Random Reflexions

Specialists in various fields from pest controllers to marketing strategists, from politicians to suicide bombers use various tactics to achieve maximum impact. Among the tactics the foremost would be timing. The perfect timing to apply pesticides, the perfect time to launch the marketing campaign and the perfect timing to detonate the bomb.

As such there is no doubt that the Auditor General's (AG) report could not have been more accurately timed to inflict maximum damage on the incumbent president and his party. For many, me among them, the report was like the sweet treat at the end of a long and confusing and bitter run-up to the elections. Ah, the joy!

But I must say, the first thing I noticed when I opened up the reports and skimmed the pages was the lack of tabular data. I was expecting to see numbers sprawled across vast tables.

The lack of these tables and the limited number of issues that the AG's report touched upon is a curiosity in its own right. Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt what is said on the report is true. It is just that I like tables with figures. One reason being my rusty Dhivehi reading skills.

The other reason is far more interesting. It would appear that the AG's report is just the tip of the iceberg. The deals with top level security forces people, the rent paid to one state minister, the money paid for Hill & Knowlton and the few other issues touched upon, including the expenses on official trips to Atolls, is just a selection of a few issues handpicked by the AG to inflict maximum damage. In other words, this is just a preview of things to come. Well, I hope that is the case anyway.

It is difficult to accept that these are the only misappropriations of the people's money from the president office and STO. The real amounts must be unimaginably higher and the acts of corruption unbelievable. And where are the names of those other people involved?

All this says one thing to me. That although the AG's office is not mandated to any specific day and time to release reports, the timing of these particular reports and the way they have been structured leads me to believe that it was intentionally done to achieve full-blast power. And no matter what Gayoom or Azima or anyone else says there is no way that what the AG has pointed out could be his own fabrication. In fact, should Gayoom take the AG to court I have no doubt that even dirtier secrets will start crawling out of the labyrinth that he has built over the 30 years in absolute power.

Thank you, Mr. Auditor General! You're a master pest-controller.