Vanishing patriots who only fight when it fits their agenda

A conversation between two random strangers on the street baffled me the other day. One of them inquired the other on the current whereabouts of a certain faction. Slightly caught off guard by the sudden question the other pressed him on precisely which band of individuals he had in mind. His answer came back short and firm, naming them the faction that does everything for the sake of a cause. Thoroughly confused, the other admitted that the title rang no bells and pressed him to explain who on earth this dedicated faction was.

He promptly launched into the exhaustive moral credentials this group claimed to champion. They claimed to act for the preservation of the sacred faith of Islam, fueled by panic that religious conviction might be wiped out across the territory and that secular principles would overtake the country. They purportedly marched for the sake of the country itself, terrified that local soil would slip straight into external control, leaving locals stripped of their homeland. They claimed to champion unborn generations doomed to be cut off from their legacy, loudly proclaiming their devotion to the citizens while vowing to halt overseas supremacy, avert the bondage of locals, block the annihilation of indigenous heritage, and outlaw any giveaway of domestic territory to outsiders. He kept hammering away on this endless reel of heroic motives until I was forced to intervene and halt his relentless, impassioned catalog of their virtues.

However, he refused to let the topic drop. He demanded to know the current location of the very crew that had once fiercely demanded GMR pack its bags and leave. He confessed he was actively hunting for them because they have completely vanished into thin air at the very moment the homeland is being offloaded for almost a complete century. He insisted that precise crowd is desperately required right now to physically drag back the Ras Malé development, even if tethering it with thick ropes is what it takes, yet his relentless search for them yields nothing. It was right at that juncture that the gravity and unvarnished reality of his grievance finally clicked.

His memory went straight back to the chapter when operating rights for Velana International Airport (VIA) were delegated to GMR across a quarter of a century, an arrangement where ultimate jurisdictional control stayed firmly under local sovereignty. Back then, agitators rebelled against bringing in a globally acclaimed firm renowned for handling aviation hubs. The dissenters went far beyond merely spinning rumors that national assets were being handed away on a platter; they staged colossal public unrest. They flooded the roads of the capital, packed out the Artificial Beach with vast rallies that incorporated public congregational worship, sailed straight into maritime territory using tuna fishing vessels to breach the air hub, and even theatrically tied cables across the Gaadhoo Channel in a bid to physically hold the runway down from sailing away.

The figures steering that uproar were hardly regular folks from the neighborhood. The ranks were occupied by key anti-government politicians of that era, active legislators, and prominent theological figures. They even secured the attendance of the standing Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, who took part in the affair. Put plainly, their agitation was enormous. They spared no theatrical effort to sway the populace, relying heavily on meticulously planned spectacles dripping with manufactured emotional manipulation. Indeed, branding the GMR aviation pact as a literal giveaway served as a chief weapon to unseat the sitting regime long before its mandate had elapsed. Naturally, once the agitators stepped into leadership partway through the term, the very opening move on their agenda was to revoke that exact arrangement, taking back an aviation hub that had merely been rented out for 25 years.

The stranger on the street hit the nail on the head regarding the sudden disappearance of this vocal mob. Over the recent stretch of days, netizens across online channels have launched identical inquiries into their current hiding place. Public voices are challenging how those who erupted in fury over a 25-year operational pact now manage to stay stone silent while a slice of Ras Malé is signed away for nearly 100 years. Not a peep emerges from their direction, utterly barren of pushback or commentary. Even though a significant number of those past agitators occupy seats within the existing administration today, improper governance remains improper regardless. Figures who passionately argued that a temporary lease was an outright sale a decade ago miraculously turn a blind eye to the actual offloading taking place right before them.

This willful blindness explains why the broader populace is demanding to know where this virtuous crowd has crawled off to, and it is the exact reason that lone citizen spends his time pacing the walkways, searching for them in vain.