Murder Most Foul

The abuse, torture and murder of an 8-month baby is the sickest story I have ever come across in the Maldives. I was utterly shocked and outraged by what I heard. How can people descend to such cruelty?

I had heard that Hon Nasheed MP had submitted a bill to the parliament to address some of these issues. Good, I thought. Of course, there must be greater legal protection given to children and requisite changes made to the legal framework. But changing the legal framework alone will not be enough.

We must really ask ourselves how safe our children are? Does the government have appropriate policies to detect abuse and deter abuse? And is there something that we, the people, can do? A successful strategy must essentially focus on detection, deterrence and prevention.

I suppose no one was surprised to hear that drug abuse was related to the horrible crime. A society in which drug abuse is so widespread will provide safety to no one. Life will be cheap in a country where drug kingpins ostensibly operate with impunity. A polity in which corruption pays will throw up unspeakable crimes.

The brutal murder must make us all stop and think about where the country is headed to, why we have reached this horrible point, and what we are doing wrong. Is life becoming so cheap in this country? Have we lost our souls?

For me, a rude awakening came in 1997, when the government put 14 new islands to tender as tourist resorts. There was a frantic rush by ministers to team up with businessmen to bid for these islands. And there were businessmen frantically trying to enlist Ministers to team up with them to submit bids. To me it seemed that businessmen believed that without a Minister as a partner, they would not win a resort. And worse than that, the Ministers seemed to believe that their name would help secure a resort! What I am saying? The elites of this country had sold their souls, for corruption and material greed.

Such has been the greed and spiritual decay of the elites of this country that it has catapulted entire sections of society into despair, destitution, decadence, and drug abuse. Ours therefore is a society coming apart at the seams, descending into a nightmarish hell. It is one that is unable to care for the weak, vulnerable and helpless, because its strong and powerful have sold their souls to reckless greed, rampant corruption and other shameful deeds. There is so much anger, so much violence and so much hatred just bubbling beneath the surface, that so many of us are probably randomly-timed walking bombs.

For too long, our laws have been used to help the near and dear and punish others. For too long, justice has only served the interests of the powerful. For too long we have allowed our children to be consumed by drugs and violence. For too long we have blatantly promoted double standards and used ethical standards as a tool of social and political hegemony. For too long, the Maldives has been a tale of two cities. In a society in which priority is given to the protection of the rich and powerful, the weak and vulnerable are exposed to the most heinous and unspeakable crimes.

So a bill in parliament, while necessary, is not enough. It is time that we begin to really care about people, promote civil society groups, and allocate enough resources to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable.