Random Reflexions

The presidency horse-race will conclude in a few days time. It is the final lap and everything and anything - lock, stock, barrel and the kitchen sink - are being thrown at the race to win the hearts of the electorate. Hearts, not minds. Therein lies a stark distinction. At least, for me.

Politics of the sort you get during the run up to the ballot is laden with grandiose promises, double-speak and castles in the sky. This is the norm everywhere. Most candidates talk as if in their short 5-year term in office they will build something akin to the Roman Empire. Five years is a blink of an eye for a country to bounce back or to be transformed into that "other Maldives" even if we handover the country to Julius Caesar himself.

My eldest son is now 5 years old. As chance would sometimes have it he was born with all fundamental faculties for survival intact and functioning. There have been several highlights during this short period of time but most significant among them are just 2 incredibly simple milestones: reading and writing. It is these two milestones that have opened up the entire world's knowledge to him. And it is this world of knowledge that has transformed him into a bright, promising little boy.

With those two milestones, we as his parents, have provided for him the fundamentally necessary tools by which he would one day examine, tackle, build and make decisions about the world and his life as a grown man.

I do not mean to imply that I had, at any point, expected him to be a fully grown man in 5 years time. But that is exactly where I am getting at. When we, as it is widely hoped, give the reigns of this country to a brand-new president, we are essentially handing over a country still running about, soaked and stinking, in its last change of diapers from 30 years ago. A country still in its infancy even in old age. A challenge for any parent. A colossal task for any president.

But with our heads full of promises and dreams it is easy to cloud our judgment. In the next 5 years we should essentially start teaching the country to stand up on its own feet. We should aim to take baby steps. We should know that despite outlandish and elaborate promises not everyone is going to have a home, there is not going to be any administrative centres in the atolls, there is not going to be a bridge from Maale to anywhere, there is not going to be full transparency of government and so on and on. The next 5 years is just not long enough.

So the best I would hope for is to achieve few small but significantly important milestones within the next 5 years that will lay the foundation upon which future leaders can then construct the next step. Our future in the long run depends on making educated and well thought-out decisions regarding what we can and cannot do now.

After all, we have 30 years of rubbish to clear before we can get to the baby.