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Editorial

Personality Cults - Gayyoom and Ceausescu

Dhivehi Observer, 6 February 2008

From Caligula to Ceausescu, personality cults have been created by ruthless leaders in order to exploit their hapless people. They used various forms of psychological manipulation, brainwashing and coercive persuasion to control the minds of the people. This enabled them to abuse the trust that was placed in these leaders and promote the belief that the general populace owed it to them for everything; from the food they eat to the roof over their heads.

Our very own Dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom had followed the philosophies of such leaders to the letter, in successfully creating a god-like aura for himself among our people. This is more so in some parts of the country than others where even the building of a school in an island meant that the Dictator had to be personally thanked for being so generous. He must have read the autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu end-to-end for it is so easy to draw analogies between the two dictators.

Workers in Romania spent days rehearsing dance routines for huge shows for the visits of Ceausescu; similarly young children in islands spent days doing the same for the visits of Dictator Gayyoom. Newspapers had to mention Ceausescu's name everyday if they wished to stay in print; the same went for Dictator Gayyoom. Not a single day or night passed in the last 30 years when the TV Maldives and the Voice of Maldives did not mention his name and so did most of all the newspapers owned by his cronies. Where Ceausescu failed, Gayyoom succeeded. Just prior to his demise, Ceausescu ordered to build what would have been one of the most ornate palaces in the world; Gayoom did succeed in building such a palace while the rest of Male' could barely find four walls and a roof to house themselves.

It is this creation of a personality cult that has led to many being fearful of what could happen if Gayyoom is no more. While many are waiting for a Gayyoom-free Maldives, there are still those who are apprehensive about what could happen in the future. Democracy is a difficult concept to follow when you have been suffering in the hands of someone like Gayyoom for so long. The fear of the unknown is an understandable fear. And Gayyoom has created this trepidation and exploited it to his own advantage pitilessly. Even today when parts of Maldives dare hardly breathe in the hope that Gayyoom may not be able to stand in the coming elections, there are others who cannot comprehend that he could not. Surely, there is no way that the country could function without him, they ask themselves. Moreover, they find it hard to believe that there could be anyone else who could replace him as President.

This is the end result of the cult that Gayyoom has created among us Maldivians during the last 30 years. It is easy enough for some people to blame the people of Maldives for allowing Gayyoom to be in power for so long. But they fail to acknowledge that this is not because the people genuinely want him and love him. This is purely because Gayyoom has psychologically coerced his way into the minds of the people into believing that he is the be-all and end-all of everything. It is the Romanian story over and over again.

By the end of the Ceausescu rule, Romania was going through an extremely difficult time. Yet their leader was praising the "high living standards" of the country. Similarly, today in the Maldives, people are living in extreme poverty. Thousands are affected by lack of housing, poor health service, lack of job opportunities and the scourge of drugs and gang violence. Yet delusional Gayyoom continues to talk about the success of the country and the growth of GDP per capita under his rule.

However, this is where we hope the similarity ends between the two dictators. In December 1989, demonstrations in the city of Timisoara led to a national uprising that resulted in Ceausescu and his wife Elena being caught while trying to flee. They were promptly executed.

Gayyoom should learn from the demise of such leaders as Ceausescu. He may follow them to enhance his personality cult. But he surely would not want to end the way Ceausescu did. Neither does the rest of Maldives. We certainly do not want to see Gayyoom and his family go down the path of the Ceausescus or the Romanovs in Russia for that matter. But whether we would get what we want or not is a different matter. The worry is that if Gayyoom insists on running for office this year, the people may not be willing to accommodate it any more. What will really happen then no one knows. Now that is really a scary thought.

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