Immoral Politicians

For the last three decades, the Egypt-trained politicians who came into power and wore Islam up their sleeves have turned Maldives into a country without morals. They are shrewd, narcissistic and hopelessly addicted to seeking vain glory. They thrived on empty pride. They violated the principle of justice and failed to deliver equitable distribution of wealth which they preached from the pulpits.

In this fledgling multi-party democracy, we have now entered the era of boastful challenges and provoking one another. The arrogance and incompetency of the present Government has created many difficult problems. By some estimates half of the country's young people are abusing drugs. Drug addiction has reached epidemic proportions in this tranquil country and yet the Gayoom Government claims it has not failed in its responsibility to stop the influx of drugs into Maldives. This Government lacks the leadership and sincerity to provide the necessary medical treatment and rehabilitation for the addicts. What is happening in Maldives on the explosive growth of the drug trade is a crime against humanity and those responsible must be held accountable as advocated by Umar Naseer in his presidential election manifesto. It is the Singapore theory. "If you addict my child, I will execute you."

At a time when there is a global financial crisis, difficult times lie ahead for us in the short term. The internal house cleaning process brought by the thirty-year autocratic regime has begun to take its bite.

In the first independent auditor general report, AG Ibrahim Naeem said the President’s Office is currently owed Rf 47.7 million (US $3.7 million) in outstanding loans to highly-placed government officials. Naeem also blamed Gayoom’s Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) for “misuse of state funds”, as party business was conducted on official trips.

It now appears even before the curtains close on the Gayoom regime, the finger pointing and the blame game has begun with the same ferocity and venom that the current administration started against former president Ibrahim Nasir after he resigned and handed over power peacefully.

The repressed feelings of the last three decades has brought us back full circle. The barbaric behavior this government unleashed against former president Ibrahim Nasir has turned on its head after thirty years.