Justice for Gayyoom and his cronies should be sought with swiftness and fairness

My mother who, like me, is a supporter of MDP and the reformist movement, was looking forward to the day when ex-dictator Gayyoom is brought to justice. But when the onset of that justice was seen Monday night, when Gayyoom was forcefully summoned to the Police Headquarters, my mother said that she felt a tinge of sympathy for Gayyoom.

It’s easy to feel that way since Maldivians are easygoing people who, not only forgive easily but forget easily too. My mother and many thousands of Maldivians would not easily forgive the many atrocities committed by Gayyoom’s ironfisted regime over a period of 30 years ending in 2008, but many Maldivians tend to forget those things when dictators such as Gayyoom paint a rosy picture and hide behind the “law”.

People such as Yamin and Gayyoom and Hameed can now easily pull the letters of the Law or the constitution and preach holier-than-thou prose when they were the ones who trampled that very Law in the past.
The drama that was played out live on Dhi-TV when Gayyoom was taken in to police headquarters for questioning was more enthralling than the infamous “Kasoati” itself. Tens of thousands of people were glued to the TV screens and many thousands more had their ears glued to the live broadcasts on FM radio. Cell-phone networks were jammed and traffic became palpably heavy in Male' through the course of the Monday evening as rumours circulated through the city of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s arrest.

Angry confrontations happened between Gayyoom’s supporters and the riot police. Eventually Gayyoom was summoned to the Police by force. Now the Court has released a temporary ruling which prevents any forceful summon of Gayyoom or Yamin to the Presidential Commission or the Police.

Despite some apparent resistance from various directions, the government must not be discouraged from seeking justice. All efforts must be concerted to bring all the rogue elements from the ex-regime to justice. No one (as Gayyoom has told in the infamous BBC interview) is “above the law”. Hence his own words should apply to himself and his brothers or friends or whoever. If Gayyoom believes he is innocent then he should have nothing to hide. Any delays in the current investigations would be seen as a weakness on the part of the government. Justice should be sought with fairness and swiftness.