Ali(ce) in Wonderland

Thanks to Robert Mayer for his article CITIZENS’ JOURNALISM IN THE MALDIVES.

I was wondering why the professed revolution has never happened in this country, in spite of a quarter century of suppression, intimidation and corruption. What drives human societies to bring down their own government? We have read about the French revolution, Iranian revolution, and South African revolution; even the American Revolution. Why is the people of this country unable to stand up and crush a minority. Surely the will of the majority of a population is stronger than just a handful of minority. One popular argument is that the notorious national security and the police force are keeping the masses in check. This is certainly true, the police and army play a major role in keeping this society in control. BUT it was worst in France, South Africa and in Iran, during their revolution, the people who stood against the regimes way was shot, killed or they simply disappeared. Yet the people of these countries were able to bring about their sweet revolution. The majority of these countries were able to fight and win their freedom. How is it that a small country like Maldives with a majority of the population that detests the current regime is unable to achieve this revolution? Certainly the people of this country are not cowards, they have always been fighters. They have in the past brought a number of revolutions. Funny enough the current administration is a branch of previous freedom fighters, over time converted criminals. In search of an answer to this I have had a number of arguments and discussions with people and have come to the conclusion that the prize of such a revolution is not worth the blood sacrificed. In other words the booty of the war is not worth the fight. It is not just the fighters that will be subjected to intimidations and stripping of assets but family members, friends and even their business partners will be striped bare and ridiculed in the regime controlled media outlets. Is anyone prepared to pay this price and standup and fight to bring a group of MDP personals like Ibra, Shihaab, Zaki, Munavaru or even Gasim to lead this country. Will these people be able to set up a universal health care system, reform the current education system, implement transportation service and various other social needs? Unfortunately the people of this country clearly doubts that post revolution era will be any "rosier" or the least worth what they scarifice.

No doubt in a post revolution era we will get better freedom and wider representation in governing this country. But that is still not worth what the average Maldivian will loose in the fight. Why would I sacrifice everything I have worked for my entire life for a sweet moment of freedom- a little more freedom, everything a LITTLE better? The price of French revolution and end of South African Apartheid was astronomical. Their post revolution was worth the sacrificial blood.

Deep down we know that the post revolution era has all the signs of turning itself in to a dictatorship. I am in no way pointing this at MDP or any other political party here. Most of us know that this country is run by a handful of rich business tycoons anchored in Male' and the current administration is part of this elite circle. The dissolution of the current regime will not necessarily make our life any better than it is now as long as this elite circle controls this country. The poor people in the outer islands will always remain enslaved, as they have been for years. This is part of sustaining the economic system of this country (and many other capitalist societies). For true revolution we would need a new system every few years not just a swap of parties. Just because one gets the freedom to vote for either party and bring about a change in the faces we see in government (like we see in America every five years) does not mean that it does justice to democracy. This country needs more than a revolution. It needs a dream- the Maldivian Dream.

plan the plan

Funny how themaldivian.org took and modified the first paragraph of my previous post and posted it on their website, just the portion praising the current admin. What a bunch of sly weasels. This is suppose to be an impartial website. Frankly all the websites are propaganda websites and trying to propagate some hidden agenda. There are no real venues for impartial news.. Maybe the gossips at the tea cafes are more authentic than the ones that these guys write on their websites.

Talks about Anni being freed is in the air. Personally I doubt this unless mdp makes a huge commotion proving that with or without Anni they have the vigor and determination to move forward. As of now it looks like gasim (current financial minister) who switched sides and Anni who is in jail are the spine of this party proving that they are not a party of the people. I think Ibra (male' Mp) should re kindle the party spirit more within male' and addu and prove to everyone that this is really a peoples party. There was one gathering of mdp held and the number of people there were amazing, they should organize more of these grass root gatherings... of course there was a little confrontation between the police and the mdp gathering regarding some speaker system. I can’t talk too much about this, as I was not present there.
Whatever the outcome of Anni's trail he has become a hero in my heart. I don’t know him nor never met him in real life but he has become the modern Robinhood of this country. Yes! I do agree that many of mdp members have personal hidden agendas. They hide in the backstage and try to run the show. My support for Anni is no reflection of my support for mdp. Anni, since the days of Sangu (a banned paper during the late 80’s) have been a fighter, sacrificed his whole life for the common good of the people. Like it or not he is going down in history as a hero.

The other day I was reading this article about the current GDP of the Maldives shrinking. The funny thing about GDP is that it is one of the stupidest yardstick to calculate the growth of a country. For those of you who would like to get a better sense of what GDP is please read:
Wikipedia entry
foe
Adbusters

In Maldives very few people really understand what GDP is (including me) I have no real idea of how it is calculated in Maldives but it looks like a tool that this government use in order to shift around its policies. I do not understand why the GDP should go down due to tsunami when it should go up if the promised rebuilding where taking place. Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"GDP counts work that produces no net change. For instance, a hurricane destroying thousands of homes would not be counted by GDP, but the rebuilding of those homes would be."
In fact the GDP of this country should be rising. Yes the tourism industry was and is still in pretty bad shape, which is true, but also to counter this millions of dollars was donated to this country. I wonder if these donations were calculated as an income to this country and if it was used in calculating the current dip in GDP. Maybe the government should make a better effort in educating the public about what is going on with our economy and what money goes where, rather than expecting us to blindly trust an administration that spits a lie every time it opens it mouth.
Here is my interpretation, from our foreign minister (Ahmed Shaheed) interview to routers, where the current administrations solution for the current dip in gdp is to:

"Shaheed said the government was mulling the idea of setting up an oil refinery somewhere in the pristine island cluster best known for its five-star resorts, white sand beaches, turquoise lagoons and world-class scuba diving.
The government is looking to donors to help plug a $100 million budget shortfall, the first time the remote archipelago 500 miles (800 km) off the toe of India has ever done so.
It is also considering auctioning leases to build luxury hotels to bring in revenue, and is hoping to use some of around $360 million worth of aid pledged in the wake of the tsunami to ease pressure on the budget."

