As soon as the government announced that the government has decided to leave Commonwealth several people took to social media to express their concerns about this ‘outrageous’ decision to leave the Commonwealth.
Some people claimed that exiting the Commonwealth means the country will lose ‘countless funding opportunities’. While others said that we will no longer get visas to foreign countries easily. In addition, many people are asking whether if this means Maldivians will no longer get scholarships to study abroad.
Most of these claims are far from the truth. Leaving the Commonwealth does not mean that Maldives will lose any funding opportunities. Unlike international organizations like the United Nations or World Bank, the Commonwealth does not directly fund to conduct developmental projects. Most of the assistance given by Commonwealth is technical in nature.
Commonwealth is largely dominated by the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. These countries do not have any major investments in the Maldives. Even, if these countries plan to invest in Maldives in future, being a member of the Commonwealth can hardly be a prerequisite. Commonwealth member nations do not have any multilateral trade agreements. To put it in layman’s terms, member nations of the organization do not get any benefit in terms of trade. As for Maldives, we trade the most with India, China, Thailand, UAE and Sri Lanka. Among these only Sri Lanka and India are members of the Commonwealth. But, leaving the organization will not have any effects on the trade relations with these countries.
Those people who speak of the scholarships, do have a point. But not a very strong one. It is true that we get 1 or 2 Commonwealth funded scholarships every year. The scholarships we get from the organization is nothing compared to what we get from various other countries and organizations. For instance, we get more scholarships from Ausaid than we get from the Commonwealth. Again, membership of Commonwealth is not a prerequisite to receive Ausaid scholarships either.
Leaving Commonwealth might mean that the United Kingdom might end the visa-free regime with Maldives. That might of course complicate matters for politicians, criminals and terrorism financers who often seek refuge in the UK. But the impact from this on average Maldivians will be almost non-existent. United Kingdom is not among the most frequently visited countries by Maldivians. Most visited destinations by Maldivians include Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and UAE. Leaving Commonwealth will have no impact on the visa regime with these countries. As for the Schengen area visa, even now we do not enjoy any special privileges. So leaving Commonwealth will not make any difference.
While there were many comments against this decision, people on social media have not been as depressed or angry about this decision as the opposition would have believed. A Facebook post by one user says “If current Maldivians were active in politics in 1965, I am sure they would have objected to us getting independence from British saying we would lose our colony status and the benefits that come along with it. "
I cannot agree more.
Is leaving the Commonwealth really that bad?
