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May 5, 2015

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#EkehFaheh15; The Rising of the People

Ibra's tweet when the protests began on 1.5.15. Moving!

Ibra’s tweet when the protests began on 1.5.15. Moving!

Vote in a government. Give them a year or two. Take to the streets. Mount the pressure. Topple the elected leader. Change government. Rinse and repeat as needed. This is a formula that Maldivians seem to have taken to like a duck to water, and it has got to stop. This is exactly what President Nasheed warned us about when he was toppled from power through a coup d’état on the 7th of February of 2012.

Government MPs threaten the public via social media

Government MPs threaten the public via social media

Believe it or not, pose your various excuses or not, it was indeed a coup, brought about with the aid of the mutinying police and military officials. This sentiment becomes fact when you take into account the recent MayDay rally or #EkehFaheh15 as it was referred to in social media circles. Government vehemently denied that there existed any pressure, but press conferences and tweets from government aligned MPs and bots attested to fact that government was indeed jittery.

Government MP Nihan threatens boat owners who ferried people to MLE for the protest.

Government MP Nihan threatens boat owners who ferried people to Male’ for the protest.

Yet, after brutal crackdowns on protestors, the rally ended with the state marking its victory with fireworks the very next night. The government remained unchanged unlike the culmination of events of 7th February 2012.  MP Nihan called out to terminate those that are sympathetic to the oppositions cause from their government jobs & for the boats that carried people to the protests from the islands to Male’ be cancelled of their permits to travel. But there definitely was no pressure.

The art of changing governments via coups is not something that is new to the Maldivian history. This has happened many times before and is set to continue unless the elected governments are ready to listen to its people and work with them to ensure harmony and development that is beneficial for the people, not just to a couple of ‘loyalists’ to the leader in power. The blatant disregard to the people is shown more so when the opposition continues to talk about Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb’s corruption and stronghold on the government & the President telling the opposition that Adeeb would be the one who would represent him in any negotiations or meetings that would take place with the opposition movement.

Prior to 2008, Maldives has weathered through tough 30 years of torture and fear where if your family member even expresses a desire to see a different leader take over was jailed & tortured, coming out from the experience a shell of the person he or she was before. Oh how well the people have forgotten. I weep over the many accounts that remain untold even today, of the many ways in which President Maumoon’s regime ruined the lives of families by rendering a person unfit to even take care of personal needs after being taken in for reprogramming at the infamous jails in Dhoonidhoo.

All that changed through nonviolent political movements that wasn’t easy, and yet Maldivians persevered. Yet again today we are sliding rapidly into the same rut, unless the government acts to rectify their mistakes & the people raise the collective voices to end this tyranny. President Nasheed calls for perseverance from his jail cell where he is set to spend the next 13 years of his life, all because he wants a life of dignity and equal rights for the people of the Maldives.

President Nasheed's message to the people.

President Nasheed’s message to the people.

It was quite obvious that during the MayDay rally, the police targeted the vocal on social media and otherwise, the ones who dare criticize the government and its actions or lack of without fear. A prime example would be Hamid Shafeeu, a staunch supporter of democracy and its values, whose wife was snatched first which ultimately led to his arrest during the next couple of minutes. Arrests numbered in the 100’s before the night was through and none of it was easy to watch.

Sentiments of a government supporter; their government doesn't have to warn protestors before pepper spraying!

Sentiments of a government supporter; their government doesn’t have to warn protestors before pepper spraying!

The fear and intimidation that we thought ourselves rid of is back, and if I have to put my money’s worth on it, I would say it is back to stay. Accounts of civil servants and other government employees being threatened with dismissal or worse if they took part in the protests continue to pour in and I for one have this foreboding we are headed towards the era where we would have to huddle in fear every second of the day.

Coup of 07.02.2012; still afresh in our minds

Coup of 07.02.2012; still afresh in our minds

I can never be a supporter of a coup d’état that topples a government. But just like the CoNI report that actually legalized this form of government change if there exists the weight of a couple of hundreds of citizens behind the movement, then I guess there’s no reason that a government cannot be changed legally in the said manner.

But deep in all of our hearts we know that ain’t right. We know that the power lies within the people who cast their votes to decide who their leader should be for the next FIVE years. Not ONE or TWO or even FOUR, but FIVE. Let us not forget that. Nor should the government ever forget that they are elected to do RIGHT by the PEOPLE. Not by those that work their own agenda, filling their pockets with the taxpayers money, making the best of it while their government thrives.

