The conflict between India and Maldives began in January this year goes beyond three political activists, who are now state officials, making disrespectful remarks against PM Modi.

Maldives foreign minister Moosa Zameer, during his first official visit to India, clarified on Thursday that the Mohamed Muizzu government did not support the derogatory comments made by some of the Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He added that the remarks did not represent the government's stance and that “proper action” was taken to prevent such incidents in the future.

“I think if you have seen as you said, we have said that it's not the stand of the government or we believe that it shouldn't have been done. We are taking proper action to make sure that this doesn’t get repeated. There has been a misunderstanding, in social media. The governments of Maldives and India understand what has happened and we have passed that stage now.” Minister Zameer said to ANI.

Shortly after when three Deputy Ministers made disrespectful remarks against PM Modi, the Ministers Mariyam Shiuna, Mahzoom Majid, and Malsha Shareef were suspended indefinitely. Wonder why Indian News find the fact that the three continue to receive their salaries beguiling and Minister Zameer's statements predominated by artifice?

Mutual interest, reciprocal sensitivity basis of ties: Jaishankar tells Maldives

Zameer is the first Maldivian state official to visit New Delhi after President Mohamed Muizzu took steps to move the Indian Ocean archipelago closer to China and reduce its dependence on India in areas ranging from food security to defence cooperation.

His visit also coincided with a deadline set by Muizzu for withdrawing of more than 80 Indian military personnel who were stationed in the Maldives to operate two helicopters and an aircraft mainly used for medical evacuations and humanitarian operations. India has already pulled out 51 personnel in two batches in March and April, yet replacing them with personnel without uniform, as "civilian experts".

“As close and proximate neighbours, the development of our ties is obviously based on mutual interests and reciprocal sensitivity,” Jaishankar pointedly said in his opening remarks at the meeting with Zameer. Indian External affairs minister S Jaishankar was not seemingly seen smiling though!

“As far as India is concerned, these are articulated in terms of our Neighbourhood First policy and SAGAR [Security and Growth for All in the Region] vision,” he said, adding he hoped the meeting would enable the two sides to “strengthen the convergence of our perspectives in various domains”.

“We have also extended financial support on favourable terms in the past,” Jaishankar said, in a tacit reference to debt traps created by Chinese projects undertaken through the Belt and Road Initiative.

“India has been a first responder on numerous occasions for the Maldives... ", noting that the world is passing through a volatile and uncertain period, Jaishankar said: “In such times, as we saw during Covid, during natural disasters and economic difficulties, close partnerships with neighbours are of great value.”

The foreign ministry of Maldives said both sides discussed ways to “forge opportunities for future collaboration in government priority areas”. They also acknowledged the “notable progress of projects facilitated through Indian grant assistance and line of credit initiatives” and the dialogue underscored a “partnership built on mutual trusts, shared interests and values”.

Minister Zameer said The dialogue underscored a “partnership built on mutual trusts, shared interests and values”.

He also said "last eight months... we are going through election cycles, so there has been much said... so I think we will move beyond that phase pretty soon". 

Several issues can be directly linked to existing system of quota-based expatriate employment. Basic economics of this system leads to sub-human treatment of expatriate workers. For example, businesses are required to provide housing for the expatriates in their employment which is usually take form as space in an ill ventilated, unhygienic and unsanitary room. This is an understandable outcome as every business will opt for cost effectiveness to remain competitive in the market and to make a profit.

^{Sleeping quarters for expatriate workers, a typical situation}

Secondly, the rapid changes in government policy and criteria for issuing quota create unfair advantage for some businesses and interferes with market competitiveness. Few years back a construction business could get a general quota but now quota is issued only to construction projects with one or more years of duration. Those businesses with general quota have the unfair advantage of having labour at their disposal, cheap or otherwise.

Evidently there is a severe shortage of manpower creating economic opportunity for migrant workers. The number of illegal expatriates in the country is a strong indicator that this is the case. Since this is an economic issue, current legislation and policy on employment should be reformulated with economics in the mix. Any new policy should be drawn up to include the following:

1. Establish a process to identify the manpower and skills needed for the economy at regular intervals (i.e. annual).
2. Create and maintain a manpower pool by issuing work visas to migrant workers and creating adequate and affordable housing facilities. Restrictions and conditions (such as sufficient deposit and time limit) on the incoming migrant workers.
3. Enforce terms of employment (including pay and allowances) equally on local and migrant employees.

^{Potential cheap housing for expatriate workers at Gulhifalhu Island}

A key change in a new legislation should be elimination of the existing quota-based system and establishment of a competitive labour market. A competitive labour market will ensure equal opportunity for all businesses and remove any unfair advantages. It will encourage new ideas and innovation while discouraging exploitation of employees (delaying salary payment and forced overtime). A competitive labour market will also discourage spontaneous and impulsive business startups which will avoid waste of economic resources and unwanted market saturation.

^{Chart showing composition of Maldives Workforce in 2019}

An important social benefit of a competitive labour market will be that the local workforce will not have to compete with expatriates on wages. Market forces will ensure that wages remain competitive at par with local standards.

The socio-economic issues arising from current system of expatriate employment have existed for at least two decades, sustained by corruption and self-greed of a few. Hopefully change will be sooner rather than later.