:: Dhivehi Observer :: Peoples Press ::

Doctor for the Dictator - Tourism Minister Mustafa Luthfee

DO editorial - 23 November 2004
Gaining a doctorate and agreeing to serve Gayyoom, is a sure way to wealth and position in Maldives. The regime, which is controlled by a junta of semi-educated NSS gangsters, is desperate to impress its foreign moneylenders and investors.

Like the other doctors serving the dictator Gayyoom, the new tourism minister Dr Mustafa Luthfee is an ambitious and greedy man without ethics. He is supporting Gayyoom in the belief that his ruler will grant access to great wealth. The doctors in the president's office collect millions in bribes for Gayyoom each year; the money is often laundered by senior administrators in the Maldives Monetary Authority.

'In many ways the doctorate has become a substitute for the old Kilege title,' says Majid Abdul-Wahhab, editor of the Maldives Royal Family historical website. 'Traditionally it was awarded by a koli in the four wards of Male', and now too it is given by Gayyoom's decree.'

It is against the law for any Maldivian to be called 'doctor' without Gayyoom's decree. A little known regulation in Maldives requires a Ministry of Education permit for studies abroad. This regulation is being used by Gayyoom at the moment to block Buruma Gasim's Villa scholarships. Any Maldivian who graduates overseas without one of those permits, may find a degree unrecognised in Maldives regardless of the university that awards it.

Many of the regime's doctorate holders are neither particularly intelligent nor learned, and they feed off the corruption in Male' with cynical delight. They demand respect for their academic achievements, but they speak and reason like the gangsters they have become or always were. These men and women sometimes fool themselves into thinking they will be inheritors of power in Maldives but that inheritance is in the hands of all Maldivians, not the brutal men they serve. Honest, hard-working Maldivians hold these unscrupulous doctors in contempt.

Dr Musthafa Luthfee revealed himself as a shallow and deceptive man when confronted with perceptive questions from Nelson Alcantara the chief editor of TravelVideo.TV.

Luthfee should have researched his interviewer before meeting him. A 30 second Internet search with Google reveals that Nelson Alcantara is willing to write the truth about regimes that mistreat their people and rob them while trying to sell a lie to the world's tourism industry. In a recent article, Alcantara quoted a member of the Burmese democracy movement urging tourists not to spend their money in Myanmar:
'The pro-democracy opposition is very much against tourism to Burma,' wrote our source. 'It's a money-making scheme for the Junta, and the US$300 fee that each tourist pays to enter the country funds one additional soldier.'
According to our source, tourism does substantial harm to the Burmese people 'since the typical soldier commits at least one serious crime a year against civilians (rape, forced labor, killings, inflicting serious bodily injury, theft of crops and livestock, human shields, forced relocation, confiscation of property, religious abuse, etc.).'
'Don't do any business in Burma, and work hard to discourage your friends in the travel industry from doing so,' urged our source.

from: Supporting (or not) Myanmar tourism TravelVideo.TV 28 September 2004

Luthfee's interview was full of the usual government lies used to hide the reality of Gayyoom's NSS attack on Male' in August 2004:
Dr. Mustafa Luthfee: Well, this incident happened. People have been jailed because they were credible threats. We had to secure the country from any disaster, so the government had to take action. That is one reason why some people have been jailed and that is the reason why there was the emergency rule. But now because of the reduction of kind of a threat level and the eagerness by the government to bring about changes. Because it was the government who proposed that democratic process be brought, it so happens that people came to the, they wanted the government to resign. It is a sad thing because it caused the process to be delayed. The government had to do this. As soon as possible we are charging these people. They have been released, majority of the people have been released now. Only a few people are there now.
Alcantara: What are the criteria for one to be released?
Dr. Mustafa Luthfee: They have to investigate. When the investigation is over, they have been released and charged.
Alcantara: Released and charged? After being charged, what happens?
Dr. Mustafa Luthfee: The court will decide that.

Luthfee stupidly revealed one of the illegal processes Gayyoom uses against the reform movement - people are held until they can be charged!
The minister has no idea of the laws of Maldives, which clearly stipulate that people can only be held for a set number of days before charges have to be laid. Luthfee thinks unlimited detention of people is acceptable. Perhaps Luthfee also failed to hear that a Male' court ordered the release of detainees held without charge, and Gayyoom instructed the NSS to ignore the court's orders.