My wish for the Maldives and its people is a simple one. One that aligns with the vision that President Nasheed has for this country. That we be able to live a life of dignity regardless of our ideological differences. That we be a nation that prospers amongst a just and able society wherein which the government doesn’t serve its people based on their political color of choice. A government which listens to the concerns of the people who put them there, without openly challenging them and calling for war.

From the manner in which things have proceeded since the elected president was toppled from power back in 2012, little remains of the democratic changes that were brought about owing to the new Constitution. What remains or is in the process of happening is silencing the voice of dissent, the vocal who are not swayed by the threats this government, it’s MPs & associates seem to dole out on a daily basis. With the leaders of the opposition behind bars, perhaps to be prosecuted & doled out with equally horrific sentences as given to Nasheed, Maldives is on the verge of becoming the next Egypt. The government is adamant that its foreign policy reflect this tyranny and that is exactly what’s being conveyed through the diplomatic channels. The single flickering light of hope at the very end of the long winding tunnel remains on the international community, the actions that they would be willing to take to put this tyrannical government to bed.

Future of the country looks bleak, no matter in whichever direction you look at. The struggle that is currently ongoing, the people trying to let their voices be heard to a tyrannical government that not only actively challenges the people, but also celebrates with fireworks their “victories” over the people doesn’t seem promising. Inevitable seems the breakout of a civil war, rendering this country totally unlivable. On the surface, the scars left over by the coup might have scabbed over, but inside the wounds are deep, festering with hatred, resentment and a deep disillusionment over a country whose justice system continues to fail the public over and over again. And as every infamous quote tells us, only time alone will tell whether those fighting for rights, justice and democracy would emerge victorious or whether we’d all be browbeaten to embrace a culture of corruption, nepotism, injustice & abuse for years and years to come.

May God help us all.

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February 20, 2015

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The “Rational” Irrational Fear of Maumoon

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I’ve never been a supporter of Maumoon. Don’t think I ever will be. People talk about all the ‘good’ that he has done. I fail to see any good that has come out of population centralization and development just to suite his needs. I fail to see the pure goodness in a man who tortured countless men and women in the prisons, the accounts of which they tell even today. Some of them are bedridden, some have been driven mad by what was done to them, some have already left this world and NONE have gotten justice for the crime of disbelieving in his governance and the way he clung onto power using the kuda kaafu bodu kaafu tactics (a small tick if voting “no” to Maumoon & a larger tick if voting “yes”). Yet, once again, people seem to have forgotten the long hard battle that a few brave people fought in order to ensure the freedom that we ALL enjoy today. A freedom that seems to be fading into the horizon as we look on with the man in power today.

Yes, President Yameen doesn’t do anything in contradiction to the Constitution aka Qaanoon Asaasee (QA). Why? Because he has his minions in place at the parliament to do his bidding, to amend the QA to suite his agenda. The shameless manner in which Yameen flaunts Ali Hameed in our faces, the Supreme Court justice whose nether regions most Maldivians have seen in the pornographic video that was released 2013 should serve as enough evidence to show us that when it comes to the sentiments of the people, Yameen hardly gives a damn.

And then there’s former President Mohamed Nasheed. Everyone accuses him of one thing or the other. He’s anti-islamic, he’s an alcoholic, he’s a cult leader with ties to those promoting secularism in the country. And yet, no one, except perhaps Judge Abdulla Mohamed, a corrupt and vile judge sitting as the head of the Criminal Court even today can say that Nasheed was a ruthless torturer when he was in power. I still believe people like Abdulla Mohamed are the ones that belong in jail. If you fail to see that, well good luck with that.

Regardless of what took place on the 7th of February 2012, which I still believe was a coup, Nasheed resigned. Selfless or not that was what he did. I wonder how Maumoon or Yameen would’ve reacted under the same circumstances. Wouldn’t be pretty in my opinion. Javvah, vayah, fazaa ah, the events that followed the brutal death of Evan Naseem in prison tells its own story. From the current crop of political ‘leaders’, I still believe that Nasheed is the only man who is the least violent & capable of working with the enemy if need be. Which is exactly what is happening even if it makes me want to crawl inward and hide in a corner.

