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Isn't it high treason to work to overthrow the government of Maldives?
by Ismail Hussein (possible presidential nom de plume)
Miadhu,
21 Jan 2004
translated by Maldives Culture
Photos from President Gayyoom's
authorised biography and Haveeru.
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 President Gayyoom
January 2004
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We have been hearing about a group of people overseas 'wishing Maldives well'
by trying to stop the aid the country receives, and lobbying to change the government.
These people have been spreading false information and news about Maldives and
its government to foreign media and newspapers.
These people believe
President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom's government is a selfish, self-interested, deceptive
and dictatorial regime. They say the resources and income of Maldives go into
the pockets and bank accounts of people in the upper echelons of government, and
they claim the government does not serve the needs and interests of the people,
that the rights of the people are not protected and there is no justice. For them,
the government has no respect for democracy and human rights.
But
the surprising thing is the different scenes we observe in Maldives. Considering
it is such a small country, with very limited natural resources, the progress
the country is going through has attracted the attention of foreigners and international
organisations. Maldivian society is heartened and filled with gratitude for the
opportunities these developments provide. We see the difficulties and hardships
endured by people living in many parts of world. No one can doubt the contrast
between those problems and the conditions and opportunities people have in Maldives.
The government has worked very hard to achieve these economic and social developments
for the country. If we look at education, not many countries spend as much as
we spend. If we consider the infrastructure of the country, the huge changes that
Male' and the rest of the country are going through, these things are surprising
even for Maldivians. Consider the many opportunities open in tourism and business
areas! These greatly benefit and contribute to the development of the country.
Without doubt, the organisation of government in Maldives is an acceptable system.
Democracy and freedoms should be based on protection of rights and stability,
and function for the benefit of the people. Widening democracy and freedoms to
the extent of causing strife and bloodshed, is not protecting the rights of the
people. Democracy is also something that should be moulded to the customs and
conditions of the people. If we go beyond these limits, then it will cause more
harm than benefit for the people. Therefore, the democratic principles we have
in our present governing system are all we need. The government is working very
hard to establish justice among the people and to protect human rights.
The government in Maldives has been formed and run by legal means. That is, President
Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom has been elected to office in accordance with the constitution
of Maldives. So those Maldivians who are working and planning to overthrow or
change the president's government are committing a serious crime. It is an attempt
to remove peace and stability from the country. It is a conspiracy to serve selfish
interests. These acts are aimed at stopping development and destroying the positive
image Maldives enjoys among the foreign countries and international organisations.
Planning and working in these ways to change the government is high treason under
the constitution.
This behaviour is self-serving, and a large majority
of the population is against such activities and condemn them. These activities
are not carried out to provide rights for the people, and are not being undertaken
to improve conditions in Maldives. The road of opportunity for reform and development
are generously left open. If these people love the country and wish its people
well, they should take the road provided.
The Corals of his Birth
Maldives Culture editorial
(original in English)
January 2004
Until the publication
of the Miadhu article (translated above) on 21 January 2004, the Gayyoom-controlled
Maldives media remained completely silent about the activities of the new Maldivian
Democratic Party based in Sri Lanka.
President Gayyoom has been actively
lobbying President Kumaratunga to harass and arrest the party's senior members
and return them to Maldives for punishment. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, who
is close to Kumaratunga, visited Maldives a few days ago and diplomatically explained
to Gayyoom that the Sri Lankan president was not willing to act against the party.
The reasons for this refusal, despite a long history of close cooperation between
Gayyoom and Kumaratunga, are not difficult to surmise. The influential Sinhala
press has been filled with disturbing stories and protests about the treatment
of Sri Lankan prisoners and workers in Maldives, and many Sri Lankans who have
been employed in the country as teachers, administrators, cooks and skilled labourers,
including people from the Tamil-speaking communities, are aware of the true nature
of the Gayyoom regime. Kumaratunga must consider her coming election battles against
arch-rival Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and she cannot afford to alienate
potential supporters. Also, this month the British High Commission in Colombo
and the Indian central government both indicated their support for the ideals
and policies of the MDP.
