Maldives : Hope is born.
– the struggle for liberty is just beginning.
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
9/2/07 Maldives (ANS) — Five hundred kilometres south-west of the southern-most tip of India is a series of coral atolls. Looking like a patch of emerald sequins, the Republic of Maldives stretches 885km across the Indian Ocean . It might look extravagantly beautiful, but the Republic of Maldives has long been one of the world’s most repressive Islamic police states. This name synonymous with luxury and elite tourism is also synonymous with totalitarian dictatorship and violent political and religious repression involving gross human rights abuses.
This longer posting concerns the issue of reform in Maldives . In 2004, to placate swelling domestic and international opposition, President Gayoom started a reform program that he didn’t actually want and has been working hard ever since to obstruct and circumvent. But while Gayoom has been quite successful at delivering reform that is still-born, the promise of reform has given birth to real hope with real life, and a new hope for a ‘New Maldives’ is rising. Gayoom may have won this round, but it is clear that this new hope and life has a momentum and determination that will not be stopped.
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RELIGIOUS REPRESSION IN MALDIVES
Some dozens of Maldivians became Christians through the late 1980s and 1990s after Christian literature and gospel radio became available in the national language, Dhivehi. Even though these believers were ostracised and persecuted for their faith, they treasured the gospel radio broadcasts from Seychelles and were prepared to risk much to hear the gospel teachings and possess the newly published Dhivehi language gospels which had been smuggled in for the newborn church.
In June 1998, up to 50 local Christians were arrested, imprisoned and tortured in the notorious political prison of Dhoonidhoo, a tiny island close to the capital of Male. Up to 25 foreign workers were detained and their possessions confiscated before they were expelled from the country on allegations of missionary activity. The Maldivians were arrested for being Christians and while in prison they were under intense pressure to participate in Islamic rituals and return to Islam. As a result of loud international protest, the Christian prisoners were released in November that year.
POLITICAL UNREST
After a prisoner was tortured to death in September 2003, domestic and international outrage swelled to a crescendo. President Gayoom placated the mounting opposition by promising to create and implement a reform agenda. The reforms that Gayoom put forward in June 2004 were radical. He promised changes to the constitution that would limit presidential powers, permit political parties, separate the powers of the executive from the judiciary, introduce the office of Prime Minister and increase liberties. (Link 1)
However it took Gayoom less than two months to renege. On Thursday 12 August 2004, around 5000 pro-democracy supporters filled the streets of Male calling on the government to release five pro-democracy activists who had been arrested on 9 August. They also called for the resignation of the anti-democracy hardliners in Gayoom’s government. The protesters gathered in
But Gayoom was advancing some reform. He was engaged in the process of legal reform and was preparing to formulate “the world’s first criminal code of modern format that is based upon the principles of Shari’a”. Daniel Pipes noted at the time that Gayoom was being assisted in this project by American legal experts and academics from the University of Pennsylvania Law School who were convinced that the Sharia promotes social justice. Pipes, who was horrified, protested: “The Shari’a needs to be rejected as a state law code, not made prettier.” (Link 3)
The December 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami devastated Maldives and forced President Gayoom to re-address the issues of openness and reform for the purpose of reconstruction. But it has been more than three years since reforms were first promised and nothing has changed. Or has it?
REFERENDUM
On 18 August 2007, Maldivians turned out for their chance to choose what style of government they would prefer: a US-style Presidential system or a British-style Parliamentary system. A new constitution will be drafted by November and elections will be held in 2008.
In many ways the referendum was a vote on the popularity (or otherwise) of Gayoom. Gayoom, who monopolised the media during the campaign period, was of course advocating a strong presidency, while the opposition, which is totally fed up with presidential abuses of power, was advocating a parliamentary system.
There has been so much discontent in Maldives that Gayoom has frequently been described in the Western media as being embattled, losing his grip on power or of running a “failing dictatorship”.
