Twin-tailed tuna sinks Pres. Muizzu’s big budget PR machine
President Muizzu faces public ridicule following a series of high-profile digital communication blunders, including an inverted national flag and anatomically incorrect marine life graphics. Despite a large public relations staff, the administration has been criticized for failing to vet official content for basic factual accuracy. Citizens and observers warn that these amateurish errors undermine the presidency and demand more rigorous editorial oversight to avoid future embarrassment.
A screenshot of the post shared by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. | Social Media
President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu commands an incredibly massive Public Relations operations system. With a headcount exceeding 50 individual staff members drawing salaries within the specific public relations branch of the President’s Office, including highly experienced information management professionals and a Minister of Communications who requires no introduction to the populace, ordinary citizens would naturally anticipate a superior grade of institutional messaging.
However, even with such an expansive and heavily staffed organization, the digital social networking broadcasts originating from the head of state consistently trigger immense public mockery and widespread condemnation from the citizenry.
A history of patriotic blunders
One specific digital broadcast transmitted by the head of state during the introductory phase of his administration triggered an immediate viral storm for entirely embarrassing reasons.
On that particular occasion, the crescent emblem emblazoned upon the official Maldivian national flag was visibly oriented in the completely inverted direction. For a head of state who routinely brands himself as an uncompromising protector of national identity and a dedicated patriot, an oversight so blindingly obvious concerning the primary emblem of the country was deemed entirely intolerable by the general public.
Small islands, massive oversights
Following that incident, a digital graphic distributed by the incumbent on Monday exhibited yet another massive, humiliating mistake.
For the political leader of an island territory consisting of 99 percent water and a mere one percent of actual dry territory, this particular broadcast came across as exceptionally humiliating.
It remains a standard expectation that any political leader who actively partakes in the everyday aquatic lifestyle and marine-based nutrition of his fellow countrymen, would possess a basic familiarity with everyday underwater life.
Such recurring slip-ups naturally prompt serious inquiries regarding whether the state information apparatus actually conducts any rigorous verification of graphics before they are uploaded to the internet.
Mutant marine life on World Oceans Day
During a digital broadcast designed to honor the global celebration of World Oceans Day, a graphic representation of a sea turtle was explicitly showcased. Astonishingly, the marine creature was depicted sporting five distinct limbs, which triggered instantaneous outrage and pushback from internet onlookers. Since sea turtles are naturally designed by biology to possess only four limbs, citizens were remarkably fast to highlight the ridiculous anatomical error and voice their collective irritation.
The exact same graphic upload highlighted several yellowfin tunas that quickly transformed into an even more intense target of public ridicule. The pelagic fish displayed within the digital illustration were unnaturally drawn with two full tails, featuring one standard tail at the rear end and a duplicate tail protruding precisely from the area where the face of the fish ought to be positioned.
The presence of such a glaringly careless error embedded within an official broadcast from the highest office in the country was met with deep public annoyance. A multitude of observers remarked that these internet uploads must be subjected to far more rigorous editorial oversight, emphasizing that showcasing twin-tailed fish creates an intense embarrassment for the institution of the presidency itself.
Looming threat of future embarrassment
Given the massive scale of the communications staff operating at his beck and call, these exact varieties of amateurish blunders should be completely simple to catch and correct.
Publicly broadcast content must be comprehensively vetted for factual precision prior to being distributed to the open public.
Initially, it was the backwards crescent symbol on the sovereign flag and now, the administration is publishing graphics of twin-tailed tuna.
If a higher degree of meticulous focus is not urgently applied to these public communication details, even more catastrophic public humiliations are bound to materialize down the road.
