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The Maldivian Police State and the Cult of President Maumoon Gayyoom
November 2001 Maldives confuses many foreign observers. The public violence in nearby India and Sri Lanka provides a superficial comparison with the mid-Indian Ocean atoll nation that makes the Gayyoom regime seem civilised and successful. However, appearances can be deceiving, and this is certainly the case with modern Maldives, a police state directed by Maumoon Gayyoom and his family with ruthless brutality. Governments around the world rely on paranoia and fear of foreigners to maintain their rule. Maldives President Gayyoom has used communal unrest in India, the civil war in Sri Lanka, and now the 'war against terrorism' to justify and excuse his abuses of executive power.
Nasheed's arrest and banishment highlights the growing political tensions in Maldives, and responsibility for this unrest lies squarely with the country's ageing President, who is unwilling to face any public opposition or censure despite a series of government financial and management debacles, especially over the last two years. The multi-million dollar collapse of Air Maldives eighteen months ago remains unmentioned in official announcements, and the Maldivian press, owned and controlled by government ministers, is also silent, despite strong evidence that the company was chronically mismanaged. Meanwhile the President maintains an extravagant level of expenditure, spending millions on luxury yachts and overseas travel with his extended family. Quashing all dissent, his security forces have intensified their surveillance of the population, and people can find themselves arrested after visiting restaurants and tea-shops where their private conversations are recorded on tape by government agents sitting nearby. Maldivians deemed 'anti-government' have their mail searched and either confiscated or returned undelivered. Telephone and Internet communications are constantly monitored, and websites and discussion groups that mention corruption and government maladministration are blocked. National Security Service staff monitor chat channels used by Maldivians, conduct obscene email campaigns against government critics and maintain Internet 'hate sites' in an attempt to intimidate them.  Censorship of the local media is complete, book importers are required to present a list with the title and author of each book they bring into the country, and Maldivians returning from overseas with video tapes or cds have to attend the censors' office a few days after arrival, when the contents are checked. If the tapes or discs contain images or music, the owner and the censor sit together and watch and/or listen to everything that has been recorded. This harsh intellectual climate has spawned a number of cells of anti-Gayyoom resistance. Maldivians usually split themselves into two main groupings, one characterised by conservative Islamic piety and the other by a more secular and confident Dhivehi view of the world. Islands are often divided into two main living areas based on these preferences. The voice of the conservatives echoes in the underground Dhivehi language newsletter, Sandhaanu. Despite government attempts to suppress its circulation the newsletter remain influential, due mainly to its trademark witty street-talk style. Sandhaanu refers to Mohamed Nasheed with respect and Gayyoom supporters have accused Nasheed of being its editor. This is improbable. The writing in Sandhaanu is very different from that in Nasheed's history book, Iron Armour. Gayyoom, who has described himself as a linguist, would be well aware of this. What Gayyoom sees in Sandhaanu and Mohamed Nasheed is an effective informal alliance directed against his family's rule. He wishes to destroy this new union of conservative Arab-influenced intellectuals and the more western-oriented Maldivians who are the leaders of the younger educated population. For over a decade Nasheed, who comes from a respected Malé family, has resisted lucrative offers, alternating with threats, from the executive. Nasheed remains the focus of opposition to the Gayyoom dictatorship, and it is the young politician's incorruptibility that is the core of his popularity, despite an electoral culture where many cynical Maldivians literally sell their vote to the highest bidder. The other member for Malé, the President's notorious brother-in-law Ilyas Ibrahim, allegedly uses dollars and his legendary business facilitation skills to secure his election. In contrast, Nasheed has relied upon his personal charisma and reputation as an honest journalist and historian. Historical pursuits seem to have provided Gayyoom with the excuse to arrest and exile him. In October, at the auction of the house once owned by ex-President Ibrahim Nasir, Nasheed sorted through a junk pile of papers and bric-a-brac. He is said to have taken items of historical interest such as a drawing by Ismail Nasir (the ex-President's son), decades-old petty accounts books, and similar harmless things. Other people were going through the discards as well, but it was Nasheed who found himself banished for two and a half years to an isolated island in the outer atolls after a month of solitary confinement. Nasheed and the Majlis The grandest thing about the Malé Majlis (Parliament) is the building itself, donated by the Pakistani government. There is much pomp but little grandeur in its deliberations. The Majlis environment resembles a feudal court, presided over by the usually empty chair of the President and his omnipresent brother, Speaker of the Majlis, Abdullah Hameed. Cocooned in their separate cubicles the members sit facing the Speaker and the President's chair, and they are expected to meekly and respectfully ratify decisions already made at the President's Office.  