Do I agree with what he’s doing? No. I don’t believe that toppling an elected government is the way to proceed. But in the light of the report published by the Committee of National Inquiry (CoNI) that was established to investigate the transfer of power that took place on February 7th 2012, a coup d’état seems to be legal if there’s the weight of a revolutionary movement behind it. Anyone who has read the CoNI report would know exactly what I’m talking about.

Do I agree with the alliance Nasheed has made with Qasim, the man who allegedly funded the 7th Feb coup? Oh hell no! I believe we, the people who voted for a change in government in 2008 should get justice for the way our leader was toppled from power. The alliance makes that an impossibility now.

Do I agree that the previous Defense Minister Mohamed Nazim (currently imprisoned) and former Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz, now the Parliament Member that represents Thaa Kin’bidhoo constituency, have now been cleansed of their involvement in the coup? No, no and no! I believe they were the key instruments utlized by the leaders of the coup, who are in power today. But the picture being painted of those very people as heroes today makes it abundantly clear that once again, we will fail to get justice where it’s essential to be delivered for the future of this country embroiled in political turmoil.

While I believe in equality and justice, and that the likes of even the most heinous criminals like Bashar Al-Assad should get a free and fair trial before being convicted & sentenced for their crimes, I vehemently disagree that being jailed even under even ‘false’ allegations requires that we give them our sympathy. Yet, we see a total reversal of the politics that was in play after 2012 February.

I wonder at where we are headed & whether we’d ever reach a safe harbor that’d deliver a peaceful & prosperous country to the future generations. Or I wonder if we would just perish along the way due to the clash of ideologies that govern our thinking; arresting a corrupt judge whose crimes are far greater in the eyes of Allah is considered a far more grievous crime than getting the country rid of the men who have ripped us all off & continue to do so and have ensured that none of us will be given our due rights while they are the ones in control is telling in itself. I guess the ones who survive what’s to come will live to tell the tale. And as it’s the way of the world, time alone will tell. May Allah help us all.

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September 9, 2013

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#MvElections13, Democracy Vs Dictatorship – Here We Come!

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The day we have all been waiting for since that fateful day of 7th February 2012 has come and gone. The first round of voting is over and the preliminary results announced, which did not end as many predicted it would, but nevertheless turned out to be a huge victory for MDP and the crusaders of democracy and people’s rights. The first round of elections yielded the following results.

  1. Candidate 1, Mr. Gasim Ibrahim [Jumhooree Party]: 50,422 votes  (24.07%)
  2. Candidate 2, Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan [Incumbent President, Individual]: 10,570 votes (5.13%)
  3. Candidate 3, Mr. Abdulla Yameen [Progressive Party of Maldives]: 53,099 (25.35%)
  4. Candidate 4, Mr. Mohamed Nasheed [Maldivian Democratic Party]: 95,244 (45.45%)

While we await for the second round of voting which is to take place on September 28th which would be a run-off between Mr. Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected President of Maldives who stepped down on February 7 of 2012 in a coup instigated by the rest of the candidates that contested in the elections; and Mr. Abdulla Yameen from the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) whose leader is the autocratic leader of the 30 year regime, campaigning has already begun in earnest by supporters of Nasheed in securing the 10,000+ votes which would mean a win for him in the second round.

The most amazing revelation after voting was how far Mohamed Nasheed has come in winning the love of his countrymen. For a man who received a mere 44,293 votes (24.91%) in the first round of elections in 2008, he has managed to double the amount of votes he received with an extra  thousand or so tossed in and I couldn’t be more thankful for the 90,000+ voters who have decided that they do not want any of the coup instigators to become an elected President in this country. The message that they have given the rest of the candidates is pretty clear. If you want to be elected, do as Nasheed does. Campaign and win the hearts and the votes of the people. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who went out and voted and though there are still certain discrepancies for which the Elections Commission needs to be answerable for, I think the elections went pretty much smoothly.

