Affirmative action needed against inequality

Maldives is reaching a point where excesses of wealth and power with a dominant elite mainly resident in the capital Male' is making the people of this nation incapable of empathizing with one another.

In other words, the inequitable distribution of wealth largely experienced by the people in the outer lying islands is simmering discontent and a call for retribution is being expressed aloud.

Maldives history shows that the elites of this nation have always engaged in polity that perpetuated their power and wealth, thus ignoring the interests of the weak and under privileged by the systematic misallocation of its resources.

Ignorance and incompetence may also have contributed to this unfortunate outcome for the citizenry of a nation that is 100 per cent Muslim, a religion that calls to redress such maldistributions.

It is also a bizarre twist of irony or hypocrisy of unparalleled proportions, that you find some political leaders within newly emerged political parties preaching for Islamic ideals while conveniently overlooking the business elites who exploit the nation's resources, creating an ever-widening income gap between the rich and the poor. This is the capitalist's way of depriving the workers.

As a glaring example of what is wrong with this society; let's take the case of social security. Maldives has failed to implement a social security system upto now. Such a system primarily refers to social welfare service concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others.

This appalling situation is in spite of the fact that the economic growth of the country has risen impressively with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) climbing to above $2,500, the highest in the region.

Yet, the poor have to depend on the benevolence of the wealthy elite or at the mercy of the government's bureaucracy in order get essential and basic medical treatment. The government needs to put in place a social security system that can give the poor the dignity of life without them having to seek handouts from anyone, including the clutches of the wealthy elite.