We need a new mindset

Albert Einstein is known to have famously said that  problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them. The truth in this is not hard to see. Problems are created when the homeostasis of life is disrupted. And it requires a mind to conjure up the event that made it happen. If that momentary imbalance becomes sustained over time then we have a problem. This happens in our lives all the time as we attempt to change a given situation we have to our advantage. Sometimes this is for personal gain and sometimes for a larger mandate. Most times these are attempts for personal gain for this is the primeval human desire

In politics too this is so evident everywhere and why not so even in our Maldives. After all we too have arrived to follow the global bandwagon, haven't we?  It seems that to gain personal political advantage we have to offer something radical to what the other regime may have been doing when in fact it's not what we promise to do but what we stand for that is the more important. However, what we stand for is often not explained because it is not easy to conceive, describe and market a whole attitude. What is much more easier is to pander to the emotions of a constituency by giving them what they seem to urgently want. And this comes in the form of material things that people can touch and feel and perceive with their five senses. Money, in whatever form, is the easiest and this is what is promised or doled out fastest and so most frequently; tax cuts, business opportunities, permits, contracts, loans, lucrative jobs, etc. Then comes the next level at the community or island level; harbours, roads, sewerage, running water, flats etc. Now, in all these cases we must realise that the sustainability factor for the receiver for a contented life thereon is very low. At best it's just a breather to settle a temporary glitch in the voter’s life. Yes, we soon run out of that money, businesses fail, loans drag us into debt,  and flats, before long when the initial excitement of ownership wanes, leave us sad and alone and with the absence of a real community. These results leave us worse off and more helpless than ever before. And what of the community level stuff? These need constant care, and when, over time, these also degrade and breakdown and nobody comes to do the repairs, we complain and blame those who gave these to us for their cheap quality or the deceit and corruption that was mixed with such shady transactions. 

But then we quickly forget these past failings perhaps because most of us don't see the picture of our nation in the context of what damage it has done to our lives, and we ask for more from those who stand for election the next time. The public is kept in this flux,  regime after regime; fooled every time. Sad to say we the public never realise it because our egos show us the way to doubt and blame; it tells us it's not our foolishness but the craftiness of those shady politicians and that we are entitled also to have some of the benefits upfront of what they will take later when they win and are in control of the national coffer. In one breath we are right because politicians are always crafty and many a time downright unscrupulous. But in another breath it would be wise to realise that we are also very gullible or our ego makes us so. We are short sighted and either way, we are to blame.

When the constitution says power comes from the people we don't really believe it with our heart. These words are just perfect for wily politicians and crafty lawyers but such a deep concept doesn't seem to ring a bell in our very politically naive public mind. Naturally, because Maldives have for centuries been a kingdom, our leaders have always had a distaste for the public’s involvement in national governance. Even in our post independence period since the late 60s the enlightening civics classes in our schools that lingered for a few years were soon removed from the curriculum and our enthusiasm for the political dimension squelched. Any university education in this major of political science was also visibly discouraged. More encouraged were the neutral preparations of doctors and nurses engineers and accountants. All a harmless bunch who will not be any threat to the ruling elite.

Let's ask. Why don’t the politicians have any other long term moral and unselfish agenda? Why do they get into politics in the first place? Why do they abase themselves to go to their constituencies to beg for the vote and promise to do whatever the public demands when they get elected? Often most of those who stand have no social record of good they have done for society in their past. Are we hoodwinked every time they make promises? How stupid can we be! I have had friends who have told me they were going into politics because that is the most lucrative. Many may not voice this but do we truly believe that they run so hard and sweaty just get to the top and do good for us with love and compassion in their hearts? Let's not be fooled. They don't want to change the system that gives them the advantage. They do want the checks and balances system of a democratic process in place, but they don't want to close the loopholes from where they can creep through to be “legitimately” corruptive. They hide behind the rules and say it's according to the law when in fact the party gangs together with other like minded bipartisan supporters to pass lucrative laws that will benefit the party clan. And they go their merry corruptive ways with impunity.

