Maldivians becoming congenital liars
| DATE: 2007-09-20 | PRINT | Share
There is no doubt that the average Maldivian is now caught up in a web of lies -- lies repeated so many times that they have now literally become the truth as Hitler’s right hand man Goebbels would have been happy to point out.
When rumors spread that the then president of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra), who is still the Male MP for parliament and a member of the People’s Special Majlis, the interim constitutional assembly tasked with amending the constitution by November 30 so that Maldives will become the world’s first truly liberal Islamic democracy, he at the time denied the rumors.
He had claimed that there was no conflict between him and MDP chairman Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) but a week later the façade fell away, and we saw Ibra leave the presidency of Maldives’ first registered political party in recent history to form his own Social Liberal Party.
He may have had his reasons for denying the rumors at the time, but for the general public, it was downright simple: he had lied. Publicly.
Likewise President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom earlier told the Maldivian people on national television that the authorities had no choice but to shoot at people when inmates from Maafushi prison tried to overtake the arsenal there by force following the torture and murder by security officers of inmate Evan Naseem on 19 September 2003.
Later, the President “retracted” his statement and said that the “junior security personnel” shot and killed some inmates not under the direct orders of any authoritative figure -- thus redeeming himself and former state defense minister Anbaree Abdul Sattar of any responsibility and guilt of shooting the Maafushi prison inmates.
While in bureaucratic circles, there may have been “technical” reasons behind the President’s “error”, the fact for the general public remains that he lied.
“He lied, and that’s what led me to lose all my confidence in him. I trusted him until that very day but now I know there is something very wrong with our system,” says a senior public servant who asked not to be named. The fact that she claimed to be among the segment of the Maldivian society who “didn’t give much attention to politics and would rather enjoy the Hindi soaps on Star Plus cable television channel,” reflects how “official lies” have resulted in the loss of confidence in the incumbent government even among common people.
And quite recently, former Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed in the presence of the President at a ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party meeting refuted rumors that he was planning to resign from the Cabinet. But immediately after the August 18 referendum in which the government’s endorsed US-style powerful executive presidency won over the opposition-backed Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, we immediately saw Shaheed resign.
Though behind the curtains there may be goings-on that we feeble minds may not be able to grasp fully, the fact for the general public remains this: the former foreign minister had lied.
If only Maldivians realized the importance of truthfulness, honesty and sincerity as the catalyst by which humans become civilized and gentle living creatures.
Apparently, the virus of lying have spread like an epidemic ever since we got the freedoms to flaunt it in whatever unethical way we can. Politicians, government officials, civil servants, members of political parties and MPs of both the parliament and the interim constitutional assembly are publicly lying, lies for which they have been exposed beyond a shadow of doubt.
Perhaps, the blatant lying that is evident at the Majlis sessions now televised may be a reason why the general public may have lost confidence in a parliamentary system and instead voted overwhelming for a presidential system despite their overwhelming support for the opposition. People are apprehensive of handing over the reigns of the country to a band of congenital liars who address themselves as “honorable MPs” but in reality act like dishonorable hooligans. Even when I went to cast my own vote, the foremost question on my mind was, who was going to control these unreliable MPs in a parliamentary system which will work only in a civilized country like Britain where word and honor are held as the highest values?
Lying has now reached such proportions that nowadays when somebody even tells the truth, people perceive it to be a lie. The damage is already done. It will now be a superhuman task to win back the trust and confidence of the masses.
Lying has been the tradition of government officials as long as I remember. Some lies are made to keep the population “in harmony and in peace.”
For instance, President Gayoom’s earlier claim that the current flawed constitution is an “exceptional example of an excellent constitution” is a blatant lie that will be detected by even a child who happens to have what we call common sense as is his lie that “Maldives is a unique democracy.” Any person will know it’s a lie because the constitution has so many clauses which are undemocratic and the Maldivian government has failed to protect the basic rights of its citizens.
Even then some right-thinking people had recognized the lies for what they were though they could not express it because freedom of expression and the press were not allowed until the riots of September 2003 which forced President Gayoom to turn from autocrat to democrat overnight.
Lying has since then become a common “pastime” for politicians. It is the easiest thing any government official or an opposition party member can do -- and seem not even ashamed of to be doing. I wonder whether they are even aware of the harm they are causing by lying, as their sole aims seems to be doing whatever they can to score political points. But in the end will it really help to canvass mass support for them? I doubt.
Therefore, at this critical juncture, it is important to have our consciousness raised in order to expose corrupt politicians for who they really are.
Due to the traditional “laid back” attitude of Maldivians’ towards lying, because small island cultures with little communities where everyone knows the affairs of all others mostly result in a vicious gossip “holhuashi” culture, politicians seem not to care about the gravity and seriousness of such a thing as lying, which goes against the very foundations of humanity and intelligence, the thin line that defines humans from unthinking beasts.
The situation became worse when press freedom was given and political parties were allowed to function. The opposition perceives everything the government says as not being true, and this pretext is used by the opposition to counter what it claims government’s lies with a set of lies of its own! The result has been to create a climate of lying, and amidst this atmosphere of mistrust, the common person is not sure what this means for our political future. Is Maldives going to become another failed state? Right now Maldives enjoys the fact that it is not on the United Nations’ “failed states” list like Nepal, but how long will this status remain?
Both the parliament and the interim constitutional assembly seem to be in a deadlock, with no end in sight to the squabbling among MPs. Perhaps, the way forward will be for the common person to take the matter of lying more seriously, rather than giving it a lax attitude. Perhaps if we withdraw our unquestioning support for the politicians and MPs who continue to keep up their web of lies, we may yet be able to teach them a hard lesson, and show them that the way forward, like for all civilizations, is always the path of honesty, truth, and sincerity.--HNS
| DATE: 2007-09-20 | PRINT | Share
There is no doubt that the average Maldivian is now caught up in a web of lies -- lies repeated so many times that they have now literally become the truth as Hitler’s right hand man Goebbels would have been happy to point out.