Malé Majlis members 'cocooned, meek and respectful' It was in this Majlis that Nasheed offended the Gayyoom family and their supporters with his efforts to establish a party system. This would have been the beginning of the end of the President's and ministers' lucrative control of the economy, and the proposal was voted down with some lengthy rebukes and threats for Nasheed from the President's more emotional supporters. Nasheed's latest proposal, scheduled for discussion at the Majlis meeting this month, was to establish a mechanism to question and examine the activities of the President's ministers i.e. his brothers, brothers-in-law and friends. This is one of the major reasons behind Nasheed's arrest and banishment. Malé and Maldives The present Maldivian government has shown itself adept at raising foreign loans and securing lucrative aid packages. President Gayyoom speaks fluent Arabic, Dhivehi and English, and his political skills are considerable. However nepotism has been raised to new heights during his rule. Maldivians speak with nostalgia of the anti-nepotistic policies of former President Nasir who even ordered his misbehaving sons arrested and publicly led off to prison through the streets of Malé.
Many Malé people have moved overseas on the wealth they earn from renting their properties. All government departments are in Malé, none have offices in the atolls. The capital is one of the most expensive areas in the world to live, and government wages are low and strictly controlled. For example the minimum government monthly wage is only 1000 rufiya - US$79, but a tiny noisy Malé room rents out at 3000 rufiya per month - US$236. Worker organisations are prohibited, and rents are uncontrolled. Families trying to lease houses in the capital find themselves facing bond demands for thousands of US dollars. For centuries Maldives was a Malé empire, and the rulers considered the outer atolls to be places for taxation and convenient banishment locations for criminals and political activists. This tradition continues. Island offices in every inhabited island must report to the capital at least once a day. They relay information about the movement of people and vessels, and ensure that orders from the capital are obeyed. The outer atolls have found themselves subject to the sophisticated controls of the Gayyoom police state, but unlike Malé, they have been largely excluded from its economic benefits. Recent events in giant Huvadhu atoll (also known as Gaaf Alifu and Gaaf Dhaal atolls) provide a disturbing example of the troubled relationship between the government and its non-Malé population. Huvadhu is denied any resort development, the Gayyoom regime arguing that the environment there is being protected to help the local tuna fishing industry. In fact there has been no successful fishing on the atoll for 10 months because the baitfish grounds have been devastated by the harvesting of sea cucumbers and groupers by Malé-based business interests. Despite the protests of Huvadhu fishermen, these practices continue, and the islands that relied on tuna fishing are now facing poverty and malnutrition. This region is already the poorest in Maldives. The reluctance of Malé to share its good fortune with the rest of the country is based on hubris. Investment in infrastructure, education, health, resorts, and the decentralisation of administration, all things that would advance the well-being and prosperity of the country, also threaten the ascendancy of Malé island. Hence any attempt to implement such policies is ignored or endlessly delayed. All Maldivians like to think their own island is the most beautiful in the country, but only Malé islanders have the power to make such parochial desires a reality.  The President and his NSS President Gayyoom enjoys a reasonably good international reputation. When speaking in English his words are polite and gentle, attuned to the sensitivities of a western audience, and betraying little of the paternalism, the deep distrust of others, and need for adulation which are the dominant ingredients of his domestic persona. Few foreigners understand that Malé is one of the most expensive places to live in the world, and even fewer visit the poverty stricken outer atolls, and or develop any real understanding of the Maldivian psyche. Those that do, learn quickly that the price of their staying in Maldives is silence and compliance. And the financial rewards of working in the country make that acquiescence reasonably easy to rationalise. In reality, Maldives is probably the most controlled society on earth. It is a total police state, ruled by a President and Ministers who are not only above the law - they are the law, and proud to admit it. The National Security Service (NSS) functions as fire fighters, prison guards, army, police force and coast guards. Since an attempted coup in 1988, their main function has been to act as bodyguards of the President. They are the extension of the will of the President and his ministers. The NSS pleads allegiance first and foremost to the President, and he actively cultivates their personal loyalty and forbids any criticism of their activities.  