Wednesday, August 1, 2012

it's Duncan Campbell The Guardian, Friday January 11 2008.

On my honour I promise that I will do my best—
To do my duty to God and the King (or to God and my Country)
To help other people at all times and
To obey the Scout Law.

"I was just living up to Scout motto" says boy who saved president's life. I was just living up to Scout motto, says boy who saved president's life.

Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Tuesday survived an attempt on his life when a teenage boy scout stopped a youth from stabbing him as he was mingling with a crowd in the north of the Indian Ocean archipelago.
The attacker, a 20-year-old wielding a knife, jumped out of a crowd that gathered to welcome the president on his arrival at North Thiladhunmathi atoll in Hoarafushi islet and tried to stab Gayoom in his stomach.
However, a 15-year-old boy scout, Mohamed Jaisham, grabbed the youth and wrestled with him before the attacker was captured, officials said.
"An unidentified man attempted to attack the President with a knife today," a statement from the President's Office in the capital Male said. "The President escaped this serious attack without any harm. However, a boy scout was injured in the incident," the statement said.

Mr. Mohamed Jaisham Received a Gold Medal by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

A Scout who saved the president of the Maldives from an assassination attempt said that he had merely been putting into practice the organisation's motto to "be prepared".
Mohamed Jaisham, 15, said yesterday that his Scout training had helped him prevent a man from stabbing President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom with a kitchen knife at a political rally on Tuesday.

Jaisham, who is recovering in hospital after his hand was injured during the attack, told news agencies that he had spotted a man clutching a knife as the president met supporters on the island of Hoarafushi, in the far north of the chain of islands in the Indian Ocean.

"I saw the knife because he was yelling Allahu Akbar [God is Greatest]," said Mohamed, who was wearing his Scout uniform at the time of the attack. "I wanted to catch the knife, but he moved very quickly. I stopped it with my left hand and was cut."

He added: "The Scout motto is 'be prepared', and at that time I was prepared. It helped me so much. It's my training. I wear a Scout's uniform and I wanted to save my president." He hopes to become a police officer when he has completed his education.

Gayoom, 70, who is the Chief Scout of the Maldives, was not injured and has since thanked the teenager personally, crediting him and "almighty Allah" with saving his life.

Flowers beside Mohamed's bed at the Gandhi memorial hospital in the capital, Male, were sent by the president.

A local newspaper, Minivan, named the alleged attacker yesterday as Mohamed Murushid, 20, and said that "mixed messages" had emerged about a motive.

Gayoom has ruled the islands autocratically for 30 years and has come under increasing pressure to introduce full democracy.

Elections are due this year but opposition activists question whether they will be full and fair.

The newspaper quoted a family member as saying that the arrested man had suffered a head injury as a child and had once stabbed himself in the thigh. Four men who attended the same mosque as Murushid, who is unemployed, were also detained yesterday.

There have been reports of growing Islamist militancy on the islands but there is no evidence of any organisation being involved in the attack.

"He was not well behaved," a former teacher of the alleged assailant claimed, recalling "one occasion where Mohamed tried to beat the principal ... [he was] always disturbing teachers, and causing mischief with other students."

Family members have expressed concern about Murushid's condition while in detention as the national police have a record of human rights abuses.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic party (MDP) spoke out against the attack yesterday. "I cannot condemn his anger but I condemn his act," the MDP chairman, Mohamed Nasheed, said.

The New Maldives movement and Islamic Democratic party have also condemned the attack, as has the exile group Friends of the Maldives, which is campaigning for full democracy.

The MDP claimed in a press release yesterday that the police were unable to do their job because they were used "to protect one man, one family, one party".

The party suggested that such attacks were not properly investigated but blamed on opposition groups without any evidence.

Last September 12 tourists were injured by a bomb in a park in Male. The blast and the latest attack are seen as damaging to the country's image as an upmarket holiday resort.

The form of the promise has varied slightly from country to country and over time, but must fulfill the requirements of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) to qualify a National Scout Organization for membership. Together with clarifying its Scout Law, the Constitution of WOSM states:^[2]

In order to accommodate many different religions within Scouting, "God" may refer to a higher power, and is not specifically restricted to the God of the monotheistic religions. The WOSM Constitution explains "Duty to God" as "Adherence to spiritual principles, loyalty to the religion that expresses them and acceptance of the duties resulting therefrom."