Zuhoor: Al-Jazeera documentary spells beginning of efforts to overthrow government

Minister of President’s Office, Ahmed Zuhoor has said that the Al-Jazeera documentary on alleged corruption within the current Maldivian government, due to be released this Sunday evening, was the first step in the offensive launched by the opposition to overthrow the government.

Participating in the SanguTV program “Khabarah Fahu” on Saturday night, Zuhoor said that he did not believe the Al-Jazeera documentary “Stealing Paradise” would present any new accusation that hasn’t already been thrown towards President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration.

Zuhoor said that he did not believe the documentary would contain anything more than rumor-mongering by the opposition.

He accused the documentary of being a deliberate weapon used by the opposition to defame Maldives within the international community as they knew it would have a negative impact on income coming into the country from tourism and foreign investments.

“The micro factors are affected with a change in the political environment anywhere. The economy depends on the political environment. The economy is fostered, additionally with the work done in social environments and technology, bringing us prosperity. The prosperity to each of the Maldivian islands stem from the money that comes in with this stability. So if you destroy this stability, the first in the line of damage is the Maldivian people. Each individual Maldivian. So you have the people go hungry and overthrow the government. This is being carried out with some Maldivians spearheading it, in order to achieve this,” said Zuhoor.

He said that the Maldivian government was not concerned about a documentary produced with such a political objective.

Zuhoor said that the government stood strong, and would complete its five-year term without a hitch.

“An investigation needs to have the word of those its directed against. An investigative report is released based on what happened. And then such a documentary is made based on the investigative report. It needs to be done step after step,” said Zuhoor, criticizing the television network.

He said that rather than an investigative documentary, it was an attempt at creating fear and unrest within the Maldivian society.

“So the Maldivian people need to wake up. We aren’t children here in Maldives. Maldives has educated individuals with an awareness of the reality of the economy and happenings across the world. So Maldivians will not believe something some people just say, just like that,” said Zuhoor.

Zuhoor said that the opposition would get their opportunity in the Presidential Elections 2018, and asked that they wait for that.

“There will be an election in 2018 under your so-called democratic process. Why don’t you wait for that election? After the election, with the current government has committed major crimes and atrocities, yu can prosecute us. There shouldn’t be talk of destroying the entire country mid-term and changing the government, as they are promoting. No matter how loudly they protest, the Maldivian government will not fall. The government will not change,” said Zuhoor.

Al-Jazeera had sent a questionnaire to President’s Office, requesting a response from the Maldivian government for their investigation.

The President’s Office had refused to provide details of the questions asked, but said that they would respond to Al-Jazeera’s request.

“Sun” reached out to the international spokesperson for the opposition – Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Hamid Abdul Gafoor for a comment regarding Zuhoor’s interview.

Hamid said that the international media was a system that worked a certain way, following certain procedures. He said that the Maldivian government’s inability to grasp the concept and the workings on media brought the Maldivian government closer to the outcome they so feared.