Prior to the referendum, those opposed to Gayoom – many in the media, some in Gayoom’s government and all those other Maldivians frustrated by the slowness of reform and the government’s human rights abuses – were anticipating change. “Wind of change stirs in Maldives as President’s iron grip weakens”, by Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent for the Times (17 Aug) is one pre-referendum piece that well described the mood. (Link 4)
On 18 August, the people of Maldives voted. For an interesting selection of opinions on the fairness and the choice, see “Referendum: Maldives Speaks” (link 5)
Whilst Gayoom’s opponents felt positive before the referendum, that air of anticipation quickly evaporated after the referendum with Gayoom sweeping to victory. Now the opposition forces are crying foul. (Link 6)
But there are two possibilities: (1) that Gayoom is not as unpopular as it had been widely thought; (2) that the referendum was rigged and the result was fraudulent. < /p>
Underneath Jeremy Page’s “Winds of Change. . .” article in The Times (link 3) is a “Have your say” spot. One respondent writes from Male, Maldives: “I’m ashamed of the lies you have printed on this article, our great and holy leader has done so much for us for the past 30 years, commoners are never thankful for what our great leader has done for us, we are the richest people in asia because of him, we are muslims because of him and we are so happy today because of him, our great leader Gayoom is a direct dissendent of the holy prophet and we should always obey and listen to him. There are just a few christian minded people in the Maldives who oppose our great and holy leader [sic throughout]”
This response is a blatant demonstration of what results when political leaders use religion (in this case Islam) to legitimise their rule, as Gayoom has done. (Also, from what I understand, the term “Christian” in this response is used primarily as a swear word, an obscenity, a bit of offensive name-calling. E.g., change-minded equals “Christian-minded” equals positively evil.)
REFORM STAGGERS WHILE ISLAM GALLOPS
Gayoom has long promoted himself as the guardian and supreme propagator of Islam in the Maldives . His government retains considerable control over imams and preachers in the country through the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and so it is interesting that over recent years while reforms have stalled, Islamisation has progressed at a remarkable rate.
Two articles that examine the progress of Islamisation and radicalisation in Maldives are: “Stormclouds over the Indian Ocean: Behind the veil in the Maldives “, by Meera Selva, 5 Oct 2006, (link 7) and “Is Islam A Threat To The Maldives?” by Taimour Lay, 8 Oct 2006 (link 8).
Selva notes that Maldives culture is being Arabised, that women’s traditional colourful dresses are being replaced with black burkas, that little girls no longer play outside, that men are growing beards and asserting their dominance, while foreign-funded mosques and madrassas are proliferating. Selva comments that “individual preachers have been advocating a more radical version of Islam on the poorer islands which are cut off from the mainstream media”. She says that while the government has been cracking down on political opponents, “fundamentalist preachers have continued with their mission in the villages, using simple language and dangerously persuasive arguments to convert people to a more radical Islam”. (Link 7)
Selva comments that while the government is aware of political unrest and rising Islamic fundamentalism, “The government prefers to divert attention away from its shortcomings by arguing that the real threat to stability in the Maldives comes from Christianity, not a lack of democracy. This view sometimes seems to border on paranoia. This April [2006], for example, the minister of fisheries ordered the residents of Kulhudhuffushi island to tear down their new $75,000 indoor market built by Maldives Aid, a UK-based charity, because it was funded by ‘Christian missionaries’. School teachers from nearby Sri Lanka and India are regularly expelled from the island for trying to convert Maldivian citizens to Christianity.”
Selva quotes one Maldivian commentator as saying: “The government respects Islam but is not Islamic. However, if the government does not act soon, it will find itself overtaken by a more extreme power, instead of the pro-democracy forces it so fears.”
Selva’s analysis is that Islamic fundamentalism has increased as the government has been distracted with other issues. She also claims that fundamentalism rises because “93 per cent of the population are illiterate”, and therefore the “word-of-mouth form of conversion can be remarkably effective”. In other words, she lays the blame at the feet of foreign Islamic fundamentalist preachers exploiting Maldivian ignorance while the government is not looking.
However, this analysis is not universally held. For a start, according to UNESCO “96.3% of adults and 98.2% of youth are literate”. (Link 9)
The second article, which was written by Taimour Lay and published in Minivan (independent news for Maldives : http://www.minivannews.com/ ) questions Selva’s analysis. Lay says: “The increasing popularity of ‘conservative’ Islam across the Maldives cannot be denied, but there is no consensus over its actual extent, and what is precisely fuelling it. The government blames foreign preachers. The opposition blames Gayoom and the politics of control. Other analysts point to broader economic and sociological changes that may, or may not, prove reversible in the medium term.” (Link 8)
Lay continues: “Many in the opposition think it inconceivable that Gayoom has not sanctioned the spread of more radical ideas. Under Article 38 of the constitution, Gayoom is the ‘supreme authority to propagate the tenets of Islam in the Maldives ‘.
