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A Nation Sold Out!


We often talk about how corrupt are the politicians and those who are in high offices. I would say all of us are bonded through the chain corruption.
  1. First we sell our vote to the highest bidder, digging our own grave.
  2. The members than sell his/her vote to the Ultimate Buyer for money, position, power and so on
  3. The Ultimate Buyer, instead of meeting our demands, controls the members through the chain of corruption; we become helpless and our hopes for a decent life and a prosperous future gone.
  4. We cry, and whine saying how corrupt is the Majlis, the government and each and everyone who are in positions of power.
  5. After 21 days* we forget about everything and go about our lives and in between if some need arise, we beg the member or the Ultimate Buyer
  6. the member or the Ultimate buyer fulfills the need, on the promise of selling our vote again.
It’s a vicious circle

My request
  1. to Mps - to include vote buying/selling undue inducement as a criminal offence under electoral Law with sever punishments for the seller and the buyer
  2. to NGOs- A campaign on “Selling your vote is selling your (or islands') future or Don’t sell your vote” is perhaps more important than Go Vote campaign.
  3. To religious scholars and Adhalath Party- campaign to educate voters on bribery and punishment for that
  4. Anybody (Maldives Election watch, SLP,? ) interested in doing a study on the topic. the results could be an eye opener to plan for future.
and please target the island NGOs, ‘cause normally vote buyers first buy the island NGOs, which often are the most powerful group in island politics. The next is the individual power brokers and lastly the ordinary people.

*A theory reportedly came from the house of Ultimate Buyer, which says attention span of Maldivians lasts for only 21 days and if you can sustain till than, you can get away with anything.


For those interested in reading laws on vote buying and voting offences here are some links.

Election offences- local electorate act 2001 NZ
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:p1Xme6_8uHMJ:www.northshorecity.govt.nz/PDFs/Elections/Booklet/Election-offences.pdf+voting+offences&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=mv

Electoral act 2002 aus, victoria
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ea2002103/s151.html

Ghana criminal code makes vote buying an offence http://business.africanpath.com/article.cfm?articleID=48279
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Some NGO's ran a campaign on vote selling during the barulamaane/Riyaasee referendum.Hopefully there current campaigns I choose and GoVote will reach the public specially in the islands and make them think before they sell down their future to this corrupt government.
30 July 2008 at 22:04
Maldivian Devil said…
Thought-provoking read. My take on this is that we sell our vote to the highest bidder because we are not in a position to say "NO" economically (as well as a lot of people being morally bankrupt!) The country has gone down the drain so badly that we are left with no choice but to sell even our souls just to get by, leave alone the ballot paper. I subscribe to your requests to the MPs etc but I would also request them to dig us out of this hellhole we are in at the moment and give us something to live by together with some self-respect and dignity. As long as we have to go and beg the President to get medical treatment to our ailing mothers and fathers just so that they could survive for another few more months, then we would never be able to get out of this "sell my vote" territory.
30 July 2008 at 23:37
muiz said…
good article! the nation has/is being sold out. A lot of education and awareness HAS to be carried out to the people of the Maldives. without awareness of the rights of the people, from whom all powers 'originate' in a democracy, the latter will not being to function. all intellectuals and everyone who are concerned about our future have got to start working on this.
31 July 2008 at 02:25
Muna Mohamed said…
thank you all for comenting. the situation is real bad in islands.

i heard a certain member and hopeful vice president is on a buying spree. buying NGOs in key islands. some one has to stop it.

on the other hand before requesting for aid and medical ppl are joining drp and they submit their requests with drp card.

i think adhaalath and mps can do a lot to combat this situation.
31 July 2008 at 07:57
Anonymous said…
You do get the point across, but are the solutions doable?

Unless we have our people totally and unequivocally committed to change, we'd add another 5 year term to the 30 being served.

Some of us are happy with the system as it is, for whatever little financial (insignificant) gain we get from voting. That is the truth. We really don't know what is good for us!

It is not ignorance! It is selfishness and unwillingness to work for our own wellbeing. We want change, but we want someone else to make the effort and pay with their sweat and blood for our wellbeing. We are lazy, cowards and pathetically (and pathologically) apathic.
31 July 2008 at 11:42
Anonymous said…
the article is very true indeed. but we should also raise questions as to why we are the way we are...i am sure something is missing..dont u think? i think its lack of political awareness..the link that holds us all together as a nation...the effects it has on our personal lives. still today although not too many, a significant amount of maldivians do consider political involvement to be a waste of time.. what such people woud normally say is...how can we invest time and thought on politics when everything in our life is a mess...like housing..health care and education... they dont know that it has been our ignorance on politics that has led to these messy conditions in the first place....
even if we institute a democracy in the near future, it might be impossible to sustain democracy with out civic education for citizens....cause democracy is rule of the common people..the commoners need to be involved in full.
if men were angels, no government would be neccessary. if angels were to govern men, no external or internal controls on government would be necessary ..surely it is the dependence on the people which is the primary control on government.but if the people were to exercise that control, they should be both informed and engaged as citizens.The founding generation of America, took seriously the need for education as insurance against the loss of liberty.
Thomas jefferson wrote“EVERY GOVERNMENT DEGENERATES WHEN TRUSTED TO THE RULERS…. THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES THEREFORE ARE ITS ONLY SAFE DEPOSITORIES. AND TO RENDER EVEN THEM SAFE, THEIR MINDS MUST BE IMPROVED.”
28 August 2008 at 15:15
Muna Mohamed said…
anonymous 15.15

cant agree more. we should never trust a human being who are in positions of power (Power corrupts). all of us are naturally corruptible. what i think is - all the religions to laws and system of government are tools to safeguard all of us from our own nature (the bad side) and its consequences. the problem is that the masses dont realize (or have lost faith in) the importance of a system of governence that address such issues or the link between justice/clean government and prosperity. :(
2 September 2008 at 22:58
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