The Maldivian Democratic Party held a several thousand strong rally on Wednesday night despite a police takeover of Usfasgandu, the party’s rally ground in Male’, and a warning from Minister of Home Affairs Mohamed Jameel that the police would not allow the rally to be held in the area.
Police cordoned off the main rally ground and surrounding streets, with MDP members and supporters standing just beyond police lines. The rally was held adjacent to the protest site.
Crowds gathered an hour before the scheduled start of the rally and heated verbal exchanges took place between the protestors and approximately thirty police officers at the location. Minivan News observed two protesters being led away by police. However Police Media Official Sub Inspector Hassan Haneef said that no arrests were made in the area.
First a Maldivian, then a police officer
Many speakers at Wednesday night’s rally called on the police to step down and cooperate with the citizens, saying they were “first a Maldivian and then a police officer”.
“You should be ashamed to stay there in uniform when you are being used as political weapons,” said MP Ali Waheed, addressing the police officers.
Former MDP Chairperson Mariya Ahmed Didi called on police to back down, saying the party members would not step back until they had guaranteed their freedoms and rights.
“We don’t care how big a power tries to tell us this is not a coup, whether it be the Commonwealth or the UN. We have no doubts about what we saw with our own eyes. We have no doubts about which shoes, which batons have been beating us,” Mariya said.
“No member of MDP will go back to their homes before we rid this country of this culture of violence.”
Both Mariya and Nasheed stated that the party’s intention was not to protect the rally grounds, but rather the rights of the citizens.
“It is not Usfasgandu that we are trying to defend, nor any other land either. We are here to protect freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right to peaceful political activity. We will do this until our last breath,” Nasheed said.
“Take down these police lines,” Nasheed addressed the police. “There is no one in this country who can come out against the citizens of this country, to hold them back or restrict them. I call on the police and soldiers to step back now.”
“Maumoon is deceiving Yameen and Ilyas again”: Nasheed
Nasheed once again accused current President Mohamed Waheed Hassan of participating in planning a coup with former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
“There is one thing I must say to my former Vice President Waheed. You cannot forever eat the world with deceit. You can only do
so for a short while,” Nasheed said.
“If you think that by taking the lead to plan a coup with former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom you people will succeed in getting this country back in your clutches, then you are very much mistaken. We will not let that happen.”
Speaking of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), Nasheed said the party was absorbed in in-fighting while MDP was conducting its door-to-door campaign. He alleged that Gayoom was “once again deceiving his brother Abdulla Yameen and brother-in-law Ilyas Ibrahim” by feigning refusal to run in the presidential elections.
“Maumoon has been pulling the wool over Abdulla Yameen’s eyes for a good 15 years now, telling him he won’t be running for president,” Nasheed said.
“He creates rifts between Yameen and Ilyas, and then, in the name of peace making, takes the reigns himself. He has been doing this for ages, and will do so again. Come and contest. We will defeat you again. This time, we will defeat you in a single round,” Nasheed said.
At the end of his speech, Nasheed made reference to the recent allegations plans of assassination plots against him.
“You can plan to poison me, you can plan to shoot me, you can conspire to do anything at all. But the final will is not that of Jameel, Waheed or Saeed. Accept it, the final will is that of Almighty God,” Nasheed said.
“None of you must be mistaken, be it the judges or the police and army. I am repeatedly saying that on the 11th of November 2013, it will once again be me who is sworn in as President of this nation.”
Police have closed off the MDP rally grounds following an order from High Court released Wednesday, stating the area shall be kept under the care of the police and not used for any purpose until the court reaches a verdict on the matter.
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Holy mackerel....
You think Gayoom would fall for that? He is not stupid like you. You put the noose around your neck, when you asked the private, whether he thinks you should step down. hahahaha!!!
Gayoom is a geriatric now, but he still has more strategic moves than you.
Try setting a better trap. Entrapment cannot be done such a thinly veiled bait.
I don't believe Waheed is an active participant in the coup. He's too much of a coward. Rather, I think he is the puppet of the coalition and is being controlled by them. Nasheed should hold back on narratives until the dust settles and a much more thorough investigation is carried out.
And though I support Nasheed, it's hypocritical of him and his supporters to call upon the police to abandon a direct order considering that it was the same rhetoric spewed by the Coalition that caused Nasheed's downfall in February last year.
The old man is mad enough to consider this.
Ali Shiyam: I don't think you have made much progress since 1978.
How can this guy Nasheed win the election ? Even in 2008, you got only 22% of the vote and in the second round you won because of the coalition .
Since Feb. 7h 2012, your party never was able to win any election and you always loosing them.
I guess you can dream of winning the election and majority of Maldivian never vote you
Its better for you to settle the strike at your Resort Alimatha and then terminate the Italian contract and then try to run both Alimatha and Digirri resort.
Ahmed on Thu, 31st Jan 2013 11:05 PM
Ali Shiyam: I don’t think you have made much progress since 1978.