“Discussion of religious freedom is ‘vigorously denied and the few that dare to raise their voices are denounced and threatened’, the UN Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir concluded after her visit in August. She raised the cases o f several Muslims imprisoned for preaching ‘unsanctioned doctrines’.” (In this case I understand that ‘unsanctioned doctrines’ relate primarily to messages against the government’s corruption, dictatorship and political repression.)
Lay also notes that the goal of Gayoom’s law reform is a criminal code based on Sharia! He writes: “There is considerable evidence that President Gayoom is responsible for the trend [Islamisation, rising fundamentalism], since he has long seen Islam as both a moral buttress for his personal authority and a useful tool of social control.”
Lay continues: “Gayoom’s attempt to portray himself as ‘protector of Islam’ in the Maldives , against unspecified foreign threats, has helped to create a paranoid atmosphere in which radical ideas have spread. Conservative supporters of the government, particularly on isolated islands, often say that ‘Islam will only be safe with Gayoom’ – testament to the president’s success in undermining the Islamic credentials of the MDP.”
As Lay notes, drug taking , endemic poverty and repression are all factors driving increasingly desperate Maldivians towards Islam in the hope that it will solve their problems. This is a common trend where Islam is believed to be the only alternative to corruption, poverty and repression. Isolation is the best friend of all those dictators and systems that cannot survive in an open and free environment.
HOPE
Most interestingly, Lay does not believe that Islam will continue to flourish in Maldives . He notes that the population is overwhelmingly young, literate and increasingly well educated and well connected. As such, he notes, they “are unlikely to be seduced en masse by teachings that decry their social and economic freedoms. Some observers think that conservative Islam is reaching its high-water mark now and will begin to decline once political change accelerates. . . I think it very unlikely that a majority of young men and women here will be voting for very conservative parties after 2008. They a re more interested in jobs and marriage and Hindi pop music than imposing restrictions on themselves.”
NEW CONSTITUTION
According to the reform agenda a new constitution will now be drawn up by November, in advance of multi-party elections in 2008. Hopefully the new constitution will enshrine real, not illusory, liberties. However, the fact that Gayoom’s US-approved legal reform produced a criminal code based on Sharia doesn’t inspire much optimism.
HOPE
While Gayoom has been quite successful at delivering reform that is still-born, the promise of reform has given birth and life to a genuine reform movement.
Three reformist young-guard members of Gayoom’s cabinet resigned in August in protest over the slowness of reforms. They are Attorney-General Dr Hassan Saeed and Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel, who both resigned on 5 August; and Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed who resigned on 19 August.
Dr Hassan Saeed and Dr Ahmed Shaheed were key a rchitects of the June 2004 reform agenda. Both men earned their PhDs at the University of Queensland , Australia . Dr Hassan Saeed has written a book on Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam (2004) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freedom-Religion-Apostasy-Islam-Hassan/dp/0754630838 which describes the law of apostasy as largely a religio-political tool and, according to Taimour Lay, “calls for ‘absolute’ freedom of religion to be permitted in modern Muslim societies and says punishments for apostasy should be discarded”.
Commenting on the 5 August resignations of the Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Minivan reports: “Dr Saeed said President Gayoom had blocked decrees on an independent judiciary and freedom of assembly. Jameel said, ‘the President has not done enough to control extremist Islam.’ ‘We submitted an action plan to control religious extremism, but the President has sat on it for six months,’ added Dr Saeed.” (Link 10)
Concerning the Foreign Minister’s 19 August resignation, Reuters reports: “Shaheed called Reut ers from the capital Male just before handing his resignation letter to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. ‘There is a conservative guard within the parliament and cabinet which is resisting the proposals of reformists like me,’ Shaheed told Reuters. ‘So I think the answer is to work outside the system and find a middle ground and provide an alternative.'” (Link 11)
Reuters adds that Dr Shaheed “will now join fellow reformists – the former justice minister and attorney-general who quit earlier this month and call themselves ‘New Maldives’ – to forge an alternative centre ground ahead of the first multi-party presidential elections next year.”
Minivan also reported that when the Attorney-General and Justice Minster resigned something quite new happened in Male: the resigning ministers held a press conference, which MinivanNews described as “the first public show of defiance by outgoing ministers under President Gayoom”. (Link 10, includes pictures)
There is hope for Maldives yet. The struggle for liberty is just beg inning.
