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Is Gasim Ibrahim the Maldives equal of Thailand’s Thaksin Shinawatra? Gasim, for certain, has the means; looking at the direction of unfolding events and the gossips in tea shops he appears to have a plan in place which he is tirelessly acting on.

Thaksin had his support based and bread at the poor villages in the far corners of the Thailand where governments before him consistently failed to deliver growth. Billionaire Thaksin had no problem in creating hope in the minds of deprived villagers when he came to power. Ration outs and few policy changes made it enough for the people to elect Taksin within difficult to discern scenarios.

Gasim, the case in the Maldives, it is said to have been fairly generous compared to all other Maldivian tourism tycoons before and after him. He is seen as to have built a business from the scratch with bare hands. He in the beginning became famous for helping out very generously to the people who approach for financial assistance to undergo for much needed medical treatments abroad. Particularly, in cases where the other wealthy would not. Partly with commitments given to the World Bank, he then has become the sponsor of 1200 students for higher education in the country and abroad.

Stubbornly ambitious man that Gasim is, he has his nose in every thing that can turn a coin to a dollar and knocks on every political door when ever it seems like open. Gasim sells tuna on wheelbarrows every afternoon on his native island, Maamigili, and owns a 100+ million dollars tourism business stretching from 7 resorts, a seaplane company to a submarine; and you name it, he does it. On the 12th August 2004 uprising when it looked like the government will fall off Gasim was on the front. From there to jail; from the jail he cruised straight on to the seat of the Minister of Finance.

Gasim’s breath of increasing influence on a cluster will look like;

Founding sponsor of Dhivehi Observer Main sponsor of Minivan Radio and Minivan News Vice Chair of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party Business partner of Islamic Democratic Party’s Chairman - Founding sponsor of Maldivian Democratic Party Funds contributor to Social Liberal Party, President of People’s Special Majlis Minister of Finance Direct Employer of about 3000+ Maldivians Sponsor of 1200 young Maldivians for Higher Education Philanthropist through Villa Foundation.

While you aught become conscious of the power that is leveraged here, I wonder whether Gasim runs this country or the government manages the country through him?

Recalling back the Thailand’s Thaksin story while the underprivileged poured love for his pro-poor policies his instinctive business ego was more than just active. He was selling national interests through legitimate and illegitimate methods filling his pocket with billions. It is reported that Gasim campaigns Maldives should lease islands for tourism for hundred year lease periods. That is in an industry where investment coverage is at 5 years. That for certain will allow Gasim and other present rich to create their own dynasties of wealth and control over the people.

For all the good deeds of Gasim, however, should we reward him; are we going to be able to consciously choose not to go traumatized so much to an extent like that of changing name of the nation, Thailand to Siam ?

Twentieth-century philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1909–97) suggested when people talk about political freedom they have two concepts in mind and he named them as positive freedom and negative freedom.

HaveeruOnline reports women working at the Immigrations Department have been allowed to wear head scarf as of today. Haveeru also quoted Shafiu – an official from that department - saying; “We have allowed wearing head scarf within uniform in the interest of our employees”.

I wondered; “how was it allowed Shafiu and his department to ban head scarf within uniforms of Immigration Department?”. “Why does Shafiu in his interview thought that they have done a flavor to the employees?” Don’t the employees have the right to wear the head scarf? ‘Right’ they sure had but the ‘freedom’ was interfered.

‘Freedom from interference’ is how Berlin defines the negative freedom. If, although a woman thinks it is good to wear head scarf, she may prefer not to do so, she is not thereby rendered less free. Freedom is the opportunity to act, not action itself. Berlin reinforces that only restrictions imposed by other people, not nature, affect political freedom.

So much for the rational reasoning but then there is the deserving respect for the prevailing belief of the society – the religion. Wearing the head scarf is a religious requirement for muslin women who decide to wear and not to wear. How do we decide to provide the freedom ‘not to follow’ some practice and the freedom ‘to follow’ something? How did immigrations department come to the decision to provide the freedom not to wear the head scarf and deprive the freedom to wear the head scarf?

Interests of wider society and nation, sure, do and aught come into context when boundaries of freedom get chartered in every country. In that context, is it not the interest of the society to provide women – half of the society - the freedom to practice their religion? Should it not be in national interest to promote the values of our belief internally and externally? Most developed nations appear to work to something to that effect.

