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Radio broadcasts spread hatred and contempt, claims Gayyoom

by Michael O'Shea and contributors, 25 October 2004

Minivan Radio broadcasts are spreading hatred and contempt for Maumoon Gayyoom's regime in Maldives, according to public notices issued by the Ministry of Atolls administration in the islands outside the capital Male'.

Minivan means 'independent' in Dhivehi, and the latest hour-long weekly broadcasts have been professionally produced and especially informative, with songs and interviews about the reform movement and social change in Maldives.

Gayyoom cannot jam the broadcasts to the islands, though he has been successful in jamming signals around Male'. Desperate to prevent people from listening to Minivan, his brother Hameed is sending threatening and intimidating notices to the islands.

The Gayyoom regime is heavily criticised during Minivan programs, but the discussions are intelligent, calm and do not condone violence. The broadcasts are controlled and presented by Maldivians. Finance has come via the many people appalled at Gayyoom's treatment of democratic reformers, writers, artists and other prison inmates in Maldives.

Religion is usually not discussed on Minivan radio, however the latest broadcast began with Ramazan greetings and a reading from the Koran.

Part of the programs are good audio recordings of the well-attended Democracy forums in the capital Male' during the months before mass arrests began on 13 August. People at the meetings addressed the misconceptions and fears created by the government towards the concepts of democracy and a multi-party political system functioning as part of a properly elected and accountable parliament (majlis).
Although these same meetings were videoed and taped by Gayyoom's regime, none of the recordings appeared on Maldives TV and radio stations.

Ibrahim Luthfee was one of the guest speakers on Minivan radio last week. He escaped from his NSS captors in Sri Lanka in May 2003 after years of imprisonment and torture ordered by Gayyoom because Luthfee refused to allow Miadhu newspaper to take over the house he was occupying in Male'. Luthfee was a founder of the Sandhaanu newsletter and in 2001 he received a life sentence for treason.

Luthfee now lives in Switzerland as a UNHCR sponsored political refugee. He is the respected editor of the new Sandhaanu website and his electronic Dhivehi newsletter has a wide readership among Maldivians. This year, Sandhaanu revealed damning evidence of the corrupt activities of Gayyoom's brother Abdullah Hameed, the current Minister of Atolls.

Luthfee told Minivan radio that the constitutional Special Majlis was no longer worthy of the name because so many of its members were in custody without charges and unable to attend the meetings.

Luthfee said that he and many other Maldivians were very concerned about the health of their Male' member Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) who was crippled by polio as a child. 'This is an indication of the harshness and cruelty of Gayyoom's government,' said Luthfee, 'that it will treat Ibrahim Ismail that way.'

Many popularly elected representatives in the Special Majlis have been excluded from attending and it is no longer a valid representation of the people, Luthfee claimed. The people arrested have been among the leaders of the reform movement in Maldives, and they represented the movement in the Special Majlis which has now become a Gayyoom instrument, he said.

Dhivehi Observer chief editor, Ahmed Moosa (Sappe') was also interviewed and quoted from Maldives government documents which have surfaced on the Dhivehi Observer website. The documents are damning to the dictator.

Giving the example of the UK government's provision of health and education services to its own people, Sappe said the Maldives government has the same obligation to provide a reasonable standard of services, which it has failed to do after 27 years in power. He compared the size of the defense (NSS) budget and Gayyoom's personal budget with the Maldives Health and Education budgets.

Sappe' pointed out that over the last six years Gayyoom had enjoyed an average budgeted expenditure each day of over Rf419,000 or US$32,000. (The daily wage rate for a relatively well-paid Maldivian is Rf100 or US$7.82, based on monthy pay of Rf3,000.)

This year, 2004, Gayyoom has a personal budget of RF186 million or US$14.6 million. This means his daily expenditure is nearly RF510,000 or US$40,000.

The real danger to Gayyoom from Minivan radio, is that people who have been living in the islands, and deprived of contact with the rest of the world, will now learn the extent of corruption and misuse of public funds occurring in Male'. They will compare their poverty-stricken existence with their leader's wasteful lifestyle.

At the same time, they are learning about the benefits of a responsible and democratic system of government.

Gayyoom will no longer be acceptable to anybody in the atolls as an economic manager.