I have no idea how setting up oil refineries will help this small nation when the problem with oil is not necessarily refineries but the damn oil is running out. halash.. Empty.. Gone.. Finished.. Wake-up people.... oil will run out... so in the next 100 years we will be stuck with some stupid refineries that this current administration built with bottles of coconut oil to refine. This will end up like so many other ill thought policies of this country.. Remember the hovercraft they bought with taxpayer’s money and built a landing zone for it.. Remember the Laamu atoll Dhanaal build as a boarding school...remember the national airlines.. Remember the garment factories... remember the amount of cement they poured to build the male roads in their first try... remember the concrete water tanks that was build in every house hold in male... oh yes I am talking about all the ill policies and not mentioning the good actions.. Why???? Because until the current administration apologize and publishes the fact about the cost of these projects there is no way the people will stop commenting about these messed projects where OUR money just disappeared. Anyways back to the oil refineries.. Well, would it not make more sense for us to try and find ways for sustainable alternative more sustainable energy plans like wind, wave or solar power. These refineries will pollute our beaches and destroy our echo system ultimately destroying our only income- tourism. Does this administration even care about what might happen in the long run..?

Their second solution "auction islands". Now this smells fishy, this will be money grabbing political opportunity to please a lot of powerful corporations. This will in turn help to wade off any foreign pressure on the government. Like the Middle East and oil cartels Maldives uses islands to please the powerful hotel conglomerates that are large financiers of political parties in foreign countries. Here is a list of American hotel chains and how much they contribute to their parties:
opensecrets
Anyways this will also bring down the demand, as there will be surplus resorts.

I flipping don’t understand where the millions of dollars that come in to this country goes. On top of all the money it receives from resorts there are the donors as well. Its not like there is universal health care, pension plan, social housing projects, The only thing they spend the money is for education of less than 100, 000 people up to secondary education and about 500 students in higher education. and about a 500 students at university level. Where the F**** are the money that our forefathers sweat for????

Head or Tail?

Sometimes I wonder what the best system would be for a little country like Maldives. A society where everyone is more or less connected in some way. What will be the consequences of a multiparty western style democracy? At this point I guess no body really knows but everyone is sure of one thing- we do not want the current administration or its ill thought policies. We are starting to see a lot of change; I must say lot of good and bold changes. Unfortunately the image of the current administration is tarnished and cannot be revived even by the notorious foregin PR farms operating in Maldives. I have been thinking about the changes that are being brought at a rapid pace and suddenly I realize what is happening. You see, all these 26 years the world around Maldives advanced and grew. Maldives was bogged down not only in terms of development (at a very fundamental level) but also its own government was operating with a mindset that was not fit for the current century. Hence the way they controlled its population and the propaganda machine started to fall apart. The continuous nationalistic songs on tvm, the Friday "kuthuba" (which was mainly used as a propaganda machine), radio, even the stage shows started to become a waste of time. Obviously the current administration realized this just the other day and is scrambling to modernize the propaganda machine and the way they controlled the masses. So the changes that you see are not really the change in bringing a more democratic system to this country but rather a new machine to keep churning the old grains. Lets look at what the current admin. has done. Appointing, Gasim, one of the riches person in Maldives, in charge of our treasure. Now, even a kid will know the consequence of this. Then he brings another rich resort owner (Dean) as our atoll minister. What’s going on? Is this administration selling our country to the big corporations? Where are our young educated people ready to take these important portfolios? Sadly opposition does not want to say anything about these powerful individuals because they are still salvating in the hopes that these figures will return to save them...pathetic... At the very fundamental level nothing has changed. As long as the system remains like this nothing will change. maumoon can swap as many heads as he wants but the plight of the masses will remain unchanged. Of course the feel good excuse of the elite will be, that by bringing such a rapid change the society may spiral in to chaos. This is just bull... freedom is not something that a society needs to be conditioned in to.
One of the very basic changes that this administration could bring is the election of atoll and island chief rather then placing hand picked corrupt government cronies in these positions. The current government knows that if they allow this that will be suicide. I really don’t understand why mdp and other opposition aren’t fighting for this cause. mdp is so infatuated in bringing maumoon down that they have lost any cohesive strategy. One cannot bring change by calling for the resignation of an elected government but rather start from the grass root level and try changing things at a much more fundamental level. Personally I think all the opposition parties should immediately call for the election of atoll and island chiefs rather than calling for resignation of an elected president (however questionable the election process was).
There is no doubt that mdp has the majority support of the masses and if they know how to play this right they will prevail. Secondly oppositions should stop wasting their energy in the hopes that world organizations and NGO's will come to their aid. World governments are as corrupt as the current Maldivian administration, they will not do anything unless they have something to gain and obviously they have much more to gain with the current administration in power.
Anyways I really hope that the people of this country and the opposition become ever more vociferous in calling for immediate elections of atoll and island chiefs. This will be the very first step for change in this corrupt system.

NOTE: This online journal is not aligned with any political party. The writing is not factual but my sole interpretations if the current situation. Thank you for those of you who have emailed me. I really appreciate it; I am unable to reply back as I do not want to be traced. The following posts are not submitted directly by me but I have to email to a friend abroad for submissions, again due to what might happen. Those who emailed about possible help, it would be great if you all can spread this link, as dhivehiobserver (our opposition mouth piece), themaldivian.org and factmaldives.com has blocked and banned us. Thank you all for the kind words...