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Gayyoom; We urge you to take this into your consideration

By Concerned Graduates from the Maldives, Saturday, 21st August 2004

To: The so-called President (King)

This is to inform you that we are really concerned about your recent activities in the political arena of the Maldives.

Maldivians are by nature very friendly and kind hearted. We are not used to fighting and have not experienced unstable situations. We cannot tolerate injustice and corruption in our day to day life. Our forefathers brought Maldives as a peaceful nation without all those mentioned devils. It is our duty to deliver the same to our children.

Recently we heard from your spokesman that you are still a leader with full support. Please stop talking about your support. Everybody in the Maldives and all over the world now know about how you get your support. Your brother is the Minister of Atolls. He is the supreme controller of all the people in the atolls. He himself appoints Atoll Chiefs and Island Chiefs. During the elections he orders his subordinates that he wants his brother (you) to be voted. This order goes from top to bottom of the hierarchy of his authority. The crème at the bottom of this hierarchy is the ordinary people. If any of your brother’s subordinate fails to fulfil his orders that person will lose his job and his life is in trouble. If an ordinary person reject to vote for you that person will be found guilty of not complying with law (amurah nukiyaman vun). So, this is how you get support.

You said that you have banned political gatherings from Maldives because it frightens the people. This is a joke! Tell us a single country where political gatherings do not take place. To be very frank, we are more afraid of your NSS. Their torture and harassment can not be challenged by any other security force throughout the world. It is true that Eevan Naseem’s case got the media and public attention. But tell us how many such Eevan’s died due to the torture of NSS. How many Maldivians are disabled due to their torture? We did not hear about these instances only because the parents of those poor people were not courageous as that of Eevan’s parents. But remember this is not the only world we will live. There is a judgement day where you have to be accountable to all your sin. Being the commander in chief you have to be responsible for all NSS personnel’s actions.

The other famous rumour is the development of Maldives. In which area Maldives was developed? How much money Maldives received during your 'monarchy'? How much of that money was spent on the development of Maldives. A large amount of money received was spent on making yourself comfortable by building a palace, an office an island and so on. Little amount of the money was truly spent for the development (that was also to earn some votes). Let us talk about the development of Maldives.

In the health sector the government has built several health centres and hospitals in different atolls and islands. These places are just for the sake of the name. Most of these places are lack of knowledgeable medical practitioners. There is only one well built hospital in the Maldives, which is Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) built under Indian Government Aid. In service, IGMH is equivalent to a lower category hospital in neighbouring India.

You have built lot of schools in different islands during your 25 years of power. Most of these institutions lack of qualified teachers. Only the people in Male’ and of some famous areas for education, got some benefit out of these schools. All these schools provide secondary education. Only recently you started higher secondary education in few islands. Is there any University in the Maldives? Why not? We got independence along with Singapore. You became the president after three years. How many universities are there in Singapore? Forget about Singapore! Look at Nepal, Fiji or any other developing country. How many “well known” universities they have? Maybe you were afraid that you would lose power if you educate the people.

Now let us see the sports sector. Maldives has been participating in different international sports festivals for the last twenty five years. How many medals those participants brought? After a terrible time, Afghanistan participated in the recent SAARC games and they were above Maldives. Why? Because in other countries sports institutions are elected and professional trainers are employed. Whereas in Maldives Zahir Naseer and Ibrahim Manik are everything and God knows their eligibility for such a position.

You have made everything possible to safeguard your power. The law is tailor-made to assist you in all what you want. According to the law you cannot be brought to justice for any reason while you are in power or after that. This is kind of giving you a blank cheque. The media is controlled by you and your friends. The people are not allowed to criticize you and your government. We have never seen or heard from any media in the Maldives condemning any act of you or your government. Does that mean you are so innocent? If anybody is against you or your policy he has no place in the public sector. That person will be threatened in all manners. The very recent incidence is the custody of Mr. Gasim Ibrahim, Mr. Ibrahim Hussain Zaki and Mr. Mohamed Munavvar. Their lives are now in jeopardy. Your spokesman said there are no political prisoners in Maldives jails. Who are these people? Have they robbed your power? What about Sandhaanu publishers, and Naube’? There are many more. We know that you even accused Anni of robbery but that’s just a political game.

We urge the earliest release of the above people you have in your jails. We need them and their service more than you and your brothers. Mr. Gasim is the hope and dreams of lot of youths in the Maldives. He is doing much more than the government of Maldives is doing, to develop the nation. He is providing education and employment for a large number of Maldivians. He is giving assistance to needy people of the Maldives. Any loss to Gasim is a loss to the people and the country. We will not allow you to do whatever you want to Gasim.

We have lost all our faith in you. We are fed up of all your lies. One day you would say that we are free to talk and the other day you would issue a search warrant against the people who talk. One day you would say Mr. Ilyas Ibrahim is a thief and the other day you would appoint him as a much more influential minister. One day you would say you will limit the terms of a president and the other day you would submit your documents to run for the next presidential election. Regarding the shooting in jail you said Fazaage thereyah, javvuge thereyah, havaage thereyah badijehumah fahu…(after shooting into the air, sky, space), but in reality NSS people shot dead some innocent and unarmed people without even warning them. Not to mention, these lies goes on and on.

We want you to allow the constitutional changes in a peaceful manner. We want you to step down with the good name you already have or face the consequences. Thank you for your service and we wish you good luck. Now there are lot of educated and capable people to lead the country. Give them their chance to show us their capability. Then only we would know the difference in you and them. If you continue your “strengthening power” politics, the Maldives will be unstable and its people will be in a turmoil. Our tourism industry, earning bread of every Maldivian, will be in a critical situation.

We urge you to take the above into your consideration. If you fail to take action right now and if we get you before your death, we will out you to trial under the Maldives judicial system for all your crimes.