Gayyoom and senior NSS officers Many of the leading NSS officers literally worship the President and reliable sources tell of bizarre rituals at NSS headquarters in Malé where senior officers burst into tears as they proclaim their love and respect for him, polishing the President's shoes with their white handkerchiefs and then wiping the soiled fabric across their own faces. The President's reserved NSS lounge seat is rarely used but has its own specially designed dustcover and a warrant officer assigned exclusively to guard it. Another practice relates to written messages and other intelligence (perhaps even a printed copy of this article) gathered for the President, which are sprayed with Chanel eau de toilette, placed inside a plastic folder and hand-delivered by the President's favourite officer, Adam Zahir. These same men inspire fear, loathing, cringing obedience and awe among the general population. This is a privileged position that they relish. Even gentle voices of dissent are deemed traitorous, but almost anything is forgivable provided the perpetrator is willing to perform a ceremony of submission to the President. For those whose crimes cannot be forgiven, or who refuse to submit, there are the experiences of NSS headquarters and the prison islands in Malé atoll. Torture of some kind or another is routine; there is nothing sophisticated about NSS interrogation techniques or the hideous occurrences at the prisons. These horrors include beatings, gang rape, wearing handcuffs and/or leg stocks for months, and electric shock.  The Cult of the President Reverence for President Gayyoom has been skilfully fabricated and manipulated over the years, during a time of the most sustained period of economic development and prosperity the Maldivian people have ever experienced. That the foundations for this development were laid by Gayyoom's predecessor, Ibrahim Nasir, is a taboo subject and his name is almost never mentioned publicly in Maldives where all official praises must start and end with reference to President Gayyoom. On Malé itself, and in the incredibly successful tourist resorts developed on nearby islands and atolls, the results of this expansion are dazzling, and Maldivians are trained from an early age to give thanks for Malé's bounty to Maumoon Gayyoom. The Maldivian calendar has many official holidays when the newspapers (owned by family or close associates of the President) carry expensive full-page advertisements from businesses featuring a large photograph of the President and text proclaiming his achievements with extravagant approval. Seeking favour with the President is a rewarding business activity, and many Maldivian websites have their 'Praise the President' page. The President's pursuit of praise and recognition has always been legendary and it can reach ridiculous proportions. As a young minister in Nasir's cabinet, Gayyoom lived in his wife's house only a short distance from his office. At that time NSS officers on guard duty were required to salute passing ministers. So Gayyoom made a long and circuitous journey to his office each morning which took him past almost every guardpost in Malé. His election to the Presidency in 1978 simply increased his appetite for adulation. One ambitious Malé man likes to relate how he found himself cycling home from work alone on the road when the President's car appeared behind him. (This was in 1980, when Malé's roads could sometimes be virtually deserted.) The man immediately jumped off his bike, bent down on one knee and bowed as low as he could. Next day he received a double promotion, and several other promotions followed in quick succession over the coming months.
Maldivians' relationship with Gayyoom, and earlier leaders, is similar to ancient traditions of coping with island gods and evil spirits, says the author of a recent book on the Maldives, Xavier Romero-Frias: 'In the Dhivehi people's eyes their own rulers seem often to act in the same random and destructive manner as evil spirits. Hence, both the popular fascination with dark magic power and the veneration towards powerful or 'holy' men are tainted with terror. As a result of this perceived link, in the Maldivian mindset there is a readiness to fear all sources of power, whether spiritual, magical or political and the common fear of the government is merely a derivation of the atavistic fear of demons.' Blasphemy is considered a serious crime in Maldives but the cult of the President is so strong that the headmaster of an Addu atoll Islamic school hosting a public election meeting in 1997 would unselfconsciously say, 'In Islam people must submit to Allah, and in Maldives people should submit to the will of President Gayyoom.' |
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Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldivian cultural issues.
Editors and translators: friends and Michael O'Shea, Australia
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