Demonstration in Mosques in Maldives on Friday

Editorial
Demonstration in Mosques after Friday Prayer in Maldives… Gayyoom will have to step down…

A.S.I.Moosa (Sappe'), 8 March 2005 (Translation)

Gayyoom stops people from assembling and becoming a mass. He sends a few police jeeps and a tanker to the location to scare the people, who disperse rather quickly out of fear of possible death. Maldivians have every right to be afraid after what they witnessed on Black Friday, 13^th August 2004. No sane person would want to die at the hands of a brutal dictator.

Gayyoom thinks that if he can stop a mass demonstration then he can remain in power till death. However, there is a very easy way to get a mass together and begin a demonstration against this dictator. What we have to do is to go to Friday prayer in Male’ to the Islamic Centre and remain there after the prayer and start a demonstration. People going to other mosques nearby, like the old Friday Mosque and Bandaara Mosque, can also join the protest. From then on, protest will be commence in the houses of God, Almighty Allah. We can just pray and continue the protest and when this starts the women and children also can start gathering at the area, which is the main administrative area of Male’. The women can also coordinate the supply of food and water to the locations as the protest will last a few days, at the least. However, judging by the strength of Gayyoom’s regime and its popularity, locally and internationally, it is expected that he will step down in just a matter of days. In a couple of days from the start of the protest, the government machinery will come to a halt and the international community will be aware of it and most importantly the international journalists will start arriving in the country to report the news to the world. Gayyoom might even try to cut off all communications with the outside world but at this day in age, there are several satellite telephones in Male’ and satellite internet connections, over which Gayyoom obviously has no power. This means that, once the incident is exposed and known to the world, Gayyoom will come under pressure from the international community and he will have no option but to step down. If such a defiant mass opinion is expressed then no matter how strong a leader, there is no way out.

Judging by past experiences, it is safe to assume that Gayyoom might even deploy his security forces into the mosques and kill his own people in the house of God. Nevertheless, being such a small community, it is also safe to assume that the Police will not obey his orders; after all they could be shooting dead their own relatives. And, more importantly, the international community is not going to sit back and watch Gayyoom kill his people in cold blood inside mosques. Even, Saudi Arabia will intervene in such an incident. USA, Britain and America are all democracies and will not turn a blind eye to the pleas of the Maldivian people, despite it being a small country.

In reality, Gayyoom will not be able to cut off all communications with the world under any circumstance because at any given time there are thousands of Europeans and other nationals holidaying in the Maldives. Their governments will not tolerate any such acts and will intervene in anyway necessary to diffuse the situation and rescue their people.

In any country, the main power base is the people. The will of the people will always prevail. In recent times, we have witnessed that in Georgia, Croatia and Lebanon. We must therefore learn from that and ask ourselves the question; if they can achieve it, why can’t we? All it requires is a bit of courage, determination and self confidence! Love for freedom and democracy!

After reading this article, Gayyoom might even forbid Friday prayers citing national security reasons. He will resort to any and all techniques to remain in power.