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Editorial

Get rid of the Dictator to improve your living conditions

A.S.I. Moosa (Sappe'), Editor-in-Chief, Dhivehi Observer, 18 November 2007

In 1996, Maldives Dictator Gayyoom fired the county's senior most public health expert for daring to say that there was a housing problem in the capital Male'. This was the extent to which Gayyoom (AKA Golhaaboa) was prepared to go to keep critical social issues swept under the carpet. But he was only fooling himself. The shortage of housing was too acute to be hidden even then. It is worse now, after 10 more years of neglect.

Land is scarce in Male'. And even for those lucky enough to own a plot of land, there is no way to finance construction because the narcissistic dictator has made no arrangements for providing affordable housing loans to ordinary citizens. Thus only those with 'connections' and inherited wealth have the opportunity to develop their properties in Male' and turning them into money minting machines. Less fortunate Maldivians, thousands of them, have no option but to lease their homes to businesses and migrate abroad, especially to India.

Everyone dreams of owning a home, and setting up a healthy place to bring up one's family –a dream too distant for most Maldivians. Unless you come from a rich family or are prepared to bend the rules and be corrupt, setting up a home in Male' is very difficult, nay impossible.

In most countries, if you are a professional and working full time, it is very easy to setup your own home. One could simply take out a bank mortgage and buy or build a house. For example, most of my classmates who graduated in 1995 from Glasgow University already own their homes in UK.

Here is my family story. I am sure many can relate to this. I returned home to Male' and began working there. As a Mechanical Engineer and a Material Scientist, my annual income had been above average but there was no way for me to build my own home through decent means and had to share the family house Maafusheege in Male' with my 5 sisters, two brothers, their kids and our mother. With separate family units making up the whole family, we were of course short for space. Yes, we were luckier than most families as we owned a plot of land, which in Male' is seen as a blessing. Our 2 elder brother and 2 sisters live on their own and we did not have to share Maafusheege with them. We, 8 siblings of my mother inherited the house which is around 3000 square feet after our father passed away in 1997. However, since the land area was too small to slice it up, which is the norm, we all decided to live together and hopefully develop it into a multi-story building so that each of us could have our own space sometime in the future.

Now, ideally, it would be nice if we could build an 8 story building with two flats on each floor. So, each of us could own two flats, live in one and rent the other. The common man thinks this way and so did some in my family. However, despite the fact that 5 of us had professional jobs, (education consultant, engineer, nurse, teacher, accountant, and lawyer), financially we had no means to develop the property, even into a 2 story building. There was no scheme available for us to borrow the money as a long term loan unless we came up with 50% of the total amount needed to develop the house.

In any case, we have all decided to do something about it when one of our brothers in law, got a 3 bedroom flat in Hulhumale' and living arrangements changed as a result. One sister now lives with her husband whilst one brother moved in with his wife. I am living in the UK; the 3 sisters are abroad studying. My mother too lives in India with one of the sisters. So, only one brother and a sister are left in Male' who moved into the Hulhumale' flat. Maafusheege is now rented for a period of 5 years which will save us approximately US$ 180,000 as the rent money goes into a savings account. At the end of the period, we hope to lay a foundation for an 8 storey building and take out a loan to finish at least 4 floors. The old house is now demolished and a business consortium is setting a 2 storey guest house in the plot.

Had any of us been prepared to go corrupt and use our 'so-called' connections, instead of an old run down house, Maafusheege would be a 10 storey building today. Yes, we had connections. Very strong connections with very 'powerful and influential' people but we opted to live by the standards set by our father.

We see many buildings in Male' but most of them belong to cronies of this regime, whilst a few belong to wealthy families. The other buildings are developed by businesses and rich people on long-term lease basis. Those who are lucky enough to own a house in Majeedhee Magu or Chaandhanee Magu have got into this segment as we all know.

Now, one might wonder why I have given such an elaborate overview of what I and my family are doing with our house in Male'. The answer is quite simple. It is very expensive to build a house in Male' and the system in place does not provide people with the tools to build their homes unless they are part of the elite group of cronies. Just look at the buildings of Ministers, Ex-Ministers and top officials spread across Male'. All of them have multi-storey buildings. Of course, we know whose money they have built these places with: our money, yes.

I just wonder how many of you out there can relate to this story and how many of you aspire to have a home of your own.

How can you expect Golhaaboa to solve this problem? He CREATED the problem. Trust me, only a democratic government can solve it. So the sooner this Dictator is ousted, the better.

Like many, I strongly believe that removing Golhaabo from power would mean that half the work is done. The rest will depend on how united we want to be in building our nation, for the sake of our children.

My advice is that, for a bright, affluent and a more prosperous life, join the reform movement and unite with the opposition, for that is the only way to ensure that we rid our nation of this 'Kaaminee' menace.

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