| Main | News | Dhivehi | Editorials | Opinions | Guestbook |About Maldives |Downloads |About us | Links | 09 December 2005 07:53
Maldives… a mighty military power or just a bluff?
EDITORIAL by A.S.I.Moosa (Sappe') 25/03/2004
Many have long wondered why the government of Maldives is so keen on spending such huge proportions of the national wealth on the military. I will leave it to the imagination of the readers to wonder the possibility of a military attack on Maldives, by whom, when, how and why? According to CIA statistics, Maldives military expenditure was US$ 34.46 million in 2002, which is 8.6% of the GDP (FY02).
Maldives is one of the world’s smallest nations, both in terms of area and population. Still, it is ranked as the one of the world’s leading spenders on military (official world ranking is 10th). This ranking is based on the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spend on defence. There are certain things that need to make sense. Even if Maldives spends the whole GDP on enlarging and expanding the military, will we ever be in a position to retaliate against any of our would-be potential enemies or aggressive neighbours? I leave this to your imagination.
The only defence that we need is to defend our waters from intruders such as those vessels that come to fish inside our territorial water. Do we need to spend over 8% of our GDP on that? Can the government enlighten us on the sectors of the military where these relatively large amounts are being allocated to? Most Maldivian’s must have witnessed the heavy armoury in the Maldives such as the tankers and the weapons such as AK-47. In the last 25 years, these have only been misused, not used. I say we don’t need to spend so much on our military. I wonder what would be the advantage of going into a bilateral defence treaty or work towards a united front for the defence of SAARC countries.
The answer is obvious, dictators love military power. The uniform of General Gayyoom explains it all.
A small island nation, which has no international disputes, does not need to spend so much of its wealth on the military. There are other more important sectors, such as education, health and housing. When compared with other small countries, it is clear why we need to think long and hard about how our money is spent.
Maldives with a population of 329,684 is number 10
Belize with a population of 266,440 is number 91
Seychelles with a population of 80,469 is number 96
Malta with a population of 400,420 is number 100
Bahamas with a population of 297,477 is number 155
Listed below is the TOP 10 spender on military (as a percentage of the GDP)
Rank
Country
Military expenditures - percent of GDP
(%)Date of Information
1
33.90
FY02
2
15.00
FY02
3
13.00
NA
4
12.60
FY00
5
12.20
FY01
6
12.00
FY02
7
10.00
NA
8
8.75
FY02
9
8.60
FY01
10
8.60
FY02
47
3.20
NA
70
2.32
2002
71
2.30
FY02
Sources : http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_exp_per_of_gdp
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