Luthfee admonished foreign critics of the regime for failing to understand Maldives:
'Maybe because it was very difficult for people to really understand the situation without being in the Maldives, without living in the Maldives. We have a different type of culture; we have different systems. We are a very small country and we are very much related to each other.'

It can be left for readers to judge the effects of inbreeding on Mustafa Luthfee but the Maldives that he claims to know, exists only in the paranoid mind of Maumoon Gayyoom. People who live in Maldives are openly saying they are being detained, beaten, tortured, and intimidated. Perhaps Dr Luthfee did not notice the NSS beating people indiscriminately in Male' on August 13, but surely his associates and fellow ministers would have mentioned it? They were all in the NSS headquarters watching and cheering as Fathullah Jameel took command of the NSS, and Adam Zahir urinated on democracy supporters. Is this an example of the 'different type of culture' and 'different systems' that Dr Luthfee is so keen to protect from the decadent influence of tourism?

In his interview with Alcantara, Luthfee shows a stubborn and arrogant attitude towards the reform movement and rejects the suggestion of a negotiated settlement:
Dr. Mustafa Luthfee: 'It all depends on how.. If it is such a serious thing for the government to have reconciliation, I am sure the government would consider. But this is not. The government is bringing changes and there are people who want to have changes more quickly. There is nothing.. If the government has done anything wrong, maybe, perhaps there is need for reconciliation. But in this case, they (jailed political dissidents) have done something wrong so the government took actions in order to protect the government and the people of the country. So, I don't see there is any reason why they should consider reconciliation. But the government is willing and let people take part in the process of organization.'

No mention was made during the interview of the debacle surrounding this year's bidding process for resorts in Maldives. Faults with the process itself and the inability of Luthfee's own Tourism Ministry to perform the required procedures, led to the postponement of resort allocations until early 2005. The bids are now being examined by international experts but the delay is outside contracted arrangements and a serious blow to the credibility of the Maldives resort industry.
If Minister Luthfee and his tourism ministry cannot handle the bidding process, how can they be expected to contribute to the next ten-year plan which has to be ready by 2005?

Luthfee lied to Nelson Alcantara about the amount of money paid by resort owners to the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board. They are required to find thousands of dollars extra for promotion schemes every year and are forced to publicly endorse Gayyoom at every opportunity. They must also pay for expensive advertisements and pages of 'Congratulations Gayyoom' messages in the Maldives media.

Luthfee had his most embarrassing moment when he offered an obvious bribe to Alcantara:
Dr. Luthfee: You can come to the Maldives. I invite you.
Alcantara: I haven't been. I would definitely consider.
Dr. Luthfee: Well, you have my card. You can write about the situation in Maldives. I can give you accommodation, even your flights.

Based on this astounding interview, Dr Mustafa Luthfee has no real knowledge of Maldives: 'People are lovely, they smile. They do not demand like some other places, they are ready to serve you, they are ready to help you. They do not have a kind of aggressive, they do not demand much from you.'
Luthfee neglected to explain why Gayyoom has his NSS beating, torturing and raping people, and crawling all over Male' and the Maldives looking for reformists, turning off radios, banning gatherings, questioning Internet users and preventing the printing of political material.
Many senior government officials are being verbally abused in the islands, and the people's complaints are totally justified. The days of slavery are over, but that vital knowledge has slipped by this doctor. When he was working in Fua Mulak, Mustafa Luthfee said he was only interested in promotion, not helping the people.

His explanations and answers to Nelson Alcantara had been learnt parrot-fashion from the speeches and other ravings of Maumoon Gayyoom. He could not answer direct questions, and was often barely coherent. The chanting sheep in George Orwell's Animal Farm delivered their lines more effectively than Dr Luthfee. What language was his PhD written in? Gayyoom is selecting fools for his ministries, because no men or women of substance and judgement are willing to work for him in a dictatorship.

All the failings of Gayyoom's ideology are on public show in Musthafaa Luthfee.