Dhivehi Observer :: The People's Press ::

Gayyoom And "The Art of Fake Environmentalism"

By Freemaldives 2003, Male’ 12^th July 2004

Perhaps now Gayyoom would not want to recall that about 15 years ago, when he still had some genuine black hair left (the only genuine thing he ever head on his head), it was Aafathis reporter Kudanevi Abbas who wrote the fateful article on ozone layer depletion with the eye-catching title “hole in the sky,” and converted Gayyoom from a professional cleric to an amateur environmentalist, one of the many chameleon-like transformations Gayyoom would undergo before making the ultimate switchover from tin-pot dictator to Westminster democrat, all in the blinking of a perfidious eye . On that momentous day Gayyoom called Abbas to his office with his source material for a long discussion, and the rest is history.

Hulhumale' Island - Maldives on the left is most definitely the worlds' ugliest island; A typical Maldivian 'beauty' is shown on the right - crystal clear water, white sand and lush green. Gayyooms' BIG self-made island is "an environmental disaster" according to environmental scientists. The adverse affects of this project will last for years; this is an insult to Nature. Gayyoom thought it was a grand idea, so there it is.

Did this short encounter with Abbas awaken an irrepressible love in him for the environment? Far from it. Gayyoom has never in his life loved anything except himself (ask Nasreena), not even his NSS-General uniform with the brass buttons and brown ‘leather’ belt. What he did like about environment was the chance it gave him to open his mouth in international forums, after a thoroughly bored Far Eastern Economic Review journalist called him the ‘small man with the big mouth,’ following one of his irrelevant speeches to a group of somnolent heads of state. To cut a long story short, Gayyoom's love for the environment was a half-baked attempt to get some attention to ‘himself’ by talking about the imminent submerging of Maldives, going even to the extent of frightening away all potential investors in the country.

Ironically, environment was an issue where Gayyoom could have been really genuine, perhaps even more so than Dr. Latheef’s PHD. But then, to be genuine wouldn’t be like Gayyoom, would it? His attitude to environment was summed up in the recent Green Leaf awards he presided over, where even the ‘green leaf’ was artificial. (Compare this with the real green leaves his NSS use to clothe female prisoners before pushing them into cages with hungry goats inside and horny guards outside.) And of course, putting his mentally retarded brother in charge of the environment tells its own story.

Let us now take a few choice quotations from Gayyoom’s speech (all quotations from President’s Office website). “The survival of the people was founded on its marine ecosystem,” he said. He appears to have forgotten how he endangers this very ecosystem for his own political survival. Before each presidential election he destroys the reefs and lagoons of scores of islands to entice unknowing voters.

He said “the islands of the Maldives were protected by its coral reefs…it was the responsibility of all the people to ensure the health of the country’s reef ecosystem.” The people of Fuamulaku took this responsibility in their own hands during the 90s. They chased away Atoll chief Mustofa Lutfi after he, with authorization from Gayyoom via Umar Zahir, the Public Works Minister, who wouldn’t know even how to spell ‘environment’ on his own, blasted Fuah Mulak’s beautiful house reef which resulted in the erosion of a huge portion of the island. The islanders outraged even sparked a riot, which goes unreported in the Maldives. As every other public dissatisfaction expressed in the Maldives. Gayyoom has even authorized blasting of the protective reef surrounding Addu atoll at several critical points, exposing the islands to coastal erosion. The majority of the Maldivians are not aware of the damages done to their natural habitat during island harbour development and Gayyoom uses these projects to contain the islands and get their support. A rigid jetty is all that is needed in some island but is not considered because harbour dredging projects is another money spinner amongst the elite rulers of Maldives.

“President said that the Maldives definitely wanted the surrounding seas to be teeming with life.” This could be a genuine statement; he would really not mind it provided that the islands are not teeming with Sappe’s, Anni’s, and political activists. As long as they are not there, Gayyoom could tolerate any creature, including a pack of angry tiger fish, a bunch of hungry tyrannosaurus and even Nasreena preparing to pull off the table cloth from under his warm dinner.

”The President noted that any shocks to the fragile marine environment of the Maldives would have a knock-on effect on the people.” This is something he should have thought of before laying dynamite on the house reef of Male in 1990, destroying not only the reef, but also causing even nearby houses in Ameenee Magu to develop cracks. Many people sleeping in their homes that day got knock-on effects almost as powerful as the ‘rush’ that Fusfaru got when Evasn Naseem was being beaten to death by his guards. According to the popular Maldivian diver, Lakudibo Hassan Manik, large and potentially dangerous cracks have developed in the North Eastern corner of Male’ coral shell (the coral base).

“He further said that the seas, the reefs and the beaches together played the biggest part in luring tourists to the Maldives.” The use of the word “lure” here shows the real character of Gayyoom. Being the linguist that he claims to be, he obviously knows that this word implies attracting with false hopes and deception, the same way he entices and tries to keep the people of Maldives oppressed like never before.

If Gayyoom is unaware of environmental degradation in the Maldives, then he is the only one who is unaware that the country is losing coral faster than he is losing his grip on power, the rate of which is remarkable since last September riots by the public after seeing the blood of their sons, beaten and shot to death mercilessly. The reefs are being suffocated by layers of sand from his dredging sites and fishing lines left behind by careless anglers. Un-entangling them would be as impossible as wriggling out of the corruption cases that he and his ministers are going to face soon.