September 2005 Press Release
Press Conference by Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead the American Corner, National Library Male, Maldives
SEPTEMBER 27, 2005.
Ambassador Lunstead: Well, good afternoon. I’m here in connection with the U.S.- Maldives Friendship Week. We have a number of events going on. We have a trade fair, we’re having seminars on visas, on education in the United States. We’re also having some cultural events -- we’re showing some movies. This is an attempt to broaden and deepen the relationship between the United States and the Maldives. I’ve also taken the opportunity to talk to a broad cross section of Maldivians. I met President Gayoom yesterday, I met a number of ministers today, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Just met the Information Minister. I also met with the MDP this afternoon. This is a very exciting time in Maldives. It’s a time when Maldives is trying on its own to reform and open up its political system. We think it’s very important (inaudible) to support it. It’s a test for Maldivians, not for foreigners, not for us to do but for you to do. But we want to support you in your efforts. I did give a talk the other night at a reception. I think we’ll be posting it to our website.
In it, I said that moving to a democratic system is a hard test. It took us a long time. It’s not easy, especially when the people are not used to it. And there are responsibilities on everyone. There are responsibilities on government, responsibilities on the opposition, to find a way to make this work. But that is very important and we’ve learned that we value most highly freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and that government needs to respect these rights. And that those who are assembling and speaking have to do so responsibly, and understand where the boundaries are, so that Maldives can move forward to the future that I think all Maldivians want, which is a more open democratic pluralistic society.
I’m excited about what I see is happening here. I’ve been coming for two years; this is my 9th visit, in the last 2 years. I think a lot has happened. You have a lot of work still to do. But it’s an exciting test -- that’s exhilarating and frightening at the same time. I wish Maldives good luck.
I’m happy to take any questions:
TV Maldives: [Question on what kind of changes need to take place in the Maldives to make progress on democracy. What will the future hold for the Maldives]
Amb. Lunstead: Well, I don’t know what the future is. You all know better than I. But I think it is very significant. When I look back at the changes that have taken place in the last two years since I first came here, I think it’s quite astounding – really, all the things that have happened. There are many things which still need to be done, but people are working on so many things at once. The legalization of political parties is a major, major step forward. But the process doesn’t end when you take a step like that. Political parties have to function in a certain way. People have to learn what is the role of the government, what is the role of the opposition in a system like this. All these things – they’re not things that come naturally. It took us a long time to learn. Other countries take a long time to learn. You’re trying to rush through very quickly. That’s a hard test. But I’m optimistic about the future, I’m very happy to see the progress that has been made so far. I’m optimistic about the future – I think there’s good will on all sides and with good will I think there’s going to be a successful outcome.
Radio Maldives: [Question on what changes the U.S. would like to see in the Maldives]
Amb. Lunstead: Well, again, these are changes you all have to decide because it’s your country and we can’t decide for you. The basic principles of democracy and an open system, I think, we all know -- that citizens should have a voice in government, they should have a voice in choosing who their leaders are, in choosing what their policies are, and they should also have the freedom to say what they feel about those. Even if they lose, they should be able to criticize, to make suggestions, propose alternatives. But one of the important things is that democracy is not just about elections. Just having an election doesn’t give you a democracy. There are many institutions in a democracy, both governmental and non-governmental. And you have to develop these. There are many things which are going on now in Maldives: Attempts to work on the judicial system, on the Penal Code, on the prisons system, on the information, on the media for instance. Obviously, if you want to have an open system, you have to have some type of a system which allows access to the media. The print media has become quite free. I understand they [the newspapers] are very vocal these days. But the broadcast media is also very important. Many people get their news from the broadcast media. There has to be a way for all voices to be heard on the broadcast media. These are difficult things. So it’s not just about elections.
Haveeru: [Question on what plans the U.S. has for strengthening bi-lateral relations]
Amb. Lunstead: Well, there are number of things that we want to do. Not all relations are between countries or between governments. I’ve talked to some of the ministers today, I talked to the Minister of Atoll Development, about this. He’s interested in student exchanges. Now, we have —this is just an example-- we have private organizations in the United States which organize exchanges of high school students. So we’ll see, perhaps we can get them in touch with Maldives and they might be able to organize some things.
We would like to see Maldivians getting university education in the United States. We’re offering counseling on education in the United States so people are aware of the opportunities. Now our educational system in the United States is basically a private system. Government doesn’t run higher education. So we can’t pick people up and send them to universities. But there are many, many opportunities. There are universities which will offer scholarships. University education is very expensive in the United States. I know, I have a daughter in university right now. But there are opportunities, nonetheless, for good students to get scholarships to go to the United States. That’s another way in which we would like to strengthen the relationship between the two countries because, as I said, it’s not all government to government.
I also talked today with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs about possibly trying to interest American companies in investing in Maldives, doing business in Maldives. There are – I suggested to her -- some ways in which we can do that again working with the private sector. We can provide information. We can provide some opportunities and there are ways to do this. But there is not a single answer to this. There are many, many opportunities. And we’ll work on a number of different fronts and we hope that some of them will bear fruit.
