Dhivehi Observer News |Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings to Meet in Future in Maldives

Editorial
Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings to Meet in Future!!!!

13 Jan 2005

Maldives under Gayyoom has always been a nation of committees and meetings. It is a custom that Gayyoom brought from Egypt. Egyptians sit around in the verandas of teashops sipping sweet black tea, puffing the hubble-bubble and do nothing but talk. In such meetings they will convert the Nile into a stream and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Their thought process does not go beyond what is in sight. Nothing fruitful comes out from these meetings but they all agree to meet again soon. That's what the Government of Maldives has been doing for the last 27 years.

In Maldives, the custom is as soon as a crisis strikes a committee will be formed to form another committee. The intended committee, I mean. That is the general outcome of such meetings. They will all be served with lavish tea with choice of more than five short eats. All of them will go home and tell their spouses that I had just come from 'the committee'. What committee? You know,… 'the committee'. No further questions asked. Since the introduction of mobile phones, while the committee is in session, most of the committee members are on their mobile phones and they will not follow what goes on in the committee. This is true! So, the committee will revolve around in circles and will normally adjourn the session without any substantial results. What happened to the Special Majilis sessions? True isn’t it? It didn’t happen not very long ago. Just a few months ago!

First there is the Cabinet. When Gayyoom came to power in 1978 it really was a Cabinet, with a small number of ministers. He thought as the economy grows his Cabinet also should grow. So then he converted his Cabinet to a Cupboard and now there are 19 ministers. Brilliant, eh? It's the Grand Cupboard of Maldives! As a ratio of GDP the government has become 65 per cent of our GDP. In most developed as well as in developing small states the size of government is about 35 per cent of GDP. The case of Maldives is wonderful isn't it? These are indicators of development.

So, after the Tsunami disaster a Task Force has been created to relieve the disaster stricken Maldivians. This Task Force was created after closing the Grand Cupboard, indefinitely! The Grand Cupboard's is not functional anymore because the Task Force and the Grand Cupboard are congruent. Hence, when the Grand Cupboard is open, it's the same as the Tsunami Task Force. Even Gayyoom does not know which one which because they are the same cutlery set around a different table. That's smashing! Mr. Mohamed Hussein will take minutes and then later destroy as and when he likes. Just like the way he shredded all the documents relating to the wheeling and dealings in FPID. He is the Minister of State for Shredding Affairs.

Within the Tsunami Taskforce there are many committees, sub-committees, sub-sub-committees, and it goes on like that. They all meet regularly to discuss when they will meet next time. That has been the principal item on the agenda of the committees met so far. The task forcers are the chairperson’s of the sub-committees. When they sit to enforce the Task Force, they also discuss when they will meet again, because that's what they have been discussing in their sub-committees too.

Therefore, one wonders what these clowns can achieve. Frankly, the Grand Cupboard and the Tsunami Task Force are two different theatres where the same actors perform in different costumes and make up. The Grand Cupboard opens at 11 am and they finish at an earlier time of 1 pm because they have the gala performance at 3 pm at the Tsunami Task Force headquarters. They come home after the Grand Cupboard and will nap; they won’t have lunch because their spouses know that they have come from the Grand Cupboard. Undoubtedly, they perform well in having the customary teas and chat on their mobile phones. Nowadays, the spouses of these clowns are on leave because all meals are at the expense of the Maldivian.

We will have to wait and see how much of the Tsunami Task Force can achieve in dealing with this disaster. We can now predict that it will not work because, there is no common goal. This whole disaster effort will be on a piece meal basis. Each of these clowns has their own individual agendas. One of the clowns will say that decentralization is not viable because Maldivians from the outer atolls suffer from inertia and they have sentimental value to their homeland. Hence, they will not leave. One the other hand the other clown would say otherwise. For the country’s sake at least there will be a reduction in the unit cost of providing general public services as a result of decentralisation. Is there anyone among these clowns who knows what economies of scales are? Yes, they are. But those clowns are just supporting clowns not the clowns who play the lead role.

The problem with Gayyoom is that he does not trust any of these clowns. He will want to keep his individual clowns as happy as possible and he could not care less what happens to the rest of the country. Gayyoom has a brain of an ostrich. He just cannot think beyond what is in his sight. He does not have vision because he never had vision. That is why he considered Male as the Maldives and vice versa. Imagine if we all are going to be under the rule of an ostrich for the rest of our lives. I will leave that your imagination.

What did he achieve by entitling his biography as 'A Man for All Islands'? None! A more appropriate title would have been ‘A Man for All Women’.