Random Reflexions

The national day has come and gone and what little nationalism we had in our blood was on display as many motorcycles, cars and other vehicles sported the national flag for the day.

I have always wondered and questioned this peculiar kind of nationalism we have. I believe we are more like hesitant patriots. I've written about it previously as well. What is clear now, and this has been true for many decades, is that we are still very confused about where our patriotism lie. And why not, after all, by constitution we are Muslim before we are even Maldivian.

On one of my earlier posts on the subject a reader had commented that our patriotism lies with Palestine and, it goes without saying, with those Islamic nations that are in conflict - either from within or outside. It is as if the only people suffering from hardship, war and conflicts are concentrated in the middle east - specifically in Islamic nations. The popular media outlets, the western ones included, have their heads permanently affixed towards the middle east ready to pounce on a story about the "situation" there. The reason? Oil.

But that's another story.

As a tiny country that has to depend on handouts from richer ones we find ourselves constantly torn between appeasing our "brothers" in oil rich Muslim nations - who we have gone to crawling and begging for who-knows what - and the west - the powers that control the world economy and arms. I think this tug-of-war on our interests and juggling of our patriotism between ourselves and people who we will never ever meet, have made us ambivalent and in a lot of ways confused.

What we need is reviving our sense of nationalism (if ever there was one) - not by shamelessly flaunting religion as a precondition, but by weaving what is left of our culture and heritage together into the unique strand of humanity that we are.

We should start reminding ourselves that we are Maldivian and proud of it simply because we have the centuries old so-called fish blood running through our veins, and because this is our land and sea and because we speak, read and write as one people regardless of our beliefs. But old habits and prejudices die hard. Our forefathers, from the days of the arrival of a foreign religion, had planted the seed of a foreign culture into the very core of our being. The fact that the first 9 letters from Ha to Vaavu are derived from the first 9 Arabic numerals from 1 to 9 is something to think about. And there is the problem of the nation of useful idiots that 30 long years of dissemination of rubbish and lack of real education has created. Our display of patriotism is something to be ashamed of because we really don't know how to display it. What nationalism? What patriotism?

Our leaders have used the facade of religious unity to fool us into believing that we are a proud nation of brothers and sisters because, and as a result, of our one religion. This is a blatant lie. How can we say this today and still keep a straight face? We need to realise that our people, Maldivians - proud or not, come in different shapes, sizes and, more importantly, widely different belief systems.

The instant we say we are united because we are Muslims, that very millisecond in time, the fabric of our nationalism rips into several pieces and our collective patriotism weakens.

So don't talk to me about nationalism.