Pushing the Religious Envelope

A day after the Ministry of Economic Development lifted the ban on sale of alcohol in the inhabited islands, the President's Office has weighed in under public pressure. President's Office says it will not be implemented until it is published in the government gazette. Critics see this as a cynical move fearing a public uproar as they say that the Economic Development Ministry's position is the government's stand on this highly sensitive and polarising issue.

This is the government's way of pushing the envelope to test the limits of public acceptance of a 100 per cent Muslim society. Until now alcohol is freely available in all the tourist resorts. It is a perverse logic for the Economic Ministry to say that lifting the ban to allow sale of alcohol in authorised hotels of inhabited islands will bring an end to the black market created by the permits given to foreigners to buy and consume alcohol in their homes. We already have an epidemic of substance abuse and drug addiction affecting more than one-third of our youth. With such weak laws and even weaker implementation and enforcement of them, lifting the ban will only lead to another complicated phenomenon- alcoholism, another devastating social problem.