Golhlaabo Faibaa Forever: A Referendum for Sanity :: Maldives News :: Dhivehi Observer

Editorial

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Photo: Mariya Didi, shadow justice minister and member of parliament, and Hassan Afeef shadow home minister and member of parliament, being arrested on 15 June by Star force during a demonstration calling on Gayyoom to stop intimidating members of parliament. They were released a few hours later without charges, after international pressure and fear of public unrest in Maldives.

Golhlaabo Faibaa Forever: A Referendum for Sanity

By the Dhivehi Observer editorial team, June 25, 2006

It is time for the international community to put its money where its mouth is, and financially back a large team of observers to properly scrutinise the coming referendum for a presidential or parliamentary system of government in Maldives.

This week, the constitutional assembly (also known as the special majlis) voted for a referendum to decide whether the current official presidential system in Maldives should be replaced by a parliamentary system with control in the hands of a prime minister, his cabinet, and the other elected members of a majlis.

It was a courageous decision, catching Gayyoom by surprise. His minister of information, Mohamed Nasheed (Kutti), nervously issued a statement saying the assembly's decision could be challenged in the courts. The minister of information and his superiors in Gayyoom's office should have checked the constitution before they acted. Article 103 expressly removes the right of legal challenge to the assembly's decisions:

The validity of a decision of the People's Special Majlis, on any matter taken in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, shall not be questioned by any court or tribunal or any other such authority.

Besides, Gayyoom's appointed judges do not have the intellect and legal training to clean a courtroom toilet, let alone make decisions about the constitution.

Gayyoom has a single period of ninety days to consider his response, according to Article 102 (3):

Where the President within a period of ninety days does not assent to or return for reconsideration a Bill passed by the People's Special Majlis and presented to him for assent, such Bill shall be deemed to have received assent of the President.

Gayyoom will consider his options in true 'Agatha Christie meets Hill & Knowlton' style, but he will not enjoy a referendum on this issue. He is the country's most persuasive argument against the presidential system. His National Security Service (NSS) jailers, along with members of the NSS Star Force, are continuing their campaigns of bashings and torture. The news from Maldives and reports by foreign researchers are full of eye-witness accounts by many reliable people confirming that the dictator's NSS terror campaigns have not stopped, despite the promises and assurances of Gayyoom and his cringing ministers.

The behaviour of the NSS has changed little throughout Gayyoom's 28 year rule. This presidential militia operates without legal or constitutional definitions of its power. It has no legal foundation, but only its members are permitted to join the police and military in Maldives. Like the wind and the sea, and the air Maldivians breathe, the NSS simply exists - a horrific manifestation of Gayyoom's power and twisted imagination. It is a trained paramilitary force, operating almost full-time as an armed political police and military torture force. Besides the police and military, it now directly controls the immigration department.

Gayyoom has used the NSS as his personal political enforcers since the beginning of his rule in Male' in 1978. For the dictator and his NSS junta of senior officers, Maldives is a string of islands under their militarily occupation and they believe there is a constant threat of rebellion from the ungrateful inhabitants. In the minds of Gayyoom and many of his NSS, Maldivians are seen as prisoners and enemies.

Along with all his other faults, Gayyoom is mad, and his madness has proved to be contagious. The country is being ruined by corruption, bad administration, and willful neglect that impoverishes the people and enriches only a narrow circle of multi-millionaires. Presidential rule for Maldivians is dictatorship, violent NSS activity, a farcical legal system, and social and political repression.

For all these reasons, there is likely to be a strong majority for parliamentary rule in Maldives if a fair referendum is held. Gayyoom is making the choice very clear, but he must not be permitted to abuse public funds in making his case for the retention of the presidency. The people can do without Gayyoom's stand-over men preventing them from voting properly. Gayyoom's officials and the NSS have an ingrained habit of interfering with ballot boxes. In the past, Gayyoom has seen elections more as opinion polls rather than electoral decisions, and no opinion in Maldives has been more important than the dictator's.

Maldivians are sick of the Gayyoom filter being applied to their votes. In late 2003, after the torture and shootings at Maafushi jail and the riot in Male', Gayyoom still managed to elect himself as President, though he had to resort to a night-time blackout in Male' and suitcases of fake votes to fix the result. Those desperate moves during the final counting of ballots in 2003 indicate that Gayyoom actually lost the last presidential election. His vicious NSS campaigns against the people of Maldives since he last declared himself president are further evidence that the dictator feels insecure and rejected. It is part of Gayyoom's nature to beat and torture anyone who offends him.

The international community has a responsibility to ensure the Maldives referendum is held in accordance with international standards, and without bribery, threats and obstruction engineered by Gayyoom. A fair ballot would be the most important and necessary aid project that foreigners could give Maldives. It will cost a million or two but, in the long-term, it would be worth every cent for Maldivians and their foreign bankers and other investors. International observers should observe every voting booth in Maldives and witness the counting process. In the past, there has been virtually no scrutiny of balloting in the outer atolls.

If impartial foreign observers come to the voting party, the people of Maldives will be able to make an informed and free decision about the system of government that rules them.