Let’s wake up and make our country moral again. Only in morality lies truthfulness and sustainability of humaneness. Tell me I'm a starry-eyed idealist. But without some idealism there is not going to be any human progress? To be a nation that has some identity (not for ego boost but for moral boost) and celebrate our diversity in a global village. We don't want every city of ours to be an americom (Tom Friedman’s short for American Community) and have the whole world in a straight-jacket following the capitalist model of development. Don’t each nation have a celebrated diversity? While we can strive for the commonality of moral rectitude, we can be at the same time as diverse in our local ways as our God-given colours or shapes and sizes are diverse. Why do we have to conform and subordinate our ways to the ways of development or modernisation as someone else defined? Do we blindly espouse the moral degradation also that is a part of this model and that which we are witnessing before our very eyes? Or do we choose to celebrate our difference? Are we ashamed of our religious and social culture? What makes another's way more superior? Is money the factor that makes us better or an inner dimension of goodness and humbleness that makes us more reverent? Isn't it this reverence that elevates us to the grade of human beings we are supposed to be?

Sadly our present politics debase us into voiceless objects. We say we have a democratic constitution and democratic means to govern with our consent; the consent of the people, when in fact we are prisoners of our own conscience; that conscience that still dictates where we are -  to be subordinate to our leaders when in fact we should treat our leaders as first among equals with us. That can only happen when we can truly begin to respect each other. It is when we don't have the urge as leaders to feel condescending, hide their bodies away from the public in darkened vehicles, darken the windows to their souls behind expensive sunglasses and angry rhetoric and feel too haughty to walk unashamed on wobbly or flooded streets like the poor do; learning nothing from the serene example from our beloved Prophet who did walk the streets and public markets in humbleness. Whose examples do we as Muslims follow?

Yes we need different mindsets to change our nation. Youth of our nation. Please learn new ways to lead and please don't follow the ways of the politicians we have had in the past and even now who attempt to usurp the reigns of power and leave us stalled for for these recurring spates of 5 years when hopes are raised with the ballot and then shattered soon after.

I would implore the new President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who is a marked difference to those who have warmed that seat in the past, to usher in a new age of democracy where the public is kept in confidence not through doling out presents but giving them the tools with which to be the movers and shakers of a new era rather than merely be the recipients of doled out largesse. Teach us how to fish rather than give us a fish every day. Make each citizen enthusiastic for the vibrant future we so want for our children. Give us a new set of morally endowed governors that will have the interest of the public in mind rather than their own. Don't just crowd your cabinet with those who merely seek a recompense for the electoral labor they put in, but those with proven technical and managerial and the wisdom that deserve those seats. This new Maldives don’t merely want the glass and concrete development; it wants you to invest more in the growth and proliferation of the moral and wise citizen (as opposed to the wiley and the corrupt). It wants a focus on more relevant education that will nurture creative minds who will build a more rational and caring future; not just bodies to pass the GCE exam. It wants health care that is truly healthful, not just shiny and expensive edifices where we are crowded into when we are sick and given half a dozen lab tests and scores of tablets and capsules to swallow, but don't care about showing us how to live healthy and be preventive in our social and mental attitude and lifestyle. We want a spiritual environment where we can invest in our inner moral values of islam; not the hypocrisy and heedlessness that degrade our soul This is the change that we need.

Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past. Be aware that this election was a great Blessing from above! Let's never forget the fear our nation was going through as regards our future even up to the very day of the election this September and the continued uncertainty and fear of the possibility of a verdict of negation and a calling for another to follow. Please don't let the Great Deceiver Satan have the day. Let Allah be our guide. Not in lip service but in deed, with the inspiration for it coming from our hearts.  

Please keep the Etihad alive and don't allow that Great Whisperer Shaitan to influence cracks and divisions amongst the four leaders. Realise that Shaitan is an enemy of unimaginable power that can put any sentient human despot to nothing. We have this power still to fight against and win through our inner sacrifices. This is the test for us with you in the lead to pass in these next five years and demonstrate the proof of your loyalty to the trust we the people of Maldives have given you in this historic election. This is a great responsibility for you. Difficult as the winning may have been, the governing surely will be many times more difficult. Your banding together in a coalition and working cohesively and being supported by party enthusiasts may have been the auspicious preparations for winning, but realise also in the very next breath that the act of winning was possible only because Allah Willed. Alhamdulillah! Are we so cocky that it will always happen? No we shouldn't! Let’s appreciate and be grateful for this blessing. Lets not weep later in regret.

