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Tsunami Wave disaster in Maldives:
Gayyoom's failure to protect and help Maldivians,
foreign workers and tourists
DO
correspondents - 28 December 2004
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Gayyoom's luxury yachts stayed moored in Male' today, while regime demands charity from Maldivians |
We blame the Gayoom regime for all what happened and
continues to happen in Maldives. When President Nasir left Maldives
in 1978, the Maldives government had already started his program to transfer people from small and less populated
islands to bigger and better protected islands. However,
Gayyoom's regime stalled this process.
At a later stage,
there was a campaign to transfer people from some
islands, but this was an idea of Gayyoom's corrupt brother
Atolls minister Abdulla Hameed to make money for himself and his boys.
The houses built under this transfer project, for
which the government allocated a large sum of money,
were never properly planned and built. People
could see it was not in their interest to leave
their native islands. Most of the 'transfer
project' funds were pocketed by Abdulla Hameed and his associates.
The
following figures are from the 'Assessment of the Opportunities and the Challenges to the Development of Political Parties in the
Maldives', published by the National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs, USA, on December 16, 2004:
'In addition to the generational divide, there is also a socio-economic divide between
Male' and the atolls. In the 2000 census, Male' had 74,069 people and was the only island with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The remaining 196,032 people in the country are spread out widely among the atolls. Only three islands (excluding
Male') have a population greater than 5,000, 15 islands (excluding
Male') have a population between of 2,000 and 4,999. There are a large number of very small islands: 76 islands have a population of between 100 and 499; and 66 have a population from 500 to 999. The huge disparity between
Male' and the rest of the country has created a number of tensions, as well as cultural
divergence.'
This divergence, highlighted
by the institute's assessment, provides an opportunity for
Gayyoom's regime to divide and rule through election fraud
and removal of talented candidates. This fraud
allows the 'election' of his corrupt ministers, family members and close friends.
During the past 26 years,
the government should have transferred population from smaller and less populated
islands to bigger and better naturally protected
islands. Outer sea walls for the islands should
have been constructed and protected, the same as
has been done in Male'.
From all those videos and pictures of the disaster,
we can see from the tsunami swept islands and
their damaged property that the islands were very
poorly built and protected. The government only
spends money every five years during elections.
Meanwhile Gayyoom and his regime pocket millions
of US dollars.
What has Gayyoom done with
his 200 islands? Gayyoom has been strutting the international stage,
lecturing the world on rising sea levels and
championing himself as the world's top
environmentalist and 'A Man for All Islands'. He
is a hollow man. His plan for Maldives has been
for him and his clan to build skyscrapers in Male'
and invest in overseas property, and leave the
rest of the country to rot while they steal the
aid money and taxes and bribes.
The atolls
and his critics in Male' are terrorised and
subdued by the NSS and imprisonment and torture -
all ordered directly by Gayyoom. The NSS is not a
national security service - they are Gayyoom's
private militia. They are not interested in saving
Maldivians, they are busy protecting their hated
commander from the people.
Gayyoom is
too scared to allow large numbers of his NSS away
from Male'. In August this year he unleashed his
militia on the capital and beat hundreds of
people. A mass humiliation beating of hooded
reformers was attended by Gayyoom's ministers, and
as the NSS beat and abused the crouching
prisoners, Foreign Minister Fathullah Jameel
shouted abuse, the chief of police Adam Zahir
urinated on them, and the ministers cheered.
Gayyoom,
and the men and women who surround him, despise
their fellow Maldivians with the deep contempt
that masters have for their slaves. This regime
has no interest in saving the Maldivian people.
They are only interested in their resorts and the
millions of dollars they have stolen and invested
in property in Maldives and overseas.
After the
disaster, in the first speech Gayyoom gave on TV Maldives,
the president's face appeared very calm and happy.
He thought this disaster could be politicized by him
for the upcoming majlis (parliament) election in
three days - 31 December 2004. Gayyoom is facing
serious opposition for the first time, and
Commonwealth observers are in the country and watching closely for the usual election fraud
and intimidation.
At 1 am on 28 December, there are
still a number of islands not examined or
contacted since the tsunamis hit. The seas of Maldives are very
calm, so what is the meaning of having a number of
presidential high speed luxury yachts and launches with every modern
facility, and which can cover long-range distances, idly
moored in front of the president's office and
lolling in the sun like bored concubines, while a
significant part of the population of those islands are
in grave danger and distress, or possibly already
dead?
The entire population of Male'
is contributing all kinds of help and goods contributed from private sectors and medicine from State Trading Organization
are being sent to Vaavu atoll carrying the campaign logo of Abdulla Shahid
(Executive Secretary of President Gayyoom) who is contesting for one of the
two seats from Vaavu atoll. Similar incidents by
Gayyoom-backed candidates are being reported from other parts of
Maldives.
No
government launches are being sent away from the
capital, they are being kept tied up at the wharf
in Male'. The Gayyoom regime is donating
almost nothing to the rescue efforts. Private
dhoanis are carrying all the rescue supplies and
transporting people to safety. Gayyoom has set up
committees of incompetents who are doing nothing
except waiting for orders that never come.
As
rescue dhoanis arrive in the islands,
the chiefs are following Gayyoom's orders
and saying that Gayyoom's brother the Trade
minister Yameen has sent goods for the islanders.
This is a complete lie.
The
government's effort in sending rescue and help to
even the closest islands near Male' was very slow.
The fear that some people may try to topple Gayyoom
during the crisis is a paranoid fantasy. The opposition
is not interested in political violence. All
violence is ordered and planned by Gayyoom. The opposition in Maldives and abroad is trying very hard to
remove the Gayyoom regime peacefully. They have
endured months and sometimes years of
imprisonment, torture and house arrest.
The international community, when giving aid or assistance to rebuild Maldives, should not trust the
Gayyoom regime and they must help by every means to bring about
real democracy in Maldives with international expert guidance.
The country has a lot of potential as a tourist,
fishery and maritime nation. If Gayyoom's ignorant
and vicious regime is removed, then the nation
would truly progress.
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