Defence spending; not enough bang for your buck

With the recent failures of the Maldives' intelligence departments in preventing the explosion of an Improvised Explosive Device on 6 May, targeting the Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed, the public has, on various platforms, questioned the high state expenditure on these services. Questions on the military intelligence's role in preventing terrorism in the Maldives have come into focus, especially with the Director General of the National Center for Counter Terrorism appearing to pass the ball to the public when he asked whether no citizen had had any indication of the attack being planned.  

The Maldivian government spent between 9 and 11 percent of its total expenditure each year on defence over the period 2017 to 2021. Although as a percentage of total government expenditure it had declined from 11 percent in 2017 to an estimated nine percent in 2021, it had in fact increased as a percentage of GDP, from 3.6 percent in 2017 to an estimated 4.1 percent in 2021. Defence here is defined in accordance with the International Monetary Fund's GFS classification, which includes spending on military and civil defence, police services and fire protection. 

While in absolute terms, the defence expenditure of the Maldives may be very relatively low, an alarming picture is painted when it is compared to other countries in terms of GDP. Consider the chart below. The Maldives' defence spending as a percentage of GDP was 3.2 percent in 2018, much higher than countries in the region such as India, at 1.47 percent and Sri Lanka, at 1.59 percent. India is in conflict with Pakistan, in the Kashmir region, and with China on its eastern border. Similarly, it may be assumed that Sri Lanka, having recently come out of a civil war, will have a high level of defence spending as well. 

Meanwhile in the Maldives, with a population of 500,000, investments in security and defence appears not to have provided optimal results. With CCTVs scattered around capital Malé, there seems to be a dearth of evidence caught on tape when it comes to burglaries, street harassment and assaults. More alarmingly, these devices also fail to provide critical evidence in murders and abductions. With talk of taser deployment, there is added concern of abuse when the police have been carefree in the deployment of tear-gas during protests — clearly, even during a recent protest, spraying protesters who had already been subdued and posed no threat.

When it comes to the MNDF; the agency still relies on Indian expertise, and hardware, in terms of helicopters used for medical evacuations and other exercises. Monitoring of our borders are also now carried out with the help of Indian expertise and hardware. With the proposed dockyard at Uthuru Thilfalhu the Maldives is again increasingly relying on India for hardware and expertise support while the country also continues to add to its national debt in terms of loan financing from India.

When it comes to counter terrorism intelligence, the direct expenditure is justifiably not known; but what is perhaps unjustifiable is that the authorities were not aware of the 6 May attack on the Speaker. Having been caught off guard, the only remedial action that has occurred is for President Solih to demand a security audit of the nation. The Home Minister, the Defence Minister and the heads of the intelligence departments seem blinded to the fact that this happened on their watch. At the same time, authorities will be relying on foreign assistance, from the Australian police, UNODC and others, to conduct the investigation into the attack — justifiably so in this instance since obvious failings in local institutions led to the attack and because such assistance would mean an unbiased report, and exploration is far more likely.

The Maldives is the highest per capita supplier of fighters to conflict areas overseas, yet even with our high spending on defence, we have not been able to prevent extremist thought from taking root and spreading, nor have we been able to sufficiently detain and rehabilitate returnees and converts — far from it, it is widely believed that those who are detained, or released to house arrest, have been freely spreading their ideologies to others they are in contact with while in the state’s care.

So where is the money being spent? Is it on bodycams, tasers and “new toys,” which lack the proper procedural framework and organisation culture, to be properly implemented? Is it the purchase of high-end machines which lack qualified operators? While we have several Maldivian pilots, some who are even employed by international airlines, could we not have trained a single helicopter pilot? Can our defence forces not purchase and maintain an aircraft, while they clearly have qualified professionals within their ranks, to oversee such an operation? Is India the most cost-efficient and best resourced ally in the fight against terror? 

These are just a few questions that might spring to mind when thinking about the massive expenditure on defence. While the spending may well be justified, the outcome has been nowhere near optimal. Street harassments go on. The calls of families of the murdered and disappeared go unanswered. Terror attacks keep happening. People continue to be radicalised.

It might well be that the spending in itself is justified; but what is also true is that Maldivian citizens have a right to be more secure and safe in their homes, going about their lives and in any part of their country, especially when they are footing a defence bill that can be seen as astronomically high.