So our loyalty to keep this trust becomes ever more absolute. Not just for us public’s sake alone but for a much higher cause. Let it not count as a betrayal to our Lord, our Creator. Let the glitter of power of position NOT carry you to delusion. InshaAllah there is a new intelligent youth rising and they may not think like you. Let the Millennials score a good report card for you as a turning point for a new and moral Maldive Islands.

Welcome back Ithihad!

Streets filled to the brim with supporters who have to come to greet, tells of a man who is popular. And that is just what we see on the streets of Male on this momentous day in our lives, the 1^st of November 2018 as Anni sets foot in Male after months in voluntary exile.

We say welcome and hold in dearness when good things happen or when we feel hope bubbling in our blood. It is warming to see a nation flocking to the sight of a leader. Come as it may, opinions may differ, but when such a swarm of human beings congregate in such mind boggling numbers for our small nation, there needs to be acceptance of the truth of the public’s pulse. Arguably, we have not witnessed even in the most vociferous street demonstrations in our nation, this kind of a turnout. So, it must mean something that is primeval; something that comes from the deep emotions of our being; something true and sincere.

To be dumped behind bars in isolation from those one loves for only fabricated reasons is deceit and treachery of the highest order. The fact that no leader in a democratic nation should govern with such impunity attest to reality of our little corner of paradise falling from grace in the comity of nations. We rejoice in your release and celebrate your sacrifice.

Anni and his MDP has no doubt been the energy that has spearheaded the Ithihad movement at the international level, and which has been the key factor in bringing the shameful and wicked regime of the past five years in our country to its knees. For this we must be celebrating the fruit of the Ithihad and no doubt the key role Nasheed played. To say he deserves the accolade is an understatement.  Whatever party sensibility we belong to, we must share in the political opening we have to bring a new nation into being; a nation where we celebrate our local-ness and our moral calling once again. 

Let’s take pride that we still have that faith to rally around a new type of leader and a new idea that should take the lead in a reform movement that must truly spell reform. Something that is acceptable and sustainable. Something that will take us out of the depth of a corruptive and divisive national mindset into one of moral calling for a nation that is decent and whole.

Welcome back Anni to a rapturous applause. Welcome back President Maumoon, Gasim, Imran, and inshaaAllah those others also still waiting their turn soon.  Under the leadership of President Ibrahim Solih, may we have a new era that will reveal a true Maldivian identity; one arising out of what has been perilously deteriorating before our very eyes.

National identity - do we need it?

A nation does not become a nation without its people having a passion for nationhood. The founding fathers of any nation had that spice for nationhood inscribed in them by the historical precedents they lived in. Every nation had an oppressive history from which its people wanted to be free. This freedom came at a cost of bloodshed and lives lost in most cases for the colonizer wouldn't give up their prize cow without a fight in most cases for they owned their prize cow for centuries. They invested in it in selfishness or not in its social institutions and its economics. But when times changed and the world clamored for this change whose time had come, the tipping point makes for these communal transitions; to nations big and small that is vested in democratic garments of sovereignty and human dignity and equal rights for all its peoples. The new nations while they had inherited centuries of foreign ways, they nevertheless tired to maintain their national identity in symbols such as statues of their martyrs, national flags and national anthems and celebrating their history in the birthdays and events that marked milestones in their political and cultural past. They celebrated everything local and tried to shape the new nation with images of their uniqueness. Some big enough to be visible and built and even military power to show their eagerness to protect this hard earned freedom. Consequently large amounts of national wealth was spent on these even at the opportunity costs of feeding the hungry or providing shelter to the marginalized. National dignity was important and that came from the show of power. This was a downside some may say but this was how they saw the priorities. This was the new nation states of the 20th century.