Question (unidentified): [Question on whether the U.S. will increase opportunities for Maldivians to study in the U.S.]
Amb. Lunstead: We are looking at different things. As I said, one of these is just providing information about educational opportunities so that Maldivians can seek out these opportunities for themselves. We also – under the great work of our Public Diplomacy section which is Phil, and Angela -- and Chiran back there -- we’ve started the Fulbright program in Maldives about a year and a half ago in which American scholars come to Maldives to do research and teaching, and in which Maldivians go the US to study. It’s a small program right now ; we have sent two Maldivians last year and we are sending two more in this coming year. The hope is that the word gets out and this program can grow and can generate additional opportunities.
I found that when I talked to private American institutions, a number of them were interested in Sri Lanka. So I said, “Well, you should think about Maldives also.” Maldivians aren’t well known. Let’s be open about that. But there are opportunities. We’re looking for ways. We don’t have, unfortunately, a big pot of money. You know, it would be nice if I had, if Phil had, a million dollars and we could give 50 scholarships a year. But we don’t. That’s just a fact. And we won’t. We’ll never get that kind of thing. But we can promote creative ways to make educational opportunities more available in the United States.
Haveeru: [Question on why so few American tourists come to the Maldives]
Amb. Lunstead: I think it’s just distance. It’s just a long way to come to go the beach, to be frank. If you live in the United States, and if you want to go the beach, you can go the Caribbean or you can go some place that’s much closer. It takes a special type of tourist -- the type of European tourists coming on a mass market, packaged tour – that’s very unlikely to happen from the United States. What we get is high end or adventure tourists or Americans who live in the region. I think most of the Americans who come as tourists to Maldives live in Asia. They live in Singapore, or Indonesia, or India or may be even Japan, so they’re close enough, so they can come. But we have to be realistic. I think it’s probably not very likely that we will get a huge influx of tourists coming all the way from the United States. [We’ll get more American tourists] as Maldives diversifies its tourism offers and creates more specialized or high-end tours. Eco tourism is very popular in the United States and this is where people with lots of money often go. So there are possibilities for eco tourism – that type of thing. But it’s never going to be a mass market, I doubt very much.
Haveeru: [Question asking why there are relatively few U.S. exports to the Maldives]
Amb. Lunstead: Well this is a phenomenon which we have a lot of in South Asia. It’s the same thing in Sri Lanka, it’s very similar in India and Pakistan, where we import from all of these countries much more than we export. That’s partly a case of traditional markets I think. Here you have – traditionally, you import things from the UK, from Australia. We want to do something about that. That is why we are having the trade show. We have 10 American companies at the trade show, who have good products to sell in Maldives. We hope that Maldivians who are interested in these products [come to the fair]. There are lots of products that are useful for the tourism industry, also for business and, in general, for information technology. We hope Maldivians who come by will see these products and take the opportunity to buy some of them. Because, of course, we would like to sell more. That’s the purpose of the trade show.
Haveeru: [Question on Ambassador’s discussions with the opposition party MDP]
Amb. Lunstead: I think the MDP people, like most Maldivians, want to see a more open, democratic, pluralistic system. There’s obviously a great divergence of opinions as to how fast this process can go, and how deep it can go, immediately. I think the important thing is for all sides, all parties, to take at face value that everyone wants to see reform, to seek opportunities for dialog and to find ways to work together to make the process go forward and not to look for ways to fight with each other. It’s very hard. Of course, in the UK they have the phrase “the loyal opposition” and that’s hard if you have to be the loyal opposition. You have to oppose, but you have to have common goals. And I think that people need to accept the genuine desire of their opponents to move forward and then find ways to do that even if they differ on the specifics.
Evening Weekly Magazine: [Question on which areas Maldivians should be careful about in their reform process]
Amb. Lunstead: Again, these are issues where Maldivians need to decide where they stand on these things. There are so many things which need to be worked on at once. I think the key is for people to learn how to differ with each other responsibly; what is the correct way to oppose something. I gave this example last night: In the United States, if a crowd wants to – a person or a crowd wants - to stand in front of the White House and shout, “Bush must resign!” that’s okay. That’s fine. If they start throwing stones across the fence or they start shouting “Kill Bush!” that’s against the law. There’s a line. And everyone needs to learn where these lines are, what is responsible. So, the government needs to learn how far you have to let people go, and opposition has to learn how far you can go. And hopefully, they can work together on these things. What you don’t want is to destroy something that’s positive. And I think Maldives is a very positive country. You’ve had tremendous economic progress over the years, you have a very cohesive society – educated society. Now you have a chance to move on to a new stage. No one wants to destroy that. But that can happen if people don’t act responsibly. And responsibility means everybody. Everyone has to find out how to be responsible and where the lines are.
Phil Frayne: Thank you very much.