Blog: China Or India - More Important For Maldives

My name is Sharyf, I joined tourism industry in 2004, started as a Receptionist Trainee at Taj Coral Reef Resort, now rebranded to Vivanta by Taj – Coral Reef Resort. I had no experience in tourism. Most of the tourists were Europeans. Other markets were Japanese, Korean and of cause the Indian market was significant. Having joined with no experience I was the most junior staff in the department.



To start with I was attached to one of the good guys, I was learning and helping my colleague. After a week I learnt some basics and I got some chances to serve guests while my colleague supervised me. My salary was $200 and there was no service charge at that time. You had to work smarter if you need some tips. But, the senior colleagues they always took the richer guests and gave an excellently personalized service to earn some gratuity. I was also very much interested in putting the extra effort. But, I hardly got guests when the resort was full. Most of them were Indias who normally don’t throw good amounts for appreciation. Soliciting tips was not allowed, my colleagues and I never did that. Most of the guests gave small amounts and some don’t give any, but my constant focus to was to over deliver the friendly and personalized service in a professional manner. Since I had no way of reaching richer guests, I decided to put the gear forward and reach even higher level of guests satisfaction. It did work. Even the Indian guests eventually started giving good amounts, but still not like rich guests from other countries. I never differentiated quality of service to any nationality, but always tried to understood their differences in culture and expectancy to serve them better. After this experienced have done further studies in tourism, worked in many resorts and held high positions. But, the experienced I gained at Taj Coral is really of great value and I appreciate their training.

Now, the biggest market is China. I still put the efforts and walk the extra mile to give better service for guests, where I am. They give better amounts in tip than Indians in general. May be they are richer and can afford more. Still, I don’t neglect Indians or any other nationality.

Few years back the main international airport of Maldives was leased to GMR Group of India, for long 25 or so years. Detail in the agreement indicates that it was not only about the lease of airport. The entire land where airport was housed was leased and GMR was allowed to carry out many other commercial activities such as running shopping malls, do mass tourism with thousands of beds, give employment to 4000 Indias without subjecting to employment laws of the Maldives. I felt this was too much for too little. There was a huge public outcry for favouring India and compromising the independency of the Republic of Maldives. At this point the president of Maldives resigned and later claimed it was a mutiny and not a resignation. Investigations and inquiries never concluded as a munity and the rule of then vice-president continued. Indian government unofficially imposed sanctions on Maldives; tightened visa process, building raw-materials such as aggregate and sand exportation was put on hold, loan repayments were made strict by demanding on time payments etc. Indian newspapers and people voiced in comments greatly supported former president Mohamed Nasheed who failed on 16th November 2013 election.

The new president H.E Abdulla Yameen Abdul Qayoo sworn in on 17th November 2013 and became the 5th president of the Maldives. Now, India’s Prime Minister H.E Manmohan Singh has officially invited President Yameen to visit India.

During Mohamed Nasheed’s presidency India got a grave chance to influence the Maldives and India tried to make use of it to its maximum. The unthinkable u-turn took place and India was like running after lost opportunities. For many Maldivians now it is very clear that India had too much interest than a friendly ally. President Yameen is more matured, he served the parliament continuously for 20 years before taking the country’s top job. India should know that Yameen will defend and uphold the independence and freedom of the country at any costs. India should know that Yameen is well aware of the intentions of the Indian government in presence of exploitation. Should India fix this? How can they fix this? What if they don’t try to fix?

An unshakable president sitting in office for next 5 years could mean that he has enough time to fix internal loopholes that could be exploitable for countries with unusual intentions. The possibility that president Yameen will seek assistance from China is huge. The economy of Maldives being based on tourism in which the highest visitors are from China, the Maldives needs to partner with China. Maldives needs protection from China, against Indian interests that conflict independency of Maldives. This year, 2033, we will mark 41 years of official bilateral relations between Maldives and China. Close to half a century of relationship never was a topic of influence to the independency of Maldives. During former president Nasheed’s rule it was not that he favoured India, I rather believe that in fact it was his immaturity as president which led to open up the government too much for foreign investors. The chance was exploited by India, through a public company called GMR.

It is apparent that India has more interests in Maldives than they seem to have, and Maldives needs to select a partner. Go for India and compromise and independency, or go for China and seek assistance from the would-be sanctions from India. If Maldives picks India, its not likely that the Chinese government would impose sanctions. Other way round, the India government already imposed sanctions just to give more possibilities to India-friendly Nasheed to become president. India tried and failed. With China as a partner, there is little the government of India could do against Maldives, much of it having already done.

I am not particularly interested in lobbying Maldives to any country. But, the India’s foreign policy having a substance that wants Maldives to gradually fall over India and at some point may be to become a state of India, is something against which Maldives needs to erect a defence mechanism. That has to be implemented before the end of current presidency. In the age of democracy there would be seemingly-advocates who in practice wants to pursue a personal agenda of continuous rule by his family or a person appointed by him. In order to achieve this, a growing economy, would need bundles of cash to impress citizens. By then Mohamed Nasheed was in power and it was India backing him. Now, I have no interest to ask, how or who, made arrangements of cash for Mohamed Nasheed.

I stayed in China for 1 month in January 2013. During my stay, I had to renew my visa as I was planning to stay a little longer. I went to the police department that handles visa. There was a big queue of local Chinese, but one desk was allocated for foreigners. I got my visa done with a couple of days. Since I wanted to go Hongkong as well, I checked the visa requirements. The Chinese themselves need visa to go Hongkong, but for Maldivians we can to straight away with no prior visa. I was very impressed. But, this was not the reason that I criticized Indian foreign policy. I have gone to India many times and still be going if allowed. I am not against India or the Indian government. But, their foreign policy conflicts the independency of Maldives and that I take serious and with grave concerns. So, if I take this serious, why not the government of Maldives? I put so much efforts to get rid of the former, half-matured, president and now that I am confident the president have the capacity to rule the country.

With help of China, Maldives needs to stay independent. Maldives should hold the present tourism market and serve all nationalities of the world. The country should have freedom to make its own policies in foreign relationships. China has proven to be an honest ally since 1600BC. Maldives is small by size of land and population, but huge in terms of independency, just like India, China or any other big country. Our historical records indicate that even through Maldives was a poor country, the foreign policy exercised in full independence.



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