Disposable citizens and the calculated politics of the harvest
The government is initiating mass layoffs after hiring thousands of workers to secure a parliamentary supermajority. Despite economic warnings, officials used state jobs as political bait to win elections. Now that power is consolidated, state-owned enterprises must cut staff by 33 percent as the workers' political utility has ended.
President Muizzu stated that while the current administration initially intended to hire only 10 employees for the Fenaka branch in Feeali, a total of 39 staff members have been recruited to date. | Raajje MV
A time-honored Maldivian proverb points out that a banana tree ceases to have any worth the exact moment its fruit is harvested.
This specific piece of wisdom echoed loudly across communities during the recent rounds of Parliamentary elections, by-elections, and local council votes, serving as a frequent talking point among family members, companions, and political analysts who watched the grim reality play out.
The indiscriminate hiring spree
This saying did not just become popular out of nowhere. Throughout the competitive election seasons, the administration went on an unprecedented hiring binge, handing out job openings like cheap party favors.
Positions were distributed recklessly and in massive quantities, intentionally focusing on large, well-connected families without any regard for actual operational requirements.
Countless individuals were brought on board for roles completely lacking defined tasks, meaning some workers merely had to show up at the office physical space while others were explicitly permitted to sit at home.
The government's recruiting dragnet pulled in everyone from regular voters and prominent celebrities to musicians, loud internet commentators, and anyone related to a household believed to control a hefty chunk of ballots.
Deaf ears to fiscal doom
These calculated political positions were created despite aggressive red flags from financial specialists who explicitly warned that the country's economic health was highly vulnerable.
Budget experts repeatedly cautioned that burning through a giant chunk of the state treasury on administrative salaries and ongoing operational costs would pile a crushing weight onto the nation.
Even though the ruling government had initially sworn an oath to keep the total number of political hires strictly under 700, they completely brushed aside expert warnings and public backlash, inflating the numbers into the thousands.
Mirage of security
The warnings at the time were absolutely unmistakable in predicting this path would lead to a dead end. Economists made ironclad promises that the state budget could never carry such a heavy financial burden under the current economic conditions of the Maldives.
Because the government lacked any major boost in national income or incoming foreign financial assistance, it was blindingly obvious that this frantic spending pace was impossible to keep up, particularly when factoring in harsh international economic trends.
However, the administration's cynical game plan worked perfectly. A huge number of citizens, easily enticed by the illusion of a reliable paycheck, walked right into the trap. People abandoned their heritage careers in the fishing industry to sign up with Fenaka, while others walked away from higher-paying resort employment just to secure positions at neighborhood RDC branches, naively thinking they were choosing safety.
Inevitable execution
What these workers completely overlooked was the predictable finish line established by that old proverb: these paychecks were never designed to last. There was zero mathematical possibility for the administration to feed this massive workforce across the span of its entire governance.
It was always a matter of time before the strings were cut and the mass firings kicked off, achieved by letting temporary contracts expire and completely shutting down specific departments or regional branches to shrink the payroll.
That exact breaking point has officially landed. Word has spread that the administration has handed down strict orders to state-owned enterprises, demanding they slash their employee numbers by a full 33 percent over the course of the upcoming three months. These government-run corporations are now forced to execute the staff cuts and hand in routine updates tracking their downsizing benchmarks.
In the end, the fruit has been successfully picked. By dangling the bait of government employment, the administration successfully locked down its supermajority in Parliament and cemented its authority so deeply that it now operates with virtually zero pushback.
Now that the victory is secured, the political usefulness of these workers has completely evaporated. In the exact same way a banana tree is tossed in the trash the moment it stops producing, the citizens who were brought on purely to win an election are now being systematically thrown away.
