Simon speaks out on Salah April 22, 2007

Simon lets his opinions flow on the autopsy case.

Comment on autopsy case and concern

It’s a shame, really, this whole fabricated conspiracy surrounding the death of a man. We’ve paraded the photos of the man, gawked at them, printed them and shamelessly vulgarized them. Where has our morality gone? Where is our humanity? Whatever happened to respect for the dead - regardless of whether it was homicide or suicide? It didn’t happen to you or me or one of our own loved ones - so who cares?

Last week we’ve had, what I believe to be, the most disgraceful failure of various systems and departments of this nation. We’ve had the failure of politics, failure of media, failure of law enforcement and the medical services, and worst of all the failure of public opinion and what amounted to be nothing more than a shameful demonstration of public gullibility and fickle mentality. Here we have a public ready to believe anything and everything - now made a danger to itself by the do or die revolutionist propaganda of MDP.

Increasingly, just like the administration in 2003, the general public is becoming trigger happy. We are quick to believe utterly ridiculous fabrications from both government and opposition just so that we can point a finger at either and raise undue concerns. It has become a habit - more so for the leading opposition party who seem to have failed to produce anything close to a road-map of their own for this country. What are we hoping for? A quick fix to the problems of this 28 year old regime?

And while a simple Google search will reveal much more than anyone would hope for about what to expect from a forensics examination of a dead body found in water, opposition media outlets like Minivan and DO have conveniently discarded this information in favor of reporting on hearsay from, what they call are, unknown reliable sources. Whether our poison is DO, FM or Minivan we have to start using our brains and start acting like civilized humans before we can stomp our feet and have our way with the government or the opposition.

And regardless of whether we are pro-regime or not as men and women who will be responsible for the future of this country we should exercise our critical faculties before we act. And where such mental prowess may not be feasible to all then those who do possess it should make it a point to inform and educate before we end up eating ourselves from within.

Ours is a nation dragging along on the tattered remains of a road that we hope will one day lead us to reform but every passing day it is beginning to dawn on us that the real reform must come from within us first. That we need to wake up not only to political enlightenment (and true democracy) but to more pressing matters as home, school and raising responsible citizens.

Today I heard a woman speak at a rally held at the artificial beach about her concerns of the drug problem and how our very own young and adolescent are being systematically forced into addiction by unknown forces who benefit from the underground drug market. It was effective and at the same time informative and wrought with real fears and concerns. This was not reported on popular news media but this is exactly the kind of vox populi we need to bring about real reforms and to tackle real issues facing this nation.

And as terrible as it is that happened to the man this incident should not be remembered as how the death of a young Maldivian brought about a nation to a standstill. No, this incident has to be remembered for its demonstration of our failure as a civilized nation.