Male: The announcement that the Maldivian government had taken control of the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport from the airport operator GMR was celebrated at a public meeting here late on Friday, though some ordinary Maldivians were not sure if it was the smart thing to do.
Maldivians who support ‘Anni’ (former President Mohamed Nasheed) feel that GMR got caught in a political crossfire, while other shades of opinion held that the issue could have been handled more sensitively. “This is not about GMR; this is not about managing an airport. This is about targeting Nasheed,” said Mickail Naseem, who is here on a semester break from Cambridge.
“If they [the government] really had the interests of the country at heart, they should have made sure that GMR built a better airport,” said Naseem, who volunteers for the youth wing of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) but does not hold a position.
Ali Yousuf, a journalist, held that the government was right in taking back the airport, but felt it should have handled the issue better.
A few youth, who said that they support parties in the current government, were vehemently critical of the decision to give the airport to a foreign company. “Oh yes, we do want a second Heathrow, but the point is, can we do it?” asked one youth, who gave his name as Abdullah, a local businessman. He said that this gateway airport, one of the two international airports in the country, should not be handed over to a foreign company to run it.
07/12/12 RK Radhakrishnan/The Hindu