While Gasim Ibrahim with the religious fanatics at his back managed to secure the third place in the elections, Yameen seems to have escaped with a very narrow margin and attained the 2nd place, definitely a major blow for PPM though they seem to be big on advertising the fact that the votes received for all the other candidates belong to them. I fail to see the logic behind their statement as they didn’t participate in the election as a coalition. And how on Earth do separate candidates come out from a coalition in the first place? My mind may not be as advanced as that of the likes of Yameen and his party members, but if we apply Yameen’s logic, than the incumbent President Dr. Waheed Hassan is the clear winner of this election with a hopping 198,765 votes against him and Mr. Gasim Ibrahim his contender for the run-off with a total of 158,913 votes against him. And let us not forget the pitiful number of votes Dr. Waheed received, a world record for an incumbent President, the message is very loud and clear; you reap what you sow. You raped the votes of the citizens by aligning yourself with the coup instigators and in my opinion the bulk of the votes he received belongs to DRP and Thasmeen.

While MDP campaigned for “EhBurun” which means taking the prize home in the first round itself with no need of a second round, the narrow margins by which he won in Male’ City itself seems to be one of the reasons why he didn’t manage to secure the seat of Presidency from the 1st round itself. There are reasons for this and in my opinion not enough concentrated campaigning efforts were focused in regions of Male’. For instance, my household which falls under Medhu Henveiru didn’t receive even a phone call from Nasheed’s campaign team, nor warranted for a visit in his D2D ventures and none of us received the letter that he signed and was delivered to most households. Of course for this household, none of the other candidates are an option since February 7th, but what about those who believe that a constitutional transfer of power happened that day and do not see anything much amiss about what happened. We are all different in the way we take in and process information which accounts for the differences of opinion that arises in almost everything in life. I myself received calls from Gasim to both my numbers, and later on even that creepy recorded message which asked me to press “8” if we wanted to opt out of receiving further messages. If I wasn’t already convinced Nasheed was the man, I certainly would have logically reached the conclusion that I would vote for the candidate who gave a damn enough for at least his campaign center to place a call and see whether I would vote for him. Simple psychology.

Unlike Yameen who thinks that it is the 95,000+ voters problem that they didn’t vote for him, which I think is evidence enough how unfit a candidate he is for the position of the President. Asking for votes is what you do when you campaign. You convince the masses to vote for you through the policies you would implement and the changes you would bring to the country for the betterment of the populace in the hopes that they think you are the best candidate and vote for you. If Yameen doesn’t seem to get that, I think he would do better off in staying at the Parliament by buying off the votes of a more concentrated number of people until someone gathers enough evidence against the nefarious crimes he has committed against the people of this country and send him off to prison for a long, long time.

If Yameen thinks that the 60,992 votes received for both Gasim and Waheed would automatically fall into his lap, he is sadly mistaken. Most people who voted for Gasim and Waheed did so because they didn’t want to vote for either Nasheed or Yameen for whatever reasons. For those certain groups of people who seem to think Nasheed represents the messiah of Christianity himself and suddenly seem to find that Yameen represents everything pure and Islamic, well, think again. A man who can’t bring himself to properly talk to people because he thinks he is better off than the common man, well that certainly explains a lot about him. If you want to turn into a hypocrite who goes against your conscience and vote for the man who represents torture and autocracy at its best, be my guest and vote for Yameen. But if you want what is best for this country and its people, to vote for the man who understands the common man and where he comes from, well the choice is pretty clear in my opinion. Nasheed is the man to do that and steer this country forward. No two questions about it. Lesser evil? Definitely Nasheed.

The task ahead of us is a humongous one. We are once again facing off against the religious “fanatics” who seem to want us to think they are the saviors of Islam when in reality they are whoring away religion to the highest bidder. We are going against the 30 year old dictatorship, the face of Maumoon represented by his half brother. This is the fight between democracy and dictatorship. This is the time to cast your vote and make it count! This is the time to say yes to reforming the judiciary and to say no to keeping people like Ali Hameed and Abdulla Mohamed on as Judges which paves the way for sexual harassers like Mr. Mohamed Fahmy Hassan to sit in high positions. This is the time to say you want health care benefits for your entire family, that you want single mothers and your parents to not be left destitute when it counts. This is the time to give the proverbial finger to the “baaghees” i.e. the coup perpetrators and drive home the message that we, the majority of Maldivians do not want the armed forces to change the government but the ballot boxes to do so. This is the time people. So stand up to the task and do your bit.

In Sha Allah we can. And In Sha Allah we will. Forward and onward we move. In MDP slang? Kuriah Kuriah, Baarah Kuriah!

