|
|
|
Site Index
|
Life gets tough for dictator and NSS torturers in Maldives 15-31 July 2004 New headline and graphic added by Maldives Culture
Gayoom’s governance practice is strongly rooted in his Ba'athist ideology and in his deep adulation of such Arab dictators as his friend and mentor Saddam Hussein and other Arab dictators who influenced his political thinking during his years in Egypt. Gayoom emulated his heroes and quite naturally gravitated to running Maldives as a police state. Gayoom saw himself as the enlightened, heroic Zaim who knew what was best for his subjects. To give his flock prosperity the revered leader needs to build a 'stable, peaceful and harmonious society'. Like other despots running similar police states, Gayoom knows this would best be achieved by completely controlling and co-opting the coercive institutions of the state. Maldives under Gayoom is run as a classic police state. An underlying feature of Gayoom’s rule is open contempt of the rule of law. The police force, the office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice, all work under Gayoom as part of a single organism in thwarting anyone even mildly disapproving of Gayoom’s brutal rule. Though formally enshrined as fundamental rights, civil liberties including freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom of association are routinely denied to Maldivian citizens. A journalist out of favour or a person regarded as even mildly critical of the regime can never ever expect a fair trial. There is not even a sham show of going through the motion of following the rule of law. The police are so powerful that in the islands other than Male' even atoll chiefs and island chiefs are known to defer to ordinary privates or lance corporals. There have been instances where police have beaten and tortured citizens in front of the island chiefs after inviting the people to watch the public humiliation. Senior NSS officers are given cars and perks normally available only to cabinet ministers. They are also pampered in other ways – through awarding of land, government loans, lease of agricultural islands and through other business opportunities.
Perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of Gayoom’s police state lies in the mindboggling fact that the Maldives – a nation of only 300,000 peaceful people sharing one religion, one language and one race – is among the top ten spenders on defense as calculated as a percentage of GDP. Gayoom spends more on keeping himself in power than, for example, on rural development. Gayoom’s police have done an excellent job in keeping him comfortably in control. However, since the torture/killing in September 2003 and the subsequent shooting of unarmed prisoners, the NSS seems to be losing some of the impunity they took for granted. Gayoom had hidden earlier torture/killing by his boys by simply ignoring the deaths or by labeling them as 'suicides' or 'death from childhood diseases'. He knows that his primed NSS machines of violence need an outlet to practice their art. Torture was a recreation for the more sadistic elements in the NSS. After all they all know very well that Police Commissioner and role model Adam Zahir is one of the most competent practitioners of the fine art of torture and sadism in the country. International outrage necessitated Gayoom to reluctantly admit that everything was not perfect within the NSS. Hoping to quickly overcome the crisis with some cosmetic change, he removed the symbol of torture in Maldives, Adam Zahir, and sent him on holiday. He also moved aside the Deputy Commissioner who was implicated in the custodial killing at Maafushi. This began to create cracks in the NSS monolith. Many senior officers with a conscience wanted to resign while others threatened to resign en masse because the Sattar Commission questioned their behaviour. They sensed their comfortable immunity eroding. All this was too much for Gayoom who was used to orderly, unquestioning obedience and blind loyalty. To bring back the comfort of repression he had become so used to, he had no choice but to bring back the partner who provided that comfort – Adam Zahir. The Torturer went immediately into action, beating and arbitrarily arresting supporters of the Maldivian Democratic Party who Gayoom thought might try to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly. However, Adam Zahir is finding some difficulties in imposing his reign of terror. His biggest obstacle, surprisingly enough, is his prop Gayoom himself. Succumbing to international pressure, Gayoom has called for open debate on his constitutional reform proposal. Pro-democracy advocates have taken Gayoom’s offer seriously and have organized open discussions on such matters as participatory democracy and political pluralism. While the meetings have been orderly, people expressed ideas that only a few months ago would have got them 10-15 years jail sentences and a heavy dose of torture. One person even went to the extent of actually holding a placard that called upon Gayoom to resign - pure sacrilege that would have cost him his backbone and perhaps 'death from childhood disease'. Others, who brought T-shirts expressing pro-democracy sentiments into a meeting, had them confiscated but were not even beaten up! In Maldives, this is progress. All this liberalism is annoying the hardliners like Head Torturer Adam Zahir. However, the younger more professionally trained officers believe that they must assume that Gayoom did really mean what he said and hence cannot break the law by beating and arresting people taking part in the debate. All this tension is very unsettling for the police. Once again the pro-reformist officers are threatening to resign or to act only within the bounds of the law. Gayoom himself is faced with a dilemma. Should he back his Head Torturer Adam Zahir and return to the old methods of brutal police rule thereby risking the wrath of the international community, or should he go through the process of reform he has promised thereby risking his survival as the omnipotent despot of Maldives? Decisions, decisions, decisions. It is tough to be a dictator in this globalised world, especially when one is dependent on external aid for survival. |
|
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
