A brief look at Anni's transport policy

Its election time in Maldives and the so called ‘politicians’ have started to announce their agendas and manifestos. Since I am living abroad at the moment, I just get all the news from the local media and just could not imagine the differences in how it’s been reported in here and in Maldives.

The last policy was announced by Maldivian Democratic Party’s presidency candidate, Nasheed (Anni) for the transport sector. The main outcome of the policy was to connect all the islands from a ferry mechanism. He highlighted that Maldivians are suppressed in their islands and the difficulty in transport in emergencies. The mechanism would be facilitated bydividing the country in to different zones and the zoned islands were announced in the news briefing held in Hulhumale’ ferry terminal. However, this information was not available (not even in MDP website).

However, after reading the articles about it in haveeru, miadhu, aafathis and jazeera a lot of questions popped in to my head, like any other Maldivian. The journalists failed to ask key questions or failed to report key factors in the newspapers.

First key question is how could it be done?

Is government going to start a ferry business separately or would it be run through MTCC? I thought Anni mentioned about privatising all government business and the need for government to pull away from the business sector.

By having zone ferries would it still solve the emergency problems, I don’t agree. It might give a little comfort but I don’t believe it’s the complete solution.

How could it be financed?

If ferry services are to operate, it sure has to be profitable or is government going to subsidise the company like STELCO. The business would be highly risky n volatile with the increase in fuel prices in the world. Would this policy be financed by the public and would they be charged?

Finally within how many years would it take to implement such a plan?

I don’t support any political party so far, but definitely my vote in the elections would go to a person who has the best mandate to help the people of Maldives and I hope I would get some answers for this in the near future!