The Constitution

The Constitution

In 2004, I decided to contest the election for the Special Majlis because I believed with every fibre of my being that drastic changes to the constitution had to be brought, and the rule of law had to be brought back to our country if this country was to survive. The Maldives had been ruled with a tight fist by Qayyoom for over 25 years, and his single minded worldview had taken root in the core of Maldivian society. Qayyoom’s formative years had been spent in Baathist Egypt, his hero was Jamal Abdul Nasir, and he was trying to emulate a system of governance which you found in Nasir’s Egypt and Saddam’s Iraq.

It had come to a point where brutality was becoming the order of the day, and any thought which did not fit into his worldview was proclaimed to be treacherous and equivalent to treason. In short, the nation itself had become synonymous with Qayyoom. Anything which anyone said or did which was not in line with Qayyoom’s thinking was of course something which would destroy “national unity”, and by default detrimental to the nation. He even went to the extent of creating a new concept : “ebbaeh vanthakan” (oneness of people) which was portrayed as different from “ebbaivanthakan” (unity of people). “Ebbaeh vanthakan” was perceived to be a “higher state of existence”.

By the turn of the century, all the hallmarks of a true despot were very well defined and very visible. This was really not surprising, as anyone who has enjoyed that much of unfettered, unchallenged power for such a long time would have developed the psychological profile of a despot. History has shown this to us time and again.

With the brutal murder of Evan Naseem, and what ensued from then on, Maldivians had to decide what to do next. It was obvious that leaving the dictatorship as it was, would ultimately lead to a total systems break. But the critical question was how do we change the system? There were two main choices : bring down Qayyoom, revolution style, through direct public action, which would have been a quick way of obtaining an immediate respite, or focus on dismantling the very structures which held up the dictatorship. I always had believed that the latter was the solution that we should pursue. For many reasons.

First and foremost, to leave the structures as they were and simply replace Qayyoom would have had disastrous consequences. Whoever replaced Qayyoom would automatically inherit the structures, and the next dictatorship would begin. Once in power, it is highly unlikely that the new ruler would seek to democratize the system. Furthermore, he or she would, at that time have huge popularity in his or her populist agenda, and it would be virtually impossible to pressure or force the new ruler to bring any meaningful reform, because power would be derived from the masses. The intellectuals and thinkers in the movement to bring change would be quickly sidelined and projected as people “obstructing” the masses from “reaping the benefits” of the revolution with their fancy ideas and idealism. The Chinese revolution, what has happened repeatedly in Pakistan or even the more recent movements elsewhere in the world is consistently telling us this.

I know, that what I am outlining here will most probably anger some, particularly those who had believed in the panacea of removing Gayyoom from office with respect to our problems. However, this is the truth as I saw it, and I still see it.

So, replacing one dictatorship with another was, to my mind, not the solution. If one took a quiet moment to reflect on the defining moments in the past four years, and did some soul searching about the “reform movement”, one can identify the struggles between these elements. If we look at how this movement has evolved, and how it has fanned out now, we can clearly see early signs of what would have happened had there been a power vacuum without structural reformation.

In short, the actual reform would only come through structural reformation and readjustment, and the practical question to be asked was : do we attempt this with a weakened, dying out dictatorship which lacked any credibility in the public eye, at the helm; or do we attempt this with a vibrant, young, public adoring dictatorship at the helm?

I BELIEVED THAT IT WAS IMPERATIVE THAT STRUCTURAL REFORM BE MADE BEFORE A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT OCCURS.

It was not an easy decision to make. On the one hand there was the deliberately created expectations of toppling Qayyoom on the streets. Everytime there was a demonstration or a protest on the streets, there was an expectation that tonight the Government would be toppled. The primary purpose of the particular protest would be lost somewhere between the starting point for the march and the designated rallying point. And of course, when it did not happen, instead of blaming those who created the unrealistic expectation, a carefully engineered propaganda piece would be generated to point the finger at those who had always advocated that this was not the way to go. Of course I had to bear the brunt of it. Who else, but Ibra, with his “shady dealings” with Qayyoom, Qasim, Ilyas, Yaameen and others could be blamed? The pressure was immense.

On the other hand, as an elected Member of Parliament, and as one who deeply loved the people of this nation, and as one who was fully committed to a genuinely democratic Maldives, I also had to consider the long term consequences of any action I take, or endorse. Of course, public direct action and sustained public engagement was a necessary component to keep the process moving, and to pressure the ailing dictatorship to give in to the democratic process, particularly on the floors of both Majlises where profound decisions were being made on a daily basis. One also had to consider the fragility of our society, the possibility of economic collapse, the loss of investor confidence, the possible bursting of the tourism bubble and diverting markets to competitors, the possible long term negative effects on a closely knit community and many such factors.

In the end, I realized that a fine balance had to be maintained between modes of action, and my belief that Structural Reforms should come before a change of government was further strengthened. And I decided, that whatever cost to my personal political career it might incur, I would dedicate the majority of my efforts to the constitutional revision process.

The decision HAS been costly to me personally. I had to remain silent while all kinds of rumours and innuendo, and outright lies about me were being spread around. While every other contender for the Presidency were focusing their energies on campaigning (Qayyoom, Anni, Hassan and others), I was stuck, day in and day out, 18 hours a day, 7 days a week in the drafting committee office. The amount of redrafting that we had to do even at the committee stage, the number of meetings which had to be called off because of lack of quorum, were carefully orchestrated attempts by political opponents to keep me engaged, and to discredit me. The pressures on my time were such that, at one point, my daughter declared that she needed another father because the current one did not have any time for her! I can understand her sentiment, because sometimes, I would go for a whole week without spending any time with either of my children.

Whatever the cost to me personally, I am now extremely joyous that the Constitution had been finally revised, and that whoever comes into power in the next election, be it Qayyoom or I, or anyone else, he or she will not have unchecked power to create another dictatorship in this country. Nothing short of a military takeover, or the public giving way to a plutocracy, will ever reduce us to that condition of inhuman subjugation. Even as I say this, I do realize that the possibility of a plutocracy is looming large on the horizon. That will be the next challenge.

I am grateful, that this objective of mine had been realized. I do not regret the decision I took. Whatever difficulties I had to face, whatever political damage that I may have suffered because of my decision, is still worth the achievement. If I had to, I would do it all over again.

We have now laid the foundation for Structural Reform, we have brought about much change, we have closed the doors for a dictatorship (at least legally!) and we did it more or less with our society still in one piece, the tourism industry still intact. All in all, not a bad 4 years work!

Allah bless us all.