Buuuuuurn! 😉
I agree with @ahmed regarding @ali Shiyam. It is so strange to me that we are still disagreeing about who best to vote when
candidate A stands for better housing, free healthcare, nation wide transportation, better sewage, water and electricity and is all about providing something for the people
candidate M and his brothers, daughters, in laws wants to dig for oil, talks about the success of increasing members of their own party, and showcase what they did for country 30 years ago.
Canidate W to date has done nothing but advertise mistakes of candidate A and undo what A did. n just recently came out of closet to say he is contesting to a crowd of no more than 15 excluding topy when other parties count members by the ten thousands.
candidate G's campaign is about all the things his private company and business has done for the people - how his airplane provides cheap flights, how his college provides education and scholarships, how his resorts employ many people.
I mean come on maldivians. Don't get brain washed, just use reason. If this sceanrio was applied to an American voting audience, they would have thrown stones at M,W and G! They would not have a chance.
Lets us be serious about this and get our heads rewired and wake up to a democracy. Not a dream state spun by the old regime where we are all irrational drones suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
Nasheed makes me laugh sometimes. Gayyoom, is a wily old man, for sure. I don't think he would have ever ordered Nasheed to be poisoned, or "wiped" off the face of the earth. He's too cunning for that sort of "cheap" trick. Those sort of deeds are left to the likes of "Mr X", who are disciples of Gayyoom, of course.
Gayyoom's long standing tool is to exploit the weaknesses of the human race. All those who are die hard followers of Gayyomism have one thing in common and it should be evident to all of you what that "thing" is.
It would be far better for Nasheed to concentrate of his positive campaign of identifying policy areas that the common man can identify with. He's been doing that lately, with housing and pensions and so on. Negative campaigning against Gayyoom etc won't buy him too many votes.
It is obvious to anyone with basic education and with a bit of rational that none of these so called wana be presidents can do much in terms of economic benefits to the people. With a GDP 6000.00 US$ inheriting huge debt and inflated public spending, there is no way anyone can do much in this tiny Island republic. People should go for someone with modern thinking with liberal ideas. The only way you can even imagine a bit of hope for development is openness and liberal ideas so people can dictate their life on their own without depending on Gods, politicians and so on. Anni is promising too much but has ideas of openness and liberalism which could be the right ingredients to put the first stone on the foundation. This idea may not suit many as people always want remain in comfort zone.
MP Ali waheed should be the person who should be ashamed. i do not know how to describe the filthy words he used for President Nasheed. but crazy MDP members accept him as a saint. the biggest transferring fee was paid to him via GMR. we thought MDP was for reform, but saw corruption from top to bottom, there was no good governance. Naseed used to get more support by employing culprits in his regime like Gayoom did.
We have been protesting against the junta for one year now. With no result.
The only way to get rid of this baagees regime is a revolution. Yes, we should take up arms and apply their means on them. As the democrats in Egypt demand the extremist president Morsi to be executed, the same has to happen in Mordiss. No more reconciliation ! Armed revolution !
@Minivan: I think it would be a good idea to caption your pixs!
@Hussein thaufeeq: Gasim has done a lot of good by opening Villa High School and Villa College aswell as building the airports.
For me it comes down to either Anni or Gasim and I'm giving it to Anni this year. No other presidential candidate has put in the amount of work and enthusiasm that Anni has in connecting with the people and finding out the perspective of the common man while wanting to do something about it.
Gasim while having done good also supported the coup and as an atheist I cannot support a man who took part in the Dec 23rd Protest made by the Coalition where me and my kind were told we were unwanted and unneeded.
@raven yes indeed gasim has done a lot. But he is no selfless philanthropist as he projects himself to be. Villa college is a money minting machine. All the A level students studying at villa is paid for by government. This is steady stream of income at expense of tax payer flowing directly to a private party on a preferred contract. He has the college facility given to him at zero rent for long term. Secondly his airport and flyme ,is again a major commercial deal that will give Gasim enormous bargaining power in the long run for flights traveling to distances not serviced routinely by seaplanes. His student loans were part of the IMF loan deal that gasim took to develop all his resorts back n 90s. It's not something he did out of his pure goodwill. So as I said, he's a businessman first, he gives on condition n he has taken more. I think it's bettergasim continues to be this kind of businessman and better he try not to discredit Nasheed who has suffered in jail while gasim enjoyed wealth he acquired through preferential deals he got by being house boy of iliyas n the endherimage clan. If not for that connection, gasim would probably be some milk wholesaling seytu in the local bazaar area today.
Reality comes first.
Name a single one in the Parliament, who actively promotes general public well being.
As far as i see, all are hell bent on party politics, self-agrandizing, underhand deals etc. One can never expect more from a pathetic set of uneducated (most of them) big mouths.
But the worst of the fiasco is that most of the public likes it that way. ie : they would select those who has the foulest mouth, participated in the most corrupt deals etc..
So, in short, the country is doomed. Sad.
I find it kinda weird that MDP are asking the police to abandon their posts and "join the people".
Wasnt this the kind of behavior that MDP was outraged about when they were in power ? That police listened to the words of protestors, and disobeyed President Nasheed's and MDP state ministers orders on Feb 06th ? Didnt MDP label that kind of action as treachery and baqaavaaiy ?
Does this mean its ok