Other counties will not view us as an independent state of we continue to beg to buy medicine: President Waheed

President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has issued a stark warning to the Maldivian people on the importance of being self sufficient by stating that foreign countries might cease to view the country as an independent state if the Maldives keeps pleading for money to buy medicine.

Addressing the people during last night’s event to mark the country’s 48th year of independence, President Waheed posed the question whether the Maldives could truly be called an independent country if the government could only relieve the people by begging from other countries to buy medicine.

“The Government is able to relieve the people from begging for money to buy medicine. Yet, if the Government could do that only by begging for money itself from other countries, could we call that an independent country?” President Waheed asked the nation.

He noted that the state’s ability to pay wages and provide basic services with revenues generated by the State is paramount to achieving economic independence. He said that consequently, economic independence is necessary to ensure external and internal independence and that that the country cannot sustain its national independence if the Government’s revenue is MVR 9 billion or MVR 12 billion, and its expenditure a staggering MVR 22 billion.

He also questioned whether the country would be able to protect its independence if it depends on the goodwill of someone else for paying salaries, fuel, food, and subsidies. He said that country’s “sovereignty in this case, might become something that is only written in the Constitution.”

The President said that the Maldives' economy has now begun to recover but reminded that more remains to be done in terms of expanding businesses and increasing investments towards job creation. Massive efforts need to be put into developing various industries, he said.

He noted the importance of foreign investors to boost the economy, but said that Maldives must all accept that its economy lacks sufficient drive to attract big investments. However, he strongly stated that Maldivians themselves must decide how much foreign investment is needed and that the citizens themselves must be in charge of driving our economy.

“Foreign investors provide the most important boost to the economy. We must all accept that Maldives’ economy lacks sufficient drive to attract big investment. Yet, we, Maldivians must decide how much foreign investment we want. We must be in charge of driving our economy.”

The President also said that the Maldives is a responsible member of the international community, a nation with certain obligations to fulful, but said it is not right if the country is required to surrender its responsibility to govern the country to someone else, as a condition for fulfilling such compulsions.

Referring to recent calls by the opposition on the international community to boycott Maldives’ tourism, the President said that the country must be attentive to the efforts being made to damage the tourism sector and that citizen’s should be aware of the people responsible for these campaigns, as to what they have to gain from these efforts.

“We should know the people responsible for these campaigns, and what they have to gain from these efforts. Whether it is trying to dominate our economy, or to destroy our religious unity, we must be concerned about their intentions. And we must not give these people any opportunity to do so,” the President said.

It is not those in the decision-making roles that will feel the pain of direct attacks to our economy, or the resort the resort owners, but rather the tax revenues generated by the government from tourists, the President said.

It is loss from the education and healthcare provided by those taxes, a loss for the workers at those resorts and the families they support, it is a loss to their children’s tuition and their parent’s healthcare costs, the President cautioned the people.