The USA, with a giant military base at Diego
Garcia only 400 km south of Maldives, is no longer respectful of Saddam-style
dictatorships so Gayyoom finds himself internationally isolated for the first
time since the Male' power brokers anointed him to rule in 1978. He remains in
tenuous control of the capital, supported by a hardcore of NSS senior officers
and family members who have enjoyed unbridled power and opportunities for enrichment
during his ignoble reign.
In the atolls, where accurate information
is scarce and people are cowered by starvation, economic deprivation and threats,
opposition to Gayyoom is muted, but in Male' his critics are increasingly vocal
and the president is deeply unpopular and sometimes hated. The situation in the
capital has been exacerbated by the release of the worst of the Maafushi prisoners
and the refusal of the NSS (commanded by Gayyoom) to act effectively against them.
People phoning the police to report crimes of robbery and theft in broad daylight
are being told by the NSS to beat up the criminals themselves. This is a typical
Gayyoom reponse to any island that dares to criticise him, and it has been used
in many other parts of Maldives as well.
The deplorable scandals surrounding
vital national businesses, such as MIFCO and STO, remain unexamined and unquestioned
by the Gayyoom-controlled Maldives media, while the good work done by the Commission
of Inquiry into the torture and shootings at Maafushi prison and the Male' riot
of 20 September 2003, has elicited a response from the regime that is an insult
to every Maldivian's intelligence.
Gayyoom and his clique have not
responded positively to the widespread loathing their misrule has created. The
president's intellectual resources are limited, and his understanding of fellow
Maldivians has been distorted by 25 years of public adulation.
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 Maumoon Gayyoom brushes up on his astronomy during exile in Maamakunudhoo in 1973.
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Before becoming president, Maumoon Gayyoom lived in Maldives as an adult for only 7 years.
He left Male' at the age of ten in 1947 and remained outside the country (mainly
in Sri lanka and Egypt) for 24 years before eventually returning to the corals
of his birth in 1971. Apart from five months comfortable exile to Maamakunudhoo
island in 1973, the president has no first-hand experience of life outside Male'.
The obsequiousness the regime demands from the Maldive people has reinforced a
perception of itself as Allah's gift to Maldives. Any opposition to its absolute
power is considered treason and heresy. In the bizarre world of the Gayyoom dictatorship,
all reality is defined by the president regardless of logic or truth. Midnight
is midday if Gayyoom wants it that way, and democracy and freedom are dangerous
and threatening concepts fit only for executive scorn.
In the mind
of the Maldives president, truth is a deadly threat, logic is the thinking of
fools, and respect for the law is a laughable affectation. The basic dishonesty
of official discourse hampers the work of those Gayyoom has paid to defend his
interests. His local propagandists are crippled by years of self-deception, and
Gayyoom's foreign PR firm has little idea how Maldivians or Gayyoom really think.
Trickery in Maldives is a finely developed art, fully understood by only a tiny
handful of outsiders. The world's multinational PR firms may one day realise that
Maldivians have much to teach them! But for now, these spin merchants are probably
satisfied with knowing the quickest route to the bank.
The power of
the Maldivian Democratic Party lies in its honesty, integrity, and respect for
the healthy traditions and aspirations of the Maldivian people. The new party
is proving itself more than a match for the regime's dissembling lies. It is no
surprise that the article above reads like the rantings of an angry spoilt brat.
Maldivians familiar with Maumoon Gayyoom's writings and speech patterns have commented
it is composed in the style of the president himself and contains his favourite
Dhivehi cliches.
President Gayyoom is a senior editor of Miadhu, and
it is unthinkable that a controversial polemic like this, touching on previously
taboo subjects, would be published without a lengthy inspection beneath his trembling
hands. The writer claims Maldivians do not have the ability to manage and enjoy
greater freedom and democracy, and that they should fear the effects of increased
liberalisation.
However, the starkest evidence that Gayyoom has contributed
to the article, is found in the first section which lists the complaints of the
president's critics. No one in Maldives, least of all the Minister of Health Ahmed
Abdullah (owner of Miadhu and the newspaper's other senior editor), would be willing
to write such unambiguous words or allow them to be written, regardless of whether
they were described as the lies of traitors. Maldivians would be frightened to
repeat such ideas, even in private! These phrases would not appear in Miadhu unless
they were personally permitted or written by Gayyoom himself, and they indicate
a major shift in the regime's propaganda style.
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Democracy and Reform 