When rumors spread that the then president of the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra), who is still the Male MP for parliament and a member of the People’s Special Majlis, the interim constitutional assembly tasked with amending the constitution by November 30 so that Maldives will become the world’s first truly liberal Islamic democracy, he at the time denied the rumors.
He had claimed that there was no conflict between him and MDP chairman Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) but a week later the façade fell away, and we saw Ibra leave the presidency of Maldives’ first registered political party in recent history to form his own Social Liberal Party.
He may have had his reasons for denying the rumors at the time, but for the general public, it was downright simple: he had lied. Publicly.
Likewise President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom earlier told the Maldivian people on national television that the authorities had no choice but to shoot at people when inmates from Maafushi prison tried to overtake the arsenal there by force following the torture and murder by security officers of inmate Evan Naseem on 19 September 2003.
Later, the President “retracted” his statement and said that the “junior security personnel” shot and killed some inmates not under the direct orders of any authoritative figure -- thus redeeming himself and former state defense minister Anbaree Abdul Sattar of any responsibility and guilt of shooting the Maafushi prison inmates.
While in bureaucratic circles, there may have been “technical” reasons behind the President’s “error”, the fact for the general public remains that he lied.
“He lied, and that’s what led me to lose all my confidence in him. I trusted him until that very day but now I know there is something very wrong with our system,” says a senior public servant who asked not to be named. The fact that she claimed to be among the segment of the Maldivian society who “didn’t give much attention to politics and would rather enjoy the Hindi soaps on Star Plus cable television channel,” reflects how “official lies” have resulted in the loss of confidence in the incumbent government even among common people.
And quite recently, former Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed in the presence of the President at a ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party meeting refuted rumors that he was planning to resign from the Cabinet. But immediately after the August 18 referendum in which the government’s endorsed US-style powerful executive presidency won over the opposition-backed Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, we immediately saw Shaheed resign.
Though behind the curtains there may be goings-on that we feeble minds may not be able to grasp fully, the fact for the general public remains this: the former foreign minister had lied.
If only Maldivians realized the importance of truthfulness, honesty and sincerity as the catalyst by which humans become civilized and gentle living creatures.
Apparently, the virus of lying have spread like an epidemic ever since we got the freedoms to flaunt it in whatever unethical way we can. Politicians, government officials, civil servants, members of political parties and MPs of both the parliament and the interim constitutional assembly are publicly lying, lies for which they have been exposed beyond a shadow of doubt.
Perhaps, the blatant lying that is evident at the Majlis sessions now televised may be a reason why the general public may have lost confidence in a parliamentary system and instead voted overwhelming for a presidential system despite their overwhelming support for the opposition. People are apprehensive of handing over the reigns of the country to a band of congenital liars who address themselves as “honorable MPs” but in reality act like dishonorable hooligans. Even when I went to cast my own vote, the foremost question on my mind was, who was going to control these unreliable MPs in a parliamentary system which will work only in a civilized country like Britain where word and honor are held as the highest values?
Lying has now reached such proportions that nowadays when somebody even tells the truth, people perceive it to be a lie. The damage is already done. It will now be a superhuman task to win back the trust and confidence of the masses.
Lying has been the tradition of government officials as long as I remember. Some lies are made to keep the population “in harmony and in peace.”
For instance, President Gayoom’s earlier claim that the current flawed constitution is an “exceptional example of an excellent constitution” is a blatant lie that will be detected by even a child who happens to have what we call common sense as is his lie that “Maldives is a unique democracy.” Any person will know it’s a lie because the constitution has so many clauses which are undemocratic and the Maldivian government has failed to protect the basic rights of its citizens.
Even then some right-thinking people had recognized the lies for what they were though they could not express it because freedom of expression and the press were not allowed until the riots of September 2003 which forced President Gayoom to turn from autocrat to democrat overnight.
Lying has since then become a common “pastime” for politicians. It is the easiest thing any government official or an opposition party member can do -- and seem not even ashamed of to be doing. I wonder whether they are even aware of the harm they are causing by lying, as their sole aims seems to be doing whatever they can to score political points. But in the end will it really help to canvass mass support for them? I doubt.
Therefore, at this critical juncture, it is important to have our consciousness raised in order to expose corrupt politicians for who they really are.
Due to the traditional “laid back” attitude of Maldivians’ towards lying, because small island cultures with little communities where everyone knows the affairs of all others mostly result in a vicious gossip “holhuashi” culture, politicians seem not to care about the gravity and seriousness of such a thing as lying, which goes against the very foundations of humanity and intelligence, the thin line that defines humans from unthinking beasts.
The situation became worse when press freedom was given and political parties were allowed to function. The opposition perceives everything the government says as not being true, and this pretext is used by the opposition to counter what it claims government’s lies with a set of lies of its own! The result has been to create a climate of lying, and amidst this atmosphere of mistrust, the common person is not sure what this means for our political future. Is Maldives going to become another failed state? Right now Maldives enjoys the fact that it is not on the United Nations’ “failed states” list like Nepal, but how long will this status remain?
Both the parliament and the interim constitutional assembly seem to be in a deadlock, with no end in sight to the squabbling among MPs. Perhaps, the way forward will be for the common person to take the matter of lying more seriously, rather than giving it a lax attitude. Perhaps if we withdraw our unquestioning support for the politicians and MPs who continue to keep up their web of lies, we may yet be able to teach them a hard lesson, and show them that the way forward, like for all civilizations, is always the path of honesty, truth, and sincerity.--HNS
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