President Gayyoom arguing, former AG, Dr Hassan Saeed recently said that that freedom of expression has been provided under his reform agenda unlimitedly. The same question came to my mind listening to his speech. How did he decide to interfere with freedom of expression and how does he define freedom now when he provide it?

Positive freedom, put simply is freedom to do something rather than freedom from interference. Positive freedom is a matter of what you can actually do. All sorts of doors may be open, giving you a large amount of negative freedom, and yet you might find that there are still obstacles to taking full advantage of your opportunities.

The notion of positive freedom may rely on the belief that the self can be split into a higher and a lower self, and that the higher or rational self’s priorities should be encouraged to overcome the lower, less rational self’s inclinations: the passing desires that if acted on can so upset a life plan. The higher self has desires for what will make the individual’s life go well; it wishes to pursue worthwhile and noble goals.

Then the question is if the government had provided the freedom to wear the head scarf, will it the decisions of women, as is now, instead of being forced by elders and men? With the present experiences in mind, can we come to the conclusion we could have practiced freedom of expression responsibly, if we had it back in those days?

Rationality, belief, interests of society and the nation may come at the top of how we decide how to define the borders of freedom for our country. But the ability of individuals seems to override all of that and perhaps timing also has something to do with that.

We all could arguably tell what freedoms we need; I would rather like to know “how”. How should the rightful freedoms of a Maldivian citizen be defined?

A bag of dirty water got splashed on my shoulder. It came from one of the upper floor classrooms while Ashraf and I were walking down by the Majeediyya School at around 11.00 am in the morning. That was two months ago.

Another pedestrian, my friend and I knocked on the door of Assistant Principal in a minute or so. I didn’t wait for an answer, opened the door to find 2 teachers and the principal in a meeting. May I speak to this meeting I demanded. The principal enquired “Is this urgent? When I replied “Yes, it better be, I was already inside his office. Please have s seat, the principal said. I felt a bit less angry and landed on the sofa.

The principal, for a while, went ahead completing his meeting. He reprimanded to the teacher in front of him; “Do you mean you don’t understand the content that you have to teach? I do understand, I have been teaching this subject for the last month” said the teacher. “Please attend the class, then the principal concluded the meeting.

He reached up to us and asked; “what is the problem? I almost shouted “I have been hit by a bag of dirty water, thrown just now from one of your class rooms. The principal was about to open his mouth to say something but I started again; I don’t expect you to find who did it or to compensate me for this but I do think students can be looked after much better. If there was a teacher in the classroom I guess they won’t be throwing garbage onto pedestrians. What do you think? I am sorry about this act, This has been a big problem for us lately” he agreed. I guess then you have to do something different and better than this. They are supposed to get disciplined here, educated here, I shouted and walked out of the place. “This is a common thing, said my friend Ashraf.

Educationalists in the Maldives brag that the system in place is British to suggest ours is much superior than systems practiced in South Asia. I am not sure how good is it in UK but Maldivian students appear to be very less civilized in attitude and behavior, inside and outside schools.

Mohamed Hilmy reports that Malaysia is considering the traditional way; Malaysia has announced on Monday it is considering re-introducing the previously banned act of public caning in schools as a way of disciplining wayward students. Hilmy in his blog also states currently, school principals are allowed to cane trouble-making students but only in a private room with another teacher present as a witness.

Is it a matter of teachers in our schools not knowing class management and the syllabus content that leads to pitiful behaviors we experience now? Does our imitated system serve self-praising at the cost of a generation of young people who are going astray? What lessons can Maldives learn from Malaysia’s re-aligning of the disciplinary procedures in schools? Can we afford, in anyway, more than Malaysia to let a generation of people go undisciplined?

Malaysia seems to get one fact right; with any system by any method, capable or not capable there is one overriding reality and a mission; this generation of young people cannot be sacrificed for anything they must be disciplined by all means necessary.

Our fisher folk who sit in front of television after the day’s long trips and hard work get bombarded by an alien language these days. “But this is TVM. Isn’t it?” Maldives is amending the national constitution. “Fine, we can grasp that much”. Systems of governance, mechanism of control, experiences of other countries, foreign expertise, difference between theory and practice and best practices; in Dhivehi language, of course, but a range of strange concepts and abstract terms are challenging our minds and vocabulary.