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February 25, 2012

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The Movement, the Philosophy, the Icon & the Legend

Hard as it may be to believe for those who “hate” President Mohamed Nasheed and what he stands for, he would go down in history as the instigator of democratic change in the Maldives. Anyone who has closely monitored the struggle for people power that this nation has gone through, though it may not have seen widespread bloodshed as in most Middle Eastern countries today, there were those courageous few who dared to stand up against the dictatorship that was in reign for 30 long years. President Nasheed was the man whose spirit the regime could not break, the man who withstood each and every form of torture and overcame obstacles of all sorts that hindered his journey towards democracy, justice and freedom for the people of Maldives.

The term “Anni Zindhaabaadh” is one you would hear frequently if you have ever witnessed any of the multiple peaceful mass gatherings that have taken place in the capital Male’ after the 7th of February 2012. For me, the term which loosely translates into “Long Live Anni” makes sense in an ethereal manner such that the journey of change that Nasheed started has turned into a movement which has gathered enough momentum to sustain it through the long and hard battle that we the people have to once again fight in order to obtain the right to choose a leader through the ballot boxes and not through bullets. This momentum and movement is what must have scared the perpetrators of the coup that took place on the 7th of this month, toppling the first democratically elected leader of the country while the public watched on, most with disbelief while the rest cheered on, not even wanting to think beyond the euphoria of the moment to go to that point of realization where the gravity of what took place on that fateful day would sink in.

My personal experience was one of utter devastation. I grew up with a father who has always spoken against the many inhuman atrocities committed by Maumoon and his cronies while in power. On top of that, I have a strong sense of revulsion towards misuse of authority by anyone and thus the historic election in 2008 which saw the end of an era in the Maldives was one I wholeheartedly approved of and worked for. To see practically more than half of my work mates cheer on that day when it was announced that Mr. Nasheed would resign within the hour, something just broke inside of me and I don’t think it has healed since then. Well, lets just say that the whole day after his resignation was a blur of mixed emotions, a deep sorrow that was barely kept in place because of the support of family members and friends on social networks who believed that democracy and people power should rein supremacy over mutinying armed forces and the influence of the rich and corrupt in the society.

But what the then opposition must have once again underestimated is the power of the sheer determination of the one man whose vision of a democratic Maldives was what forever changed the face of Maldivian politics. February 8th showed the overwhelming support that Mr. Nasheed has behind him, the sheer number of people who took to the streets on a peaceful walk outnumbering any mass gathering that had taken place as a political rally in the Maldivian history till then. And I would say it was that sheer number alone that triggered the act of violence by the police towards unarmed civilians, which then set off the events of unrest and violence throughout the country, a blame which the Maldivian Police Service to this day tries to shove on the head of the Maldivian Democratic Party. But regardless of the scare tactics employed by the Star Force of the Police Service to ensure that video footage of their inhuman acts would be far and few in between, the rare video clips that have surfaced tells a story on its own.

Rather than hindering the momentum of people’s outcry against the coup, the sheer scale of brutality shown by the Police in itself increased the number of supporters for the ousted leader, perhaps the biggest mistake that Dr. Waheed’s government made since he took over being never once acknowledging or apologizing to the public for the events that took place on the 8th of February.

What Dr. Waheed and his partners must know beyond a shadow of doubt is that a man who has even for once tasted the sweetness of freedom would never revert back to slavery and accept it as his due without giving the fight of his life. Multiply that with the number of people in this country who do not want to see a corrupt and inept judiciary, who do not want to hear tales of police brutality and who want to exercise their right to choose their own leader and you get the biggest movement in the Maldives to-date fighting for their rights as the citizens of this country.

In my opinion, President Nasheed would go down in Maldivian history as the icon behind the freedom movement and would remain as the legend who even now remains undeterred in his fight towards gaining the rights of the Maldivian people against those who are power hungry enough to use every weapon available at their disposal. The philosophy of a Maldives where people have their due rights as per the Constitution would continue to fuel the movement that today seems unstoppable, that gains strength even as I write this and would continue on until the government relents and gives an early election date which would be for once a step taken in the right direction since Dr. Waheed took over.

Long live democracy. May the legend of a single man’s fight to gain the rights of his people live on, the movement never slow down and the philosophy of the due rights of the people of this country create the momentum that would in the near future give the people the justice that they deserve!