Stumbling into a hornet’s nest

On 3rd November 1988 I was on the island of Isdhoo-Kalaidhoo, on a diving trip.

The fact that guerilla fighters from the Peoples' Liberation Army had attacked Male was only learnt through information filtering in from different sources. Without being on the scene, yet, I have the temerity to assume that it was the former Defense Minister Ilyas Ibrahim who financed the coup and set up Sikka as the fall guy. Not without reason

What made me suspicious was the inconsistencies in the newspaper reports published in Haveeru in the aftermath of the incident. Someone had been in a hurry and had done a slipshod job in covering the facts.

One: If I were a terrorist, I would not politely knock on the Defense Minister's door and enquire whether he was home. I'd give the door the boot and shoot anything that looked suspicious.

The newspaper reports indicated that Ilyas had personally answered the knock on the door, said the Minister wasn't at home, closed the door in the terrorist's face and performed a small miracle by jumping over the wall from the back of the house. Given his girth and size and the height of Kibigasdhoshuge' (Ilyas's residence) wall I would find it hard to believe that he could perform such a feat accompanied by his wife Amal who was equally chubby. To give credence to the story he had had his leg bandaged and plastered.

Two: The key to the armoury at the NSS headquarters was at Ilyas's home when the Tamils launched their attack. The Maldivian government had prior knowledge of an impending attack by Tamil rebels though the actual date was unknown; it did not make sense to leave the army devoid of ammunition. According to my informant it was Ibrahim Didi, the communications expert, who later took the armoury keys from Ilyas and threw it over the wall into the NSS building.

Three: Training of 80 ~ 100 guerilla fighters for over a year would consume a sizable amount of money. Furthermore, the guerillas possessed light machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and plastic explosive in addition to the light arms – AK-47's. If my assumption is right the entire package would have cost at a rough guess at least 3 million dollars and the person capable of financing such a sum at the time was Ilyas and he had the motive and the resources at his disposal to pull off the coup. As for the top brass of the military, Ilyas had nurtured their loyalty from the moment he assumed office by the use of the funds at his disposal. Maldives, after all comes a close second to Israel in military expenditure in terms of GNP. According to the CIA Factbook, a web site run by the CIA, Israel spends 7.5% of the GNP while Maldives spends 5.5% of the nation's GNP on Defense.

Three: I very much doubt Uma Maheshwaran ( the Head of the PLOTE ) would be willing to shell out millions of dollars and risk his men's lives merely on the promise of an island for development of a resort.

A thorough research of the newspaper reports concerning the 3rd November incident would provide many such inconsistencies to make the reader recoil with horror at the ruthlessness of the people involved. The truth would have brought down the Gayyoom regime for several reasons. The High Command of the military is responsible for the lives of the troops under them and their hunger for power and money completely disregarded their responsibilities to their troops with the result that a number of them lost their lives not knowing it was the military High Command who was responsible for the death of a number of troops. It could possibly have brought about a mutiny within the rank and file members and one could easily surmise that it was one of Gayyoom's reasons for covering up the whole affair and later using those responsible to do his dirty work. He was after all the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and ultimately responsible for the welfare of the entire National Security Service which includes today's Maldives Police Services.

Perhaps now one can understand why Adam Zahir is more powerful than any Cabinet Minister. He is not only privy to all the secrets but he himself is implicated. In a way, their's is a marriage of convenience and none can bring the other to justice so long as the present old guard remains in power.

One thing Gayyoom did right: He named the Police Headquarters 'Shaheed Hussain Adam' building.

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Also Read Eyewitness account of 1988 coup attempt and aftermath