“Dhivehi raajjeyge raeesul jumhooriyyaa…al-usthaz Maumoon Abdhul Gayyoom”….pretty easy on the ears rite??...since I was a kid…and before that… since my parents were the youth of the nation, we all have been listnening or reading the name of maumoon Abdul gayyoom after the words “raeesul jumhooriyya”…and I guess we, the Maldivians are pretty much used to it now.…maybe more than we realise…and today it feels kinda weird..knowin that in less than two weeks everything will change…and our ears and mind will need to be adopted to hear another name over n over again after the words “raeesul jumhooriyya”….
Modern politics were introduced to the Maldives in 2003….after 5 years of hard work by the opposition and everyone who believed in reform and change it has evolved into a whole new level…n today the whole nation is witnessing the beginning of a new era in the history of a small nation…some of us are shedding tears of joy…and others…tears of sadness n uncertainty…
During the last three decades maumoon has been in power, there has positive changes in the economy (although it is not up to the maximum potential) of the nation. We have also experienced negative impacts on some social issues like drug abuse and gang fights. But its totally not fair for us to say he did not do anything for us…30 years is more than enough for a person to show his sincerity to the people and the nation .he got his chance to do well and some of us might believe he screwed it up.. He did what he thought was in the best interest of he and his allies and family. Or he might did everything considering the best interest of the nation “according to his beliefs”…the truth is we will never know the reality behind his motives until proper and independent investigations are conducted.
It’s a known fact that absolute power leads to corruption…since he had the absolute power and authority to control all the areas of the nation, politically, economically, legally (even he had control over the religious scholars during the most of his reign)we have uncountable reasons to believe that his government was corrupted till the foundation.
No matter how much of a dictator he has been, I believe he was a brilliant man as a leader. Up until now he knew what he was doing and how to control the people around him to achieve his goals. He had the charisma and the personality of a leader and no matter what happened in the past decades we all should unite in giving the respect a former president of the nation deserves.
For those of you who are reluctant to accept the changes simply because a political activist will have the complete authority of Maldivian government, all I have to say is the country is not run by a person individually. It’s not about maumoon or anni…its all about the system. As long as the system is working in the correct manner, the country shall continue its course in peace and harmony.
Everyone should have the right to live their life in a manner they choose as long as they don’t violate the constitution and teachings of Islam. Let us all unite (despite what political views we have) and start walking towards a better Maldives. For the sake of our children and grandchildren