Written by Ali Assad
What is the root of all evils facing Maldives today?
Maldives was a peaceful country walking at an encouraging pace of development in all sectors. To say that our forefathers managed with what “little” we had, is an understatement. Houses consisted of coconut thatched roofs, gunny bags for walls, door hinges modified from washed ashore glass bottles and amazingly a fully furnished house is completed without any imports from outside. For food of course, we were dependent to some extent on the outside world but not to the extreme slavery level of today. With only imported rice and flour, it was sufficient to feed a whole Maldivian family, as the rest was made in Maldives. While today we teach our kids about the importance of recycling, it was basic everyday life for Maldivians, even the leftover rice was sundried and used to create sweet items for tea.
Arguably, what “little” we had, is surely worth more than the luxuries of today’s modern hectic dangerous world.
What shattered the prosperity, peace and stability of paradise on earth? It is none other than the same major problem facing all the countries of the world – regime change. Iraq is sufficient example to show what the destruction of fast forwarded imported alien democracy does to any country. The side effects of such a change, like the refugee crisis and flourishing of extremist groups like ISIS is now affecting the very countries which initially instigated the calamity.
Maldives was invaded by a beautiful gleaming white majestic trojan horse sent from the West, wishing for a similar change. The chosen jockey for the crusade was former President Nasheed, a UK educated elite from the rich Kerefa family, a family known to be behind almost every coup attempt in Maldives.
With the trumpet calls for democracy echoing, Maldives witnessed the first terrorist attacks, like the recent 19-ton cargo truck which was driven into crowds of people deliberately in Nice, France. Nasheed loyalists drove a bus through a police check point in Addu. Even after Nasheed resigned and during the subsequent protest which followed due to his claim that it was a coup, he was caught on camera signaling his followers to plough a lorry through a police barricade. The climax of the Mayday protests organized in 2015 to topple President Yameen by Nasheed’s party, was a lorry filled with petrol ramming through a line of police.
At the time, when the importation of democracy started, the economy was gradually moving upward. In order to pressure Maumoon, the boycott campaigns by Nasheed and constant demonstration and riots affected the economy drastically and investor confidence plummeted. Resorts released for development during Maumoon’s last term in office almost came to a standstill. When Nasheed came to power the economy further collapsed due to sheer mismanagement. Inflation went out of control, debt soared and for the first time in the past 50 years of Maldivian history the growth stopped.
Health sector deteriorated. Construction industry crumbled. Education sector was surviving but being injected with Western and Israeli propaganda. Whole of Maldives was suffering due to the premature birth of democracy.
During Maumoon’s era, extremism was kept in check and we were very little influenced by radical elements from foreign ‘Madrasas’ with poor Islamic knowledge. As part of the reform agenda when Maumoon slowly released the grip on “freedoms”, as expected extremism started to take a foothold in paradise. Alifu Alifu Atoll Himandhoo turned out to be a hot spot and breeding ground for such extremism. Maumoon had a tough time dealing with this new-found threat. After winning the election, when Nasheed visited Himandhoo, the hypocritical politician in him publicly said that there were no fundamentalists in the island. While at the same time his Spokesperson was justifying Nasheed’s crackdown on opposition as a fight against extremism and showcasing Himandhoo as a good example.
Serious crime was like solar eclipses in Maldives, very rare and far between. In order to topple a long reigning ruler like Maumoon, drastic measures like destroying the very fabric of society was required by Nasheed. A feminine face gave Nasheed trustable features and his lust for power had sufficient driving force to do the job. With his calls for civil disobedience and smear campaigns of Maldives courts and security forces, the crime rates also increased. The death of an inmate, Evan Naseem at the hands of Maldives police, provided Nasheed with an opportunistic catalyst to further his cause. The riots which followed, fueled and directed by opposition saw the destruction of the only prison in Maldives plus a lot of other government buildings. Maumoon was forced to release a lot of inmates mainly due to a shortage of prison space. Gradually the capital city Male’, turned into the kind of criminal hotspot that Nasheed required for regime change. Before Nasheed’s government, homicide happened as rare as one in five years but even during the short three years of his reign, the figure exceeded 25 murders.
Gangs in Maldives meant boys in the same neighborhood having a scuffle with another group. The younger generation was the major force behind Nasheed. Naturally, the group included all the gangs in Maldives. It was unheard of gangs being used in politics but with Nasheed in power, the whole scenario changed, opposition leaders like Thasmeen from Dhivehi Rahyithunge Party and most opposition MP’s had to hire personal bodyguards.
Stories of corruption, Maumoon had 100 cars and a golden toilet plus billions transferred to offshore accounts flooded the naive minds. However, when in power Nasheed beat Zimbabwe Mugabe’s corruption ranking, with 143th place. According to Transparency International records the corruption ranking for Maldives skyrocketed from 84th place to 143rd position.
When in power Nasheed was a ruthless dictator. He arbitrarily detained and imprisoned nearly all the opposition leaders. Nasheed’s brutal suppressing of opposition protests was listed in the “Crackdowns of the decade” by Washington Post. The only thing democratic about Nasheed was the outer casing, inside was a dictator.
The most brutal dictator. The number one terrorist. The most corrupt president.
The only president to call for sanctions on his motherland. The only president to call for boycotts of Maldives tourism. The only president to call for foreign military invasion of Maldives.
So, isn’t Nasheed the root of all evils facing Maldives?
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