In the present day separated by three or four or even more generations from those passionate martyrs and social entrepreneurs, the present youth have no inkling of those past struggles. For most. this day is a leapfrog moment that leaves the history of those three or four or more generations behind in hazy or no memory and with only the ways of the colonizers to play with as they find place in the new national democracies. They only know and feel for the ways of the colonizers from where they got educated and whose ways they still attempt to emulate in this cultural and technological state of neo-colonization.

If we seek to maintain our nations as possessions to revere and protect, we need to reconstruct the images of nationalism into a holism that is paradigmatically different from the diversity that signified our nations of the past. The egalitarianism of culture creed and language and religion is being shredded and woven again into a wholeness that is signified by similarity, not diversity. That is perhaps what the neo-colonizer propaganda calls for. It thus remains for us to ask the question whether we want that in our heart of hearts or seek to maintain our true identity not as a mere waft of nostalgia but a five-sense daily reality. Don't answer this in a hurry, and especially while enthralled and inebriated by the fun and the glitter of the TV screens and its soap operas, the fake personality world of the facebook, instagram and twitter. These social media platforms push us into this mixed up mould which makes us totally like them and where nothing of us remains. Alternatively, could we ask why don't they become us? Do we ask that question ever? Or are we just following the pied piper to a faceless future and our cultural doom. If we want to change, why not attempt to chart another model of development and modernization? Do we have a mould that cannot be broken? Is it God-sent or man-made? If we have to courage to rebuild, a re-fabrication will require new minds; not minds such as those that fabricated the past. This what i would call Maldives to attempt. New minds and youthful energy is not in short supply, but we need moral inspiration and the courage to move this way. If we have that edge, we have the chance of a new moment yet again, to breathe and think and reflect. 

Lets not bet again for another chance. How many chances should one get. Already we are too blessed and Providence pokes us again. Let's not lose this chance to lift ourselves out of the greedy and selfish isolationist attitudes that seem to have gripped us for the past 10 years as a nation. Let us reframe our future in knowing what it means to be Maldivian. Let’s again attempt to become that corner of this world people label as the most peaceful of God’s sprinklings on earth.

Building a moral society

From our infant childhood, making people like us is the model that groomed us into adult life.
This is the essence of being good in a moral way. We don't have to be seemingly good to those
who are bad or criminal or deceitful but the real meaning of good stems from being acceptable
to those with moral values. So the basis of being good is morality. Being a good citizen is also
about being good and acceptable to the people that populate that community. That we don't
behave in a way we disrupt aggressively the ways that society has chosen to live by. True, big
changes happen from iconoclastic events, but we all know that these when engineered in selfish
and too bold an aggressiveness may totally backfire whereas when nurtured  assertively, can
work beautifully to transform society. Perhaps this is what the famous adage means “an idea
whose time has come”. This coming is not merely a temporal but a mental one too. We are
always, even subconsciously, matching our ideas with the ways of society so that we can
expound it in ways that society accepts these with only little defensiveness. Even saying
something as simple as proposing a different view at a gathering is fraught with such mental
play. We are strapped into this mental mould of fear or a yearning for approval.

For Maldives the restaurant sanitation culture legislations of the 1980s were appropriate for
a push for a healthy change because of the cholera epidemic in Maldives in 1978 that struck
us from the blue. Or the mechanisation of the fishing boats in the 1980s when it was
imperative for economic reasons, to move from the sail to the engine. We can bring to mind
many such moments. Yes we can also create our moments by building towards these in a
planned way without waiting for a natural progression of events to happen or for a devastating
strike from the blue.

Building society is an art. We learn the methods from formal schooling at colleges and
universities; but the real schooling that makes us wise and useful human being is what we
reap from the school of life; learning from our own and other’s experiences by being in a
state of open mind to listen or accept others views and reflecting on it for its truths or follies,
whatever these maybe. This awareness is what orchestrates knowledge and action into social transformation. And this is what every budding leader should know. Knowledge, character
and wisdom must come together in a shared oneness. True leaders who transform society
bring with them these pristine human qualities.

