Stop patronizing us (and start doing your duty) Mr. President!

President Nasheed and his government now seem to be preoccupied with giving all sorts of allowances, pensions, residences, etc. to ex-president (the dictator) Gayyoom. Nasheed has given special security from the MNDF to Gayyoom (in apparent contravention to the constitution). Now the President’s Office has released a statement saying that the President does not encourage the public to play songs that tell the story of Gayyoom’s brutality and corruption!

Just because Nasheed got the presidency and a fat salary and a lot of prestige, he seems to have forgotten Gayyoom’s brutality. Does that mean that Evan Naseem’s mother will forget the pain of losing a son? Does that mean that Hussain Salah’s family will forget the distorted and tortured face of their son and brother? Does that mean that (Backbone) Mahir will regain the strength of his spine?

Just because Nasheed has now got the presidency, does that mean that someone will now come and give us back that USD 80 million that Zaki said that Gayyoom stole from us? Why isn’t Zaki talking about that USD 80 million now? Is it because that was an election ploy that he used to get votes?

When Nasheed wanted he and his campaign staff were able to call names to the so-called “Golhaabo”! Now that he has got the presidency he is taking the so-called moral high ground and asking us to respect Gayyoom, not call him names and give him hundreds of thousands of Rufiyaa every month from the state coffers!

We are MDP members. We voted for Nasheed. We will remain as MDP members. But just because Nasheed can sit in the comfy surroundings of the President’s Office while a cool breeze embrace him, while zillions of aids serve his every wish, please don’t patronize those of us who have suffered the brutality of the old dictator. No one is saying that we should harm him unjustly. No one is saying that we should call him names unjustly. But please don’t patronize us Mr. Nasheed.

It will be a slap on our collective faces if you (and the parliament that your coalition government controls) pass a bill giving all the luxury and financial packages and protection to a dictator who destroyed our lives and plundered a nation. We are not asking him to be jailed or punished. But at least ask the man to own up to his crimes and ask for our forgiveness specifically before you pass this patronizing bill!

Your government has brought about great changes and we trust you will continue along those lines to bring better development and prosperity and fairness to this nation. So we are 100% behind you on that. But please stop giving undue protection and undue grants and undue respect to a man who so-nearly killed you and actually killed many Maldivian sons like us! We can forgive Gayyoom as long as he owns up to his crimes instead of acting like an innocent victim of some political activists. Please trim-down the “fat bill” proposed by Gayyoom’s “second-lady” Aneesa.

Nasir took our money and fled! Gayyoom took so much from us and is daring to live amongst us as if nothing happened! And you expect us to play along and pretend that Gayyoom was our saviour and our hero and the father of democracy and all that gibberish?