Protest in Maldives Last Night...:: Maldives News :: Dhivehi Observer

Opinion
A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth

by Ali, 02 August 2005

I have a confession to make. Last night when I went and queued outside the People's Majlis, I was scared. Not scared of what the Police were going to do, but I was afraid that not enough people would show up to show that they care what kind of laws get promulgated by the Zaeem's puppets who are an absolute majority in the People's Majlis. But obviously, I was wrong. The massive crowd assembled (certainly over one thousand) near the People's Majlis from midnight onwards show that more people than I expected are not only fearless, but are clearly very interested in the happenings in the People's Majlis.

I don't know if you realize this or not, but we have made history, because never in the four decades since independence, have so many of us gathered at the People's Majlis in such a civilized manner, in such a peaceful manner, to listen to politicians express their views in the People's Majlis.

Why did I queue outside the People's Majlis at midnight? Because I wanted to be allowed in to listen to our Parliamentarians when the next day's session opened in the morning. The past 1 year I was not able to do this as all seats in the spectators gallery were pre-booked mostly by lackeys of the government, usually plain clothed police. Why doesn't the government want people like us to listen in to our elected representatives debate in parliament? Two reasons – transparency and accountability. The reason why the Zaeem does not permit us to listen to DRP's stooges speak in parliament is because there is a lot of information they don't want us to know.

When I queued outside the People's Majlis, I did not want any trouble. I wanted to gather peacefully and even be critical of the government. Never to resort to any kind of violence. Never to disrupt the next day's session in the Majlis. This is my Right as a Maldivian. What are my Rights actually? Rights are qualities, are aspects of my life, qualities of my being that no one can take away. The government cannot take this right away because if I allow them to do this, they will affect me as an individual and as a member of society. Would you allow the government to remove one of your eyes if they wanted it?

We have a situation in Maldives whereby there are laws which are unjust, laws which are undemocratic, laws that are put in place only to prop the Zaeem. We have laws in place which protect the rights and interests of the Zaeem's family, friends and stooges. In apartheid South Africa there were similar laws. They had laws stating that blacks, even though a majority in South Africa could not form the government, could not live in towns where the whites lived in. In the 1950s, the segregation laws in the United States told blacks that they could not sit in front of a bus and if they did, when they saw a white, they had to get up and move to the back of the bus.

The Zaeem has decided that the present constitution is to be trashed. And replaced with laws that are even more to his advantage. These new laws are more unjust; these are laws that are not meant to protect our interests in the least. We should not allow the Zaeem to use his absolute majority to muzzle the opposition and pass such laws. The Zaeem is trying to put in place new laws to make sure none of us can ever gather together so that he can tell the world that 'Maldivians are not interested in political freedom, Maldivians are not interested in democracy''.

Did the police STAR force actually use tear gas and fire rubber bullets to disperse us as reported in some media? Not to my knowledge. But did they use unnecessary violence to disperse a peaceful gathering? Did they use foul, intimidating and abusive language? Definitely. The police used sten guns to knock down 4 young men and beat another dozen people senseless. Would you call this excessive violence against unarmed, peaceful people who posed no threat to anyone?

If we want our country to progress economically and financially, there is no way that we can allow this government to run the country like it did the past 27 years. Times have changed. We are now living in a world where we should be able to talk freely. To be able to exchange our views. To have arguments and counter-arguments. To ask questions and get answers and ask more questions. This will put us ahead. Not this continued stifling of information and listening to repeated lies by a senile Zaeem prepared to sell even his soul to the devil if he could cling to power for just one more day. This man hoodwinked and terrorized us the past 27 years using the frightening philosophy invented by the infamous Nazi Goebbels 'a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth'.