This is not about Maldives, but may be, just may be, Maldivians could gather inspiration from this post.
But the most dangerous manifestation of this retreat from democracy has been a growing sense of hopelessness of the people of Pakistan, and a total disillusionment with the political system’s ability to address their daily problems. The social sector has festered — underfinanced and relegated to the back burner of national policy. All the indicators of quality of life have spiraled down, from employment to education to housing to health care. And as people’s sense of disillusionment has grown, there has been a corresponding growth in the spread of religious and political extremism. The failure of the regime has made our citizens open to extra-governmental experimentation with fanaticism. This has clearly been manifest in the spread of politicized madrassas, schools in which the curriculum incorporates xenophobia, bigotry and often para-military terrorist training. But poor parents who cannot feed or clothe their children entrust them to these kinds of schools, so their children may be fed and housed.
Read the rest of the post from HUFF.
More on Benazir Bhuttos return and the way things are shaping up in Pakistan, drugs, etc…
Benazir Bhutto describes the chaos in her country very well. The problems of madrasah’s or religious schools started long before Musharraf, the present dictator. From Pakistan’s messy inception in 1947 based on religion, democratic rule has been disrupted by periodic military dictatorships.
Before the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, there were approximately 2,000 Madrasahs, a far cry to an estimated 50,000 now. These institutions were supported by the CIA-Pakistani intelligence communities to send holy warriors against the occupying Soviets in Afghanistan during the cold war.
Now the monster they help create has turned against them.
Benazir Bhutto can take credit for becoming first female head of government of this male chauvinistic Muslim country despite the sympathy she received after the death of her father by Zia’s military tribunal.
But in both attempts of her prime ministership she failed to keep a clean record and was deposed. It was the same old political bickering, nepotism etc.
It is a frightening prospect to see Maldives mirror the Pakistani chaos.
This is what happens when religion is used as a tool to manipulate politics and control people.