Gayyoom's National Day Dawn Speech in Maldives :: Dhivehi Observer

Editorial

Gayyoom National Day Dawn Speech

A.S.I.Moosa (Sappe'), Dhivehi Observer, 11 April 2005

Gayyoom with his cabinet tops

Plenty of empty seats today

Students from Male' Schools

Airport Customs & Immigration Staff

Yesterday was the Maldives National Day, celebrating the liberation fight of the Maldivian Hero, Mohamed Thakurufaanu, who fought the Portuguese occupation in the 16^th Century. History has noted that the Portuguese occupation of Maldives was from 1558 – 1573, during which they tried to convert the Maldivians to Christianity. The invasion or the assault was believed to be led by a Maldivian King, Hassan IX, who converted to Christianity and fled to India but later organised the whole plot to takeover his regency. There appears to be no record of any Portuguese State sponsored invasion of Maldives and hence, it is widely accepted amongst most historians as an internal problem rather than a foreign aggression.

To mark the occasion, this year Gayyoom decided to speak to the nation at the dawn of the day, 6:30 am, which is extremely unusual. Some allies of Gayyoom has confirmed that the timing was based on his astrological calculations which yielded that the people will once again listen to his rhetoric if the speech was deliver on the specific day at the specific time.

The whole speech was based on the threat of foreign missionaries of other religions, particularly Christianity. In a similar tone last week, the Chief of Islamic Affair, Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim said in a speech that American Christian Missionaries had planned to build a 2 billion dollar church in Maldives back in 2000. And, now What Gayyoom and cronies are trying to do is to blame the opposition groups such as Dhivehi Observer and Maldivian Democratic Party as being at the forefront of this campaign. Gayyoom and his cronies have stated on the record that these organisation are funded by Christian missionaries and that the ultimate aim is to wipe out Islam which is the uniting force of the Maldives. As far as Gayyoom is concerned, anyone who opposes him or his government is an enemy of Islam.

Sadly, a small number of Maldivians are lured by this propaganda and this was yet another attempt by Gayyoom to assert it to the public using his power. Attendees to the ceremony were high ranking government officials, school children and some government staff, including those who were near the jetty to go to the airport for their work. There was no public support for the ceremony which was evident from the number of people who were there. The meeting was held in the Republican Square where 7 months ago, in August 2004, several Maldivians protested against the regimes and demanded his resignation. The call was met by brutal force and hundreds of reformists were throw in jail.

Even after 27 years in power, he still does not want to let go of it despite popular disquiet amongst the people of Maldives. Only now he is pretending to be on the path of democratic reform and attempting to modernise the justice system. Gayyoom now repeatedly gives the examples of, the separation of Police and the Army which occurred only last year and the formation of the Maldives Human Rights commission in late 2003 (after the killings and shooting in jail in September 2003) as evidences of steps he had already implemented as part of his new reform agenda. When faced with the question of whether or not it (political reform and good governance) had come a little late in the day, he calmly defends his rhetoric by saying that it is only now that Maldivians are ready and educated enough for these changes. Gayyoom suffers from acute amnesia and hence does not remember that he had made similar commitments before without delivering on any of his promises.

Gayyoom has accused Maldivians from being lazy to not being educated enough to understand what freedom is. The truth however is that Gayyoom has completely destroyed our generation and continues to use Islam and drugs as tools to strengthen his grip of power.

Maldivians are completely fed up with these meaningless speeches and showdowns. We want nothing but his resignation and eternal death of dictatorship in Maldives.