There is a mental element to this too. Good character comes from conforming and acceding
and respectful deference with the realization that this behaviour stems from strength of
character rather than from an innate weakness of the self. And that is just what it is even
though society in its wild form sees aggressiveness as strength.

May Allah SWA Bless Maldives!!

To believe

Everyone in this world seeks to believe in something. It is a primeval urge to discover the purpose of our being. Subconsciously or consciously we yearn to know who we are or where we came from and why we are here. Strangely without even realizing this to be so, this seems to be the first questions we ask even as we first meet a stranger. What is your name? Where are you from? Why should it matter where he or she is from? Why can't we just begin talking? No, it is to see if that person had something in common with us and in so doing for us to search for what will make for a good conversation. I wouldn't want to pick up a conversation on rocket science when i happen to meet a person who is a day laborer in a grocery store. Don't get me wrong. I'm not discriminating. Yes indeed that person may have an interest in rocket science. But that would be one in a thousand, and that much probability considerations i will have to give room for if am to not be sounding arrogant or foolish. And so it is that we ask where are you from, and what do you do, and when or why did you come to this place? All these are questions we ask as a reference to our desire to know these same queries of ourselves. This means we have an innate desire to know these concerns about ourselves. Deeper then is the desire to find and believe something about ourselves. We ask questions to verify and validate our assumptions. Do we fit into this way of thinking? All our lives we keep on seeking the truth about ourselves. Some find it and take that path which seems to be the one laid out for us and others retaliate even as they are on the borderline of finding it. Perhaps these are the questions we continue to ask for validation until we are satisfied. Some are easily satisfied and others go on questioning ad nauseum and still not find that comfort of acceptance. Some go through their whole life time not finding it. Some accept on blind faith and some on an inkling of rationality and yet others with some inner acceptance that the notion they came upon from this search is somehow acceptable. This tells us that the myriad path to finding the object of our belief is varied indeed. Evanescent for some and wholly real for others. Yet the reality remains of the undeniable fact that we all seek this desire to believe in something.

It is this belief that energises us ultimately to find the joy in life for as the seekers of the past put it - Joy is manifest when one finds his purpose and puts it in the service of mankind. That finding or assuredness is what gives us the feeling of being guided and our hands held always. This is the confidence we all seek to actualize our life dreams. It's no surprise then that we all seek to find the self confidence to do our things in life to its best. We go to school, do apprenticeships, read books on how to do things, watch youtube from Ted talks to Yan can cook,and so on; all about seeking the confidence to do something that we want to do. To learn from others of past wisdom and awareness to get a head start in the collecting of goods that will be meaningful to us on our journey to wherever we are going.

That power is in the Universe. Surely this profound creation can't have just sprouted up as a cosmic accident. All these wonders in our universe working in perfect unison to make for the life we lead on this planet earth can't be on its own, given that we full well know that conflict is the way of our world and no two people can work together for an extended period of time without getting on each others nerves even as every cell and organ in our body works 99.99 percent of the time in complete unison; and that the 0.01 percent of discord that can happen is more often than not from our own foolish doing - as we seek our so called pleasure from the ways that upset the cosmic balance. The seasons that change with cosmic precision or the blade of grass that grows with all its microscopic metabolic organelles within it working in perfect order and precision to give us that beautiful lawn where we spend many a joyous moment. The multitudes of plants and animals that weave the web of life to make for our mind-boggling ecosystem and our livable environment just happens? Surely, all these can't be accidents or the continuing result of one? The cause must be that destination we so fervently seek and want to be one with. That lap of comfort that we seek from the time we left the lap of our mother to yet again be in that lap of our creator.

That is why i believe. And perhaps many more do so in this same vein. I can only conjecture. I am not unique and neither are you either. We are all one - having emerged from that oneness and to be returned to that oneness. What is to struggle against the churning waves but to drown. To be seeking a uniqueness that is not ours is perhaps the source of arrogance and thus conflict. That is what my belief says we must seek to control or put way behind on the furthermost of our back burners. Only then can we, as equal beings, seek to have peace on earth.

