen as fundamentalist)
movement in the Middle East. Maldives falls within India's sphere of
influence and in 1976 signed an agreement demarcating the maritime
boundary between the two countries. It has also received military
assistance from India, such as the sending of 1,600 military personnel
in 1988 at President Gayoom's request to repel a group of invading
mercenaries.
Maldives
Maldives - Media
Maldives
The major daily newspaper in Maldives is Haveeru (North
Side) in Male with a circulation of 2,500. Aafathis, another
daily in Dhivehi and English, has a circulation of 300. Maldives also
has a number of weekly and monthly publications as well as several news
agencies and publishers.
Censorship exists in Maldives although on a smaller scale than before
President Gayoom took office in 1978. Nevertheless, open dissent against
the government is not tolerated. For example, in early 1990 the
Consultative Council discussed freedom of speech in the press. But when
publications critical of the government appeared in the spring of 1990,
all publications that lacked government sanction were banned. Also,
leading writers and publishers have been arrested.
Hindi-language films, newspapers, and magazines from India are
popular. For eleven hours each day, the government radio station Voice
of Maldives, established in 1962, broadcasts to the entire country in
Dhivehi and English. Maldivians in 1990 had 27,848 radio receivers to
pick up such broadcasts. In 1978 government-run Television Maldives was
established. During the week, its one channel broadcasts for five hours
a day, with an extended weekend service. However, it can only be
received (by the 6,591 Maldivians with television sets in 1992) within a
thirty-kilometer radius of Male. Maldives also receives broadcasts by
the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Australia, and Radio
Beijing.
Given the censorship that exists, the media play only a limited role
in promoting greater democracy. A major question facing Maldives is the
way in which democracy will be defined in view of the contrast between a
South Asian kinship system and its egalitarian Western-style
parliamentary elections.
Maldives
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