The Low Growl: Maldivian Gen-Z Are Waking Up To Their ‘Kleptocratic’ State 

On Sept. 25, an editorial in the Maldives Independent wondered if the country’s youth was as politically apathetic as it seemed. “Political ‘youthquakes’ have rocked Bangladesh, and now Nepal,” it wrote. “(Here), there is no denying that Gen Z is rapidly becoming more politically apathetic with each passing day – they admit it themselves.”   

A few hours later, protests broke out. And young Maldivians came out in force. 

The protests in the capital of Male, which kicked off after the legislature passed a new law restricting the media, soon broadened in early October to include complaints about corruption, the expansion of presidential powers, mismanagement of state enterprises, and the restrictions on basic freedoms.  

Police arrested eight people after clashes broke out between protesters and security officials, with the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, which had initially organized the protests, complaining of excessive force.  

At the center of the protests was a measure passed by parliament known as the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, which the government says will create a body to oversee broadcast and online media to “safeguard the constitutional right to freedom of expression.” 

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Khaleel said on X that the bill will establish “clear standards and a code of conduct” and will also “address the challenges of misinformation, disinformation and coordinated manipulation of content.”  

However, critics, which include journalists and human rights organizations domestically and internationally, say the new rules are essentially a “war” on free speech. 

“The Maldivian parliament has passed a draconian bill that seeks to muzzle dissent online and offline, both on traditional media and social media,” Ahmed Naaif, the secretary-general of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), told Al Jazeera. “We journalists will stand together in defiance against this takeover of the media…”  

The bill also grants the new commission – to be appointed by the government and media organizations jointly – broad powers to fine and suspend journalists and news outlets if they produce coverage the commission believes violates the country’s religious norms, national security or public order. The government said a judicial order will be needed before a news organization can be closed down. 

However, critics say that the judiciary has been recently remade by the government to become its rubber stamp.  

Earlier this year, the legislature, in which the president’s party, the People’s National Congress, holds a firm majority, overhauled the country’s Supreme Court, suspending a judge and firing two others on allegations of abuse of power, moves that the former judges say was done to influence the outcome of several cases. 

Fueling the crackdown on the media and social media, say government opponents, are scandals that have been erupting since late last year involving top officials in President Mohamed Muizzu’s administration: They have been implicated in fraudulently awarding coveted plots of land, diverting welfare funds to operate a pro-government TV channel, and boosting the ruling party’s membership through identity theft.  

“In all of the cases, whistleblowers exposed damning evidence through an anonymous X account, an unfiltered and provocative outlet for ‘citizen journalism’ that has been playing an increasingly consequential role in Maldivian politics, wrote the Diplomat. 

The tensions in the country that are spiking this year – a nation of around half a million people spread across more than 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean – center on the erosion of democratic gains the country has made since it ended 30 years of authoritarian rule and held its first multi-party democratic elections in 2008, say analysts.  

But even as there is growing tensions in the country under Muizzu, elected in 2023, the issues facing the country go beyond one leader, says Eva Abdulla, a former legislator and the current head of the Maldives Policy Think Tank. 

She pointed out how no Maldivian leader has lasted more than one term in almost two decades: Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected leader, was toppled in a coup. Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who governed with an iron fist, was rejected at the polls after one term. It was the same for Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Now, Muizzu faces widespread discontent even before reaching the halfway mark of his term. 

She says the problem lies in the flaws of the 2008 constitution: “The drafters envisioned a delicate balance of powers with robust checks and balances in theory, but in practice, presidential power has steamrolled through constitutional guardrails,” she said. “They never anticipated scenarios where presidents would command parliamentary majorities of upwards of 80 percent, resulting in a system with nominal checks on presidential authority.”

“What began as a promising democratic experiment has unraveled through successive election cycles, culminating in today’s reality of rampant corruption and unprecedented economic decline…” she added. 

At the same time, young Maldivians have been waking up to the realities of a corrupt and a “free-for-all” kleptocratic state, say commentators. 

Himal Southasian magazine pointed to youth-led protests earlier this year, including one that lasted for more than a week in early May that erupted over the fall of a young woman from a nine-story building. The case led to allegations of gang rape, a police cover-up due to political interference, and drug-fueled parties attended by appointees of the ruling government and their family members.  

A cousin of the injured woman reflected the crowd’s fury when she told protesters, “Justice is not for the poor. It is for the nepo babies,” referring to the children of the elite and a term that has become a rallying cry at protests across Asia. 

Regardless, the multiple youth-led protests erupting this year show that Gen Z Maldivians are less apathetic than some believe, observers say.  

“Already the largest explosion of discontent since Muizzu won power in 2023, these protests represent a new generation raising its voice against the Maldives’s entire political culture, putting to rest earlier notions of the political apathy of young Maldivians,” Himal Southasian wrote. 

The discontent with the system has not disappeared even though those protests died down after a heavy-handed crackdown, it added: “There’ll be a flashpoint at some stage.”