The Maldives, a honeymoon haven in peril – Macau Business

Famed as an upmarket tourist destination of white beaches and turquoise waters, the atoll nation of the Maldives is troubled by political turmoil, rising sea levels and now the Covid pandemic.

Underscoring the underlying political tensions in the South Asian nation, former president Mohamed Nasheed was seriously wounded in a bomb attack in the capital on Thursday.

The country is a collection of 26 atolls made up of 1,192 tiny islands scattered 800 kilometres (550 miles) across the equator.

The country says it has five percent of the worlds coral reefs.

Only 187 islands are inhabited with the population put at 340,000 in the last census. However, the resident population, including foreign workers, was estimated at around 515,000 in 2020 by the World Bank.

High-end tourism is the principal income earner, directly providing a quarter of gross domestic product (GDP). However, the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the tourism sector and the economy shrank 28 percent last year.

The archipelagos secluded beaches and pristine lagoons drew more than 1.7 million tourists in 2019, but arrivals dropped to 555,000 last year.

It is a prized destination for honeymooners, such as Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes who visited in 2006 as well as big names in Bollywood.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ruled with an iron fist for 30 years until 2008, when he lost the countrys first multi-party polls to human rights activist Nasheed.

Nasheed was forced to resign in a 2012 coup led by mutinous police and troops.

In disputed elections the following year, he was defeated by Gayooms half brother, Abdulla Yameen.

In 2015 Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in jail on a terrorism charge widely criticised as politically motivated. A year later, in 2016 he was granted prison leave for medical treatment in London.

He sought refuge in Britain and his cause was taken up by high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

Nasheed returned after his nominee, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the 2018 presidential election dealing shock defeat to Yameen. The following year, he went on to win a parliamentary election and became speaker, the second most powerful position in the country.

Eighty percent of the Maldives is less than a metre (three feet) above sea level, making it one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels linked to climate warming.

In 2009 Nasheed held a cabinet meeting underwater to raise awareness of the risk, also warning his people could become climate refugees.

Situated along Indian Ocean trading routes and about 650 kilometres southwest of Sri Lanka, the Maldives has been colonised several times.

Once a Buddhist kingdom, it converted to Islam around the 12th century.

Portuguese explorers occupied the main island of Male in the 16th century. The territory then became protectorates of the Dutch and the British before complete independence on 1965.

Sunni Islam today remains the state religion, all other religions being banned.

The Maldives follows a moderate version of Islam while banning alcohol, except in tourist hotels, and homosexuality.

There are fears of radicalisation via websites. The country has banned foreign preachers yet some 300 Maldivians are known to have travelled to Syria to join jihadists at the height of the fighting.

Nasheed had expressed fears of religious extremists taking over the country. Attacks on independent journalists have been blamed on Islamic extremists.

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The Maldives, a honeymoon haven in peril - Macau Business