President Yameen’s Message to the People From Behind Bars

President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, currently serving a five-year prison sentence at Maafushi Prison, has written an open letter addressed to his supporters and the Maldivian people. The letter was read out by his son, Zane Abdulla Yameen, on the Channel13 television channel.

In his letter, he mentioned that he was writing to the Maldivian people from his cell in Maafushi in a state of dire concern and distress over the state of the nation.

In his letter, President Yameen wrote that once he had been elected to the presidency in 2013, he had fixed the economy and solved many of the nation’s problems that had previously been deemed unsolvable.

He wrote that he had transformed the Maldives into a sovereign and independent nation its citizens could be proud of.

The result of his accomplishments had been his imprisonment by his rivals and their foreign benefactors, he had written.

He wrote that he had believed, from the very first day, that a small island nation could come into its own in a globalized world by standing firm and resolute. He wrote that from the very first day, he had believed in his heart and soul that the road he had taken would not be an easy one.

He wrote that he had taken the road believing that the affairs of Maldivians should be decided by Maldivians themselves, and by opposing the imperialistic philosophies of great global powers. He wrote that this belief was the ideology of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the People’s National Congress (PNC), and that it was a patriotic ideology. He wrote that he was certain that as long as blood ran through the veins of people who believed in these values, they would never abandon the nation.

President Yameen wrote that he was being kept in an isolated location, far from the people, by his political rivals and their foreign benefactors out of fear of his patriotic beliefs, and in the hopes of breaking his own and the PPM/PNC Coalition’s spirit; out of the cowardly hope that the Coalition would give up.

However, he wrote, he was not one to kneel in the face of injustice. He wrote that the well-being of the Maldivian people was more important to him than his own comfort and happiness. He wrote that he valued the country’s independence and sovereignty. Foreigners should not be allowed to influence the domestic affairs of this nation, he wrote. The Maldivian people should be well-aware of it, he warned.

Referring to the charges that had been laid against him by the State, President Yameen wrote that he had committed no crime and that his conscience was clear.

He wrote that he had been unjustly locked up in prison out of his rivals’ fear that he would, as leader of the Opposition, speak out against the government on behalf of the Maldivian people.

He assured the Maldivian people that with God’s help, he would be released from prison and meet with the people as an innocent man, exonerated of his charges.

He asked the people to hold fast to the principles of national unity and to go forth as a united army.

President Yameen assured the Maldivian people that his incarceration was not the end to his work to bring about a new “Golden Age” for the Maldives. It was only a minor setback, he wrote. He wrote that with God’s help, the hope of prosperity and a better life would be rekindled by his ideological allies. He called on his supporters to have courage and to strive hard; he and his ideology would return strong.

He expressed his gratitude to his supporters and others who were doing a lot of work for the Council Elections.