The People have spoken today!

Ibu OK. The People have spoken emphatically for change! And what a change!

Hats off to the energetic effort of the Ithihad coalition group and the excitement provided by the preceding couple of months on the campaign trail. Ibu’s indefatigable round of visits to all of our nation’s inhabited islands and the applause he received for his gentle and amiable character is unprecedented for a presidential candidate in Maldives. This is a sea change to the image of what we in Maldives have held as the personality type of a president. The self-assured and vocally glib individual who seem to have the world in his grasp is a world away from the patiently quiet and pensive personality of Ibu that has marked for us the change of quality in what we have so fas seen as the personality of a president. And why not? We need a person of impeccable character that conforms with what the majority of our polity whose secret desire is for peace and justice and that which falls within the spiritual edicts of our wonderful Islam. Not the arrogance of an i-know-it-all to someone who will actively seek the counsel of those who may know better than he knows. This is a step into reality and the practical world that requires us to work for national progress in cooperative engagement; that which would instil the sense of inclusiveness and the team approach that is so needed in governing in the 21st century. We don't now need the father figures who tell us what to do but a friend and guide to support and orchestrate the myriad capacity we have, to be used to its last drop rather than be neglected just because these don't come from party affiliates. our leaders can't be trapped in hubristic behaviour but be embracing an open attitude of cooperation; leading from both the front and back. We need leaders who have the humility to listen to others and see the wisdom of others words and views. To move away from the tight grip of party to being the president of the people.

I would hope Ibu will be this kind of leader. One who will attract the love and adulation of his nation. Who will squeeze the nation for all the technical and managerial capacity of each and every citizen so that we can truly begin to exercise the freedom and nationhood that is what our democratic situation leads us to act within.

I hope and pray that Ibu will be that lovable president of the people for the next five years and who knows if he engenders enough of our adulation by making the grade, might just spark the possibility for remaining yet another term as our beloved servant leader.

May Allah Bless you. May he give you the wisdom and keep at bay the hubris that deludes the foolish leader

Moral human being

On a moral compass there are two types of human beings. Ones who helps themselves and those that help others. Of course there are many permutations in between but the essence of our spiritual typology is our weighing on these two scales.

The most basic type is the one who lives only for himself. There is the display of selfishness in every deed goaded by the paradigm “what's in it for me?”. The other is move the desire to be of service to others with the guiding paradigm “how can i help?” our purpose in life is to move from this selfish extreme to the selfless extreme. But as many would agree this extreme is possible only to a most negligible few and many remain easily in the throes of the other end.

What keeps us say that selfish end is our human nature one would say. True and our Creator has made this so because this worldly existence is a test for us. How much mettle do we have to strive and move towards the other end. Just like any worldly test of our making we make it challenging for it to be worth its salt. Similarly we as human beings demonstrate our worth in how close we get to the other side. It's easy to be on the left but to get to the right it requires a lot of struggle and sacrifice. Many ask, why the struggle? Why do we have tp get on that side? These questions come from a source of ignorance; ignorance of what the purpose of life is. This creation of such grandeur magnificence could not be here just for the pleasure of our short life. There must be something beyond; something that must be worth this struggle. And that is the achievement of Jannah the doorway to which is the right side. If not for the assurance of that there is no use for morality and goodness in this world. Why do we have to be good for the purpose of just being good? In fact good has no meaning if there is no duality in life, in this case it would be ‘the bad’.

The magnificence of this universe attests to the existence of a creator. If so we must be grateful and thankful and go down on our knees to prostrate to this magnificence. That is what we do in our prayer. Acknowledge this mighty Presence. How can we be so arrogant to believe that this little speck in the universe can be a challenge to the Creator. On earth we fear our bosses our leaders and our competitors; why not our Creator? If we do accept the need for obeisance then we must be humble and be empathetic to the emotions of our human brothers and sisters. We cannot remove ourselves from the spiritual bind our Maker has ordained it to be. No we can't!

Let get back to our roots. Let not the great Deceiver take us for the ride of doom! This moment's pleasure is just not worth it!