To: The President of Republic of Maldives
Dear Sir,
I am not a member of your political party (DRP), and am not a member of Civil Service or even any other political parties. I am neither a writer, nor someone good in writing or fluent in English. Yet, as a citizen of the country I do believe I can write a letter to you in the way that I can and sent to you in the way I am able to. I politely apologize to you as I will not be able to write as nicely as the resource editor of DRP sponsored Hamaroalhi Mr. Ahmed Nihaan Hussain Manik did.
Mr. President. As you are more aware of than me, there are just two schools in this country where Arab language is been taught. And these two are in the capital Male’. Since my parents are not from Male’, I was living and studying in my home island, Addu atoll Hithadhoo. Therefore I was unable to get the chance to study Arabic language. Been a Muslim it is sad, yet the truth that I don’t know Arabic. Although many blame your 30 years rule as the reason for this sad reality, here I am not writing to you on that topic. As a kid I did go to Edhuruge but unfortunately, there, the importance was given not to teach the reading of the Arabic words, yet to learn by heart. Even then, there were many who were not able to read by looking at what it written. And I am sure this is the case all around our small country.
Yesterday, I was very keen to hear about the new Dhivehi Translation of Nobel Quran. I am writing this letter to bring to your attention two things I noticed regarding this translation. I am not going to ask if you’re using a 60-60 or even 80-80 numbered spectacle. Indeed I will not ask you to go to Eye Care or Singapore to get a new spectacle too. But I kindly request you to give us (The Maldivians who are not literate in Arabic) a solution to the problems that I mention below.
· It was good news that the Dhivehi Translation of Nobel Quran came to a reality even though after so many years. However, there are many words written in Arabic in the translation. As far as my knowledge is concerned, a language may differ the meaning of something but not the dialect that we use to write it. It would have been much easier for us, (the Maldivians who don’t know Arabic) if the translation was written fully in Dhivehi. There are many words that could be easily written in Dhivehi. Example: Inkaaru…Aadham…israafu…salaam. According to my knowldge only the word Allah cannot be written by Dhivehi dialect (Thaana).
· The translation was sent as soft copies to the radio channels of Maldives. And it is in the president’s office website too. However, I do believe it will be easier if the soft copy is available for us to download in an easy way so that we could refer anytime anywhere. Maybe your concern was that it maybe changed by some “naughty people” but I do believe that can be done even now. So it will be much better to leave it for free and easy down load to everyone.
I thank you for publishing the Dhivehi Translation of Nobel Quran in your office site and hope it will not take another 30 years to reach our doorsteps as you have promised several different times in many different occasions.
Thank you and may peace be on you.
Alif Laam Gaaf.