INTERVIEW-"Be Prepared": Scout motto saved Maldives president
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - True to his motto "Be Prepared", 15-year-old Mohamed Jaisham says it was his Boy Scout training that saved Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from assassination by kitchen knife this week.
The teen intervened to grab the blade when a man lunged at Gayoom on Tuesday on his remote native island in the far north of the Indian Ocean island cluster best known for luxury honeymoons and world class scuba diving.
He now has a deep, 1-inch (2.5-cm) cut in his hand, and is revered as a national hero.
"The Scout motto is 'Be Prepared', and at that time I was prepared. It helped me so much. It's my training," Jaisham told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday from Male, the Maldives capital where he was taken for hospital treatment.
"I wear a Scout's uniform and I wanted to save my president."
He was wearing his traditional green Scout uniform, scarf and woggle at the time, but later had to change into a T-shirt because he was covered in blood.
Jaisham was standing in a crowd lined up to meet Gayoom on the island of Hoarafushi in the far north of the chain of 1,200 mostly uninhabited islands 500 miles (800 km) off the toe of India when he heard the attacker, described by residents as a having extreme religious views, cry out.
"I saw the knife because he was yelling Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," the teen said. "I wanted to catch the knife, but he moved very quickly. I stopped it with my left hand and was cut."
Gayoom was rushed away for medical checks because the blade had brushed his shirt and left a blood stain. The president was unscathed. The blood was Jaisham's.
Gayoom, 71, who has led the Maldives for three decades and is Asia's longest-serving ruler, told national radio after the attack he had been saved "thanks to Mohamed Jaisham and Allah".
In a twist of fate, Gayoom holds the honorary title of 'Chief Scout of the Maldives'.
"He said 'thank you so much', and said he was proud of me and I was a good Scout," said Jaisham, who is studying sciences at school and is set to sit his 'O Level' exams next year.
His main hobbies are Scout training and camping.
And after a start like this, what does he hope to become in later life?
"I want to become a professional policeman, because I want to save again and again for my country." (Editing by Roger Crabb)
COLOMBO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - True to his motto "Be Prepared", 15-year-old Mohamed Jaisham says it was his Boy Scout training that saved Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from assassination by kitchen knife this week.
The teen intervened to grab the blade when a man lunged at Gayoom on Tuesday on his remote native island in the far north of the Indian Ocean island cluster best known for luxury honeymoons and world class scuba diving.
He now has a deep, 1-inch (2.5-cm) cut in his hand, and is revered as a national hero.
"The Scout motto is 'Be Prepared', and at that time I was prepared. It helped me so much. It's my training," Jaisham told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday from Male, the Maldives capital where he was taken for hospital treatment.
"I wear a Scout's uniform and I wanted to save my president."
He was wearing his traditional green Scout uniform, scarf and woggle at the time, but later had to change into a T-shirt because he was covered in blood.
Jaisham was standing in a crowd lined up to meet Gayoom on the island of Hoarafushi in the far north of the chain of 1,200 mostly uninhabited islands 500 miles (800 km) off the toe of India when he heard the attacker, described by residents as a having extreme religious views, cry out.
"I saw the knife because he was yelling Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," the teen said. "I wanted to catch the knife, but he moved very quickly. I stopped it with my left hand and was cut."
Gayoom was rushed away for medical checks because the blade had brushed his shirt and left a blood stain. The president was unscathed. The blood was Jaisham's.
Gayoom, 71, who has led the Maldives for three decades and is Asia's longest-serving ruler, told national radio after the attack he had been saved "thanks to Mohamed Jaisham and Allah".
In a twist of fate, Gayoom holds the honorary title of 'Chief Scout of the Maldives'.
"He said 'thank you so much', and said he was proud of me and I was a good Scout," said Jaisham, who is studying sciences at school and is set to sit his 'O Level' exams next year.
His main hobbies are Scout training and camping.
And after a start like this, what does he hope to become in later life?
"I want to become a professional policeman, because I want to save again and again for my country." (Editing by Roger Crabb)
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