The rise in xenophobia

The newest political squabble revolves around a highly touchy, diplomatically volatile situation, and the issue is slowly getting out of hand. To rally supporters for his cause and concepts, former President Abdulla Yameen has issued a call to push India, as a diplomatic partner, away from the Maldives. Yet, the result has been more visible on the streets as vehement xenophobia against innocent Indian nationals.

The campaign is allegedly based on the increased cosiness of the Solih administration with the Indian government in terms of economic dependence (with the USD1.4 billion Line of Credit, a debt of alarming magnitude) as well as increased military cooperation. Previously, the Yameen administration had brokered multiple deals with the Chinese government, which touched a soft spot for the Indian counterparts, given the competition for the Indian Ocean from time immemorial, and these deals were, while large by a layman’s measure, still within much lower parameters than that being set now.

During the previous administration, the then-opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) had championed constant campaigning against cooperation with China, going so far as to claiming factually incorrect information, periodically denied both by official documentation and Chinese diplomats, as to the amount of debt being accrued in China’s advantage. MDP officials stopped at nothing to contest and challenge the diplomatic ties between the two nations, and with Yameen’s subsequent defeat in the elections, much work that had been proposed in terms of infrastructure had been left undone.

The most stark difference however, was that there was no such deals involving Chinese military nor their presence of any sort. This is not the case with India.

Yameen bases his anti-India campaign on this fact; that there have been multiple closed-door discussions that he believes encroaches the very sovereignty of the island nation. The stance taken by MDP, obvious through the multiple statements by the Maldivian Minister of Defence Mariya Didi as well as Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed over the course of the last two years, swerve dangerously towards a level of dependency that does question the state of Maldives’ sovereignty. This has added fuel to the fire, and as the campaign began in full swing, further actions by both the current government as well as the MDP majority parliament seemed to make matters much worse.

The parliament had repeatedly defended India-Maldives ties, and even discussed bills that would both overstep freedom of speech as well as clamp down the opposition's campaign through law. The vehement attitude towards discrediting the ‘India Out’ campaign may have incited even more people to take a stance against the current government’s diplomatic viewpoints, and increased public unrest regarding the issue as well as their frustrations at being prevented from holding rallies in protest.

This, however, has now spilled over to widespread xenophobia as well.

The campaign was based on the many deals between Maldives and India that are based on defence measures and cooperation, yet the radar installations and the UTF agreements have not been the most promising in terms of protecting state sovereignty. Analysts have pointed out the secrecy of the deals, the development of an Indian consulate in the south, as well major defence and security alliances being forged between South Asian countries have been giving India an advantage over the Maldives.

Yet people at the grassroots level do not seem to fully understand exactly what it is they’re fighting for, as multiple cases of xenophobia and racism have reared its ugly head over the past few months. Incidents of Indian nationals being harassed in the streets, taxi services refusing carriage to Indians, and such distrust as to even professional working Indian nationals at their work places in Maldives have been on the rise. 

Out of the 150,000 (a conservative estimate) foreigners currently working in the Maldives, India takes the second spot with over 20,000 individuals at different levels of professions. While these numbers are from 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, it may be assumed it stayed the same, if not increased, over the last two years. Twenty-five percent of doctors practicing in the Maldives and 25 percent of teachers educating the Maldivian population are also estimated to be Indian nationals. These people had uprooted entire lives to be based in the Maldives for work, with some of them spending almost over two or three decades in the country, building families here.

While Indians hold their national identification, they are not denied services nor employment according to law except when it comes to quotas for certain fields and industries. Their involvement in the Maldivian way of life is undeniable, with immense influence by Indian entertainment as well as the language in Maldivian modern-day culture. 

Unchecked xenophobia roots itself strongly in the minds of the citizenry as those powers that be incite reasonings that hit personally for most people. 

When arguing why there aren’t more Maldivian doctors or teachers to replace the foreigners, the public tends to forget that both professions require years of study and that India as a country developed more than Maldives did, and have a head start in that accord. Maldives has been benefiting from this head start with the Indian professionals contributing to the local economy and other various sectors, and educated Maldivian as increasing in number slowly but surely. Still, disregarding this, the highly volatile political climate has been inciting misled sentiments and resulting in racism that the Maldivian people themselves should be extremely ashamed of.

To reiterate, the issue lies in the upper echelons of power, where MDP prefers more dependance on India and the PPM led by Yameen prefers more connectivity with China. The people have not been made fully aware of the level of military dependence that is being created, and that has been the crux of the matter according to the opposition. The issue does not involve the lives of innocent Indian nationals living and working within Maldivian borders and should not make these people the target of public unrest.

This slippery slope is only going to get steeper if the opposition themselves do not openly stand against the xenophobia being flared up within the general population. If the government does not take due notice of the increase in personal harassment and discrimination, the issue would surely flare up beyond control in time, and mob mentality is not something that can be tamed easily.

The absolute radio silence by the Solih Administration, and the hiding behind the National Security label, especially when the Maldives has traditionally been happy to wear her non-aligned status on her sleeve, is patently unacceptable. It is also time perhaps for the Indian government also to contribute less volatility to the situation by being more open in their dealings with the Maldives; especially at a time where Maldivians are increasingly aware of what is happening to minorities, and specifically the muslim minority, in India and this perhaps leading to the "acting out" in a similar vein. And as far as the opposition is concerned; if their effort is centred around the concept of making the Solih Administration, and the Indian government, more accountable, then they should make this stated goal less ambiguous while also working to curb any negatives that grow out of their grassroots efforts — the goal, after all, is not to introduce or increase alienation between Maldivians and Indians; but rather for the respective governments to confirm to proper diplomatic, and more importantly more transparent and definitively democratic, ideals.