In Search…

I’ve seldom been as impressed with a politician as I was with Mohammed Nasheed, the young President of the Maldives.
President Nasheed is truly the new-age politician. Honest, effective and rooted in the realities of his nation. When you ask him what his vision for his nation is, he says with his most charming smile, “I want my people to be happy, watch TV if they want to, relax at home, bring up their children well…give them a good education, healthcare and housing.” Where will the funds come from? “From taxes yes. But it is the duty of the state to provide for its people,” he says. In his mind, his atoll of islands will be the perfect welfare state. Already education, health care and housing are either taken care of wholly by the government or at least subsidised for those who are unable to afford it.
We hear, informally, that he still bears the sign of torture by the previous dictatorial regime on his body. His troubles have not embittered him, only made him more hopefully. Rallying his young cabinet (only two ministers are over 50 years!) he has managed to stabilise the plummeting growth rate (it has now plateaued at 6 per cent) and is busy striking bi-lateral partnerships with mature democracies (only! Therefore not China!) to take his country forward.
And admirably impatient with processes. “Processes just take too long. I want to bring good health care to my people and what does it matter how I do it?” he asks, completely demolishing the bed rock of governments that also frustrates development. In a little over 24 hours, his team inked an agreement with Apollo Hospitals to support the running of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital in the Maldives. “We have been going through tenders and proposals for over a year now and it doesn’t make sense to take that long…”
And then, of course, he holds a cabinet meeting under sea. How cool is that!