Then we hear about different types of experts. An American expert to draft penal code, Commonwealth experts for drafting constitution, Hill and Knowlton for government public relations, a strategic communication expert for MDP and Australian tourism planning expert to draft the Tourism Master Plan. Yes, experts for every part of nation building.

“..In any society planning, whoever does it, will have to be based on “knowledge” which, in the first instance, is not available with the planner but with somebody else, which somehow will have to be conveyed to the planners and decision makers..(Freidrich Hayek)”

We, in the Maldives, appear to need a lot of knowledge. We also seem to need a lot of explaining of that knowledge to ourselves – in terms we can understand, in ways it can relate to our problems and in forms of viable and reliable solutions.

Many a times we hear mismatches between what government provides and our actual problems. At other times we see ourselves solving short term problem at the cost of our long term needs, eventually having to deal with frustrations of the public. That is when most of the planning is done with the help of foreign experts.

Could we be expecting too much from foreign experts in too short time periods? Do we provide enough of our own expertise for the foreigner who has to depend on our translation of our own problems? Can quick surveys be quick fixes of chronic problems which we don’t at all scratch the surface?

The fact that we are required to comprehend new concepts and need to be explained by foreign experts is, beyond a challenge, a warning of a new dawn. The plethora of new and abstract ideas demands new thinking. Eventually, we seem to be traveling towards a new way of life; a reformed society in a reformed country.

We learn a lot from every project, in every branch of the government, in every island, at every atoll, all year around. We do a lot surveys and researches, I hear. Can we house knowledge in a central place where every one, when in need, can have access to it? The world publishes thousands of journals on advanced studies in every facet of human life. Could we buy few copies for our nation, in areas we need?

Whose job is to provide most update non-politicized theoretical and empirical knowledge to national branches of decision making’ when in need? Despite which party is in office, what is the department responsible to recognize threats and opportunities to our national interests?

Whose job is to seek, house and produce knowledge for national strategies?

Where government does not respect public opinion polls and the opposition will not accept the public referendums result, we are seeking more democracy for whom? Referendums and opinion polls are the fundamental tools at the hands of the citizen to decide and chart the course of a nation. The right to decide by the vote is said to be the basic tenure of a democracy.

At the opinion poll set and taken by HaveeruOnline from 12-19th July regarding the idea of building a 5 star hotel in the green area adjacent to Dhrubaaruge, 86% of the people said the area should either be left at state the place is now or should be developed as a public park. Out of the total 3253 people who participated, a 12% voted in favor of a 5 star hotel. However, Haveeru reported yesterday that the tourism ministry refuted by saying that no one has expressed dissatisfaction or complained about the matter of using the area for a 5 star hotel, directly to the ministry. The project goes for bidding!

I guess, since, nobody put the tourism ministry ablaze the minister does not feel like there is reason enough to consider the ever loud voice against the destruction of the green area.

“The land cost within the vicinity will increase, therefore, it is economically very good”; claims tourism ministry. It is as if landowners charge less, now, for the island-poor who arrive to educate their children in Male’. It appears because the rich has air-conditions at home the common folk’s only shade in Male’ must now be turned into a luxury hotel so that the rich could provide better accommodation for their foreign invitees.

On the 18th August vote, people of the Maldives decided that the presidential system is what they thought will serve best for the nation. Just before the vote Anni claimed that the parliamentary will win with a huge majority. Dr Munawwaru guaranteed that the MDP will accept whatever the people decide. To their dismay it turn out to be very different from their expectation; a landslide victory for presidential system by a 62% to 38%. MDP rejected to accept the result of the referendum saying the voting system and the process was not perfect.

There is general consensus that the 18/08 voting was most fair and best organized ever in the Maldives. Everyone knew the process cannot be perfect all they way long; since we are not particularly that good at anything, yet. HaveeruOnline just now broke the news that Human Rights Commission confirms the referendum’s process was satisfactory.

However, MDP and those rich who funded the parliamentary campaign can afford to do a lot more than just saying ‘we do not accept the result’. Since, yesterday, MDP has been calling for a gathering in front of People’s Majlis. Anni had to be removed today while trying to intimidate policing services. There has been fire and destruction caused. This time there surely was fire even on tourism minister’s car.

Government will not respect the public opinion polls’ result and the opposition will not accept the public referendums result. I guess this is what Winston Churchill meant when he said; “Democracy is the worst form of government. Except for all the others that have been tried from time to time”.

What can the people do now?