The Date

December 26, 2004

The Event

Tsunami Strikes the Maldives

The Place
The Maldives, a tiny country composed of nearly 1,200 islands, is located in the Indian Ocean to the south and west of Sri Lanka. The islands, roughly arranged in a north-south line, straddle the equator from 7 degrees north latitude and run for more than 820 kilometers. The islands are grouped into 26 natural atolls. Most of the land is just 2–3 meters above sea level.

The Population
With a population of fewer than 300,000, there are no big cities, no large industrial complexes and, fortunately, fewer signs of the pollution that pervades most other places on this planet. The native population is a mix of eastern races, who have a strong maritime heritage.

The People
Maldivians are an unbelievably friendly and accommodating people. They seem to live at one with the endless Indian Ocean that surrounds their island homes. In this place, the family unit remains very strong and is an acknowledgment of the value of that age-old system. It is also a place where the crafts and practices of the wood-turner have changed little across the centuries. That said, the old meets the new in the form of a proliferation of mobile telephones with photograph-taking capabilities. Perhaps this is not surprising in a place where more than half of the population is under 25.

The Younger Generation
As in so many other places, many of the younger generation of Maldivians are well educated to pre-university level, but then limited in their further education options. The country is too small to support its own university. Those who can afford it, or can secure a scholarship, go to the closer universities in India and Sri Lanka. Others travel farther to gain their university education in places like Britain, Australia, and the United States, although these are more expensive options.

The Expatriates
A substantial expatriate working population (about 40,000) consists of many from Bangladesh. Quite apart from the income they are able to derive (which is not available to them in their homeland), many spoke of the lack of trouble in these islands that added to their quality of life—despite the fact that most were able to return to their families only every other year.

The Economy
The tsunami hit the mainstay of the Maldivian economy—tourism—very hard. While the catastrophe has not stopped those who find the magic in this part of the world greater than any concerns they might have about another of these rare events occurring, it has dramatically slowed the numbers of honeymooners and family groups who usually flood to these islands to enjoy a short break in paradise.

Purposes of the Visit
My reasons for visiting were twofold: (a) to spend a mini-vacation somewhere that was affected by the December 26 tsunami and (b) to make observations about the structure and operation of the police force.

Initial Observations
I can report that the resilience of this race of fishermen and craftsmen has been challenged, but not beaten. The tuna fishing industry is still producing much-needed income while the woodcarving and manufacturing sector continues to function. However, there are fewer buyers for these beautiful wood products, a situation that will not improve until confidence to travel to this part of the world regenerates.

The Political Context of Policing
Last year, the police force in the Maldives was reorganized into a civil-type agency. Previously, the police had been part of the military and security services. This transition was not easy and raised many issues for the police, but especially for their new relationship with the community.

This change is a forerunner to the move away from the existing presidential model of government toward one with an elected representative decision-making body at its core. It is never easy to change age-old forms of power distribution, embedded deeply into the culture and customs of a society. In this case, the move toward a form of party-controlled democracy follows a period of unrest that resulted in violence on the streets of Malé, the capital, in 2003.

Therefore, the police are and are always going to be deeply involved in change because of their locus as an intrinsic part of the infrastructure of the society. The people of this Moslem country have shown an interest in becoming politically influential in the new system. The increase in the number of registered political parties is beginning to reflect the  ideological breadth of Islam . Change of this magnitude may well test the skills and patience of the police.

My particular interest in police, policing, and police structures led me into discussions with many police officers at all levels and as many citizens who were prepared to talk with me. The present police force, broadly reflecting the British civil model, came into being in September 2004 as an “independent” law enforcement agency. Its origins within the military/security domain meant that the “new” police contained an amalgam of officers, some of whom were essentially soldiers at heart. Others had a strong police sense of duty, but felt that the community did not properly accept them, as the citizens were more familiar with military-type control.

Issues Post-Tsunami
Because of the Maldives’ size and relative geographical isolation, the authorities have always faced a difficult problem in bringing to their far-flung people the range of services and opportunities expected by more recent generations. While I found signs  of an adequate lifestyle in terms of health and general well-being, the underlying difficulties appeared to center around keeping up with employer demands for an educated workforce, coupled with the desire for all those “goodies” that technology now offers.

• There are the inevitable problems associated with the unit cost of any service or commodity and serving a small, but widespread population. To add to these already existing challenges, the disastrous tsunami last December added substantially to the government’s “to do” list.
• While the Maldives suffered far less than most of its neighbors in terms of death, injury, and property loss, it also had far less to lose. In an economy so heavily reliant on tourism, the damage and refurbishment of tourist facilities presents a special challenge. Most of us expect four- or five-star accommodations for that long-awaited tropical vacation. Where the tsunami did not demolish buildings, it still stripped them of television receivers, air conditioning units, and all of those many electrical appliances that are taken for granted—to say nothing of the power supply.
• While there is evidence of determination to be up and running again as quickly as possible, it is also clear that budgets have to be stretched further during a time when income is not as guaranteed as it was before this huge tragedy occurred.
• One consequence of this situation is that those who were underserved will continue to face difficulty in satisfying their desire for those facilities and benefits taken for granted in most developed countries and those which aspire to developed status.

Conclusions
These are interesting and significant times for all Maldivians. But they are also interesting for the outsider as they represent a living experiment in social and political change on a scale that is “watchable,” in a Muslim state seeking a more equitable political model while maintaining many of its traditional values. There are many challenges ahead for those involved in this process.

The key outcomes will be (a) the social and political preferences of those who eventually replace the present presidential control and (b) how these people deal with the pressures for change that come from an economy largely supported by the extravagant demands of Western tourists.

For the police force, there are already many challenges as it moves away from an ethos driven by a military-type strategy of control to one which has at its heart concerns for protection and preservation, one which regards the community as its peers. At some future time, I hope to be able to produce a progress report from the Maldives on the change and, hopefully, its benefits.

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