Maldives Gayyoom Reform Promise of 1993

Blast from the Past

Maumoon vows sweeping reforms (on October 4th 1993)

Haveeru Monday October 4 1993, By Amal Jayasingha - AFP

MALE – Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom who has just won another five years in office, has vowed a "complete transformation" of the system that put him in power in this Indian Ocean atoll nation.

Sweeping Political reforms will be introduced during the new term starting November 11 and young people will have a greater say in running the administration, the 55-year-old President said in a weekend interview with AFP.

"I find that right now it is the best time to implement further reforms" the Islamic scholar president said at his sea-front office here in the capital island Male."

The Maldives has been used to saying "yes" or "no" to a single candidate chosen by a 48-member majlis, or parliament, for the presidency. Gayyoom was first nominated as President in 1978 and has been in power since then.

Gayyoom narrowly won a majlis vote in August to be the sole candidate at the October 1 referendum. He has received an approval rate of over 92.76 percent. The minimum required was 51 percent.

"I am very happy that I have been given another term. I think that given me time to continue with my political and economic policies" he said.

He expected a multi-candidate system to be in place together with a new constitution aimed at decentralising power to remote atolls by the time the next presidential poll was due in 1998.

The Maldives, which has population of 225,000 inhabiting 200 coral islands out of some 1,190 scattered across the equator, was not been politically or socially mature enough for sweeping democratisation in the past 15 years, Gayyoom said.

Asked if the time was right for a political revolution in this socially liberal but politically rigid country, Gayyoom said: "Yes, I think a lot of people would like to see that happen".

"We have a lot of young and educated people who have been abroad and who have seen other political systems at work and they will very much like to see a more open sort of number of candidates and then the people can choose whom they want", Gayyoom said.

"I think that is going to be a very good change I want to put into practice", he said.

The run-up to the latest referendum on October 1 saw unprecedented political consciousness among Maldivians.

The narrow and crowded streets here continue to be decorated with hundreds of thousands of fairy lights, giving this capital island of one square mile a carnival atmosphere.

Men, women and children packed into small pick-up trucks drove endlessly through the road network of 16 kilometres here singing Maldivian pop songs and shouting "Maumoon Sindabad", or long live Maumoon (Gayyoom).

Gayyoom says the revelry and the celebratory mood in Male is partly due to his supporters wanting to publicly express their solidarity with him following a bid by his estranged brother-in-law, Ilyas Ibrahim, to become president.

A Maldivian court last moth tried Ibrahim in absentia and banished him for 15 years for illegally attempting to influence majlis vote on the presidency. Ibrahim has fled the country.

Gayyoom loyalists say that Ibrahim was a stumbling block in implementing democratic reforms, but the president himself stops short of apportioning blame. "I think the process of reformation or the process of change has been taking place and I don’t consider any particular person as being a stumbling block in that process", Gayyoom said.

Diplomats here say that the "Ilays episode" showed that Gayyoom should allow greater democratic freedoms to consolidate his position.

"The dilemma here is that Maldivians has no alternative to Gayyoom", an Asian diplomat here said.

Gayyoom says he has not decided if he should stand for president once again to lead the country into the 21^st century.

"I will wait a few years to make a decision on that", he said.

-AFP