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No Place for Gangbusters in Dictator's Maldives 17 December 2007
The present level of gang violence in Maldives is a direct result of a conspiracy to undermine the Maldives democracy movement. This conspiracy involves the Maldives dictator and his close associates, his police chief Adam Zahir, other senior officers of the NSS and local criminal gangs. It began in late 2003 after a torture death and mass shootings in Maafushi prison and rioting in the capital. The violent events exposed the brutal incompetence of Gayyoom's regime and resulted in the formation of the Maldivian Democratic Party. The dictator's plan was to equate democracy with anarchy in the minds of Maldivians, and to punish the population of Male' who had defied his absolute rule. The details were developed by Gayyoom's brother, Yameen, who acted as the dictator's willing proxy in a series of late night meetings with senior NSS officers. Yameen has been an integral part of this policy of street anarchy, resulting in widespread beatings, murders and cheap drugs. For the first time in modern Maldives, the use of knives, swords and cutters has become common, with the violence directed at gang members and members of the democracy movement. The dictator's supporters and party members are never attacked. The NSS' two sections, the police and the armed forces, wage a military-style campaign against the democrats that includes intense surveillance, beating peaceful street marchers and jailing some of the movement's members for years Meanwhile gang crimes in the capital and other parts of Maldives near NSS bases in Lhaviyani atoll and Addu have gone unpunished. Even when perpetrators are arrested by fellow islanders, they are released without charges by the NSS.
Since 2004, Maldives Culture website, Dhivehi Observer and Minivan News have published a number of English reports about the gangs’ involvement in political and drug-related violence. Dhivehi Observer has published names and photos of gang members. Nothing has been done about the problem, and the perceived message from the dictator is clear – 'the gang boys work for me'.
Later, home minister Abdullah Kamaludeen rang Ahusan to say the party was on. This is the same Kamaludeen who enthralled a group of reporters in Male' last week with the revelation that 'crimes can only be reduced when those who commit these crimes stop committing them'. Brilliant! No wonder Gayyoom gave the man a ministry. Further brilliance was evident in the NSS search for Ahusan last week. The alleged murderer was believed to be hiding at the Dhonveli Beach and Spa resort controlled by Yameen and his lackey Jabir, and managed by Sri Lankan John Keells Holdings PLC. The NSS were refusing to move on the resort for fear the tourists would be unnecessarily traumatized. Far better to leave an alleged murderer lurking among them. John Keells Holdings should re-examine their relationship with Jabir and Yameen. A little research on the Internet would have warned them of the perils of any business deal that involves Yameen. In 2005, this writer criticised the Asian Development Bank's support for the Gayyoom dictatorship. Yameen received a dishonourable mention: The STELCO company, which was given such a generous boost by the ADB loan for new generators in the 1990s, was crippled by the chairmanship of Yameen Abdulla, Gayyoom's younger brother. When Yameen Abdulla left the chairmanship, STELCO's money went with him. This month, October 2005, Gayyoom's finance minister has been asking the parliament to approve an emergency budget grant of US$7.82 million to make up the STELCO cash shortfall that followed Yameen's departure. Why and how this profitable company has been robbed by the Gayyoom clan and then re-cashed with state funds, is a question the ADB should be asking in its reports and adding to its evaluation of the long-term benefits and sustainability of its 'successful' projects. |
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Maldives Culture is an independent internet magazine of Maldive cultural issues.
Editors and translators: Michael O'Shea and Fareesha Abdulla, Australia
We invite contributions from Maldivians and others interested in Maldives.
Contributions and comments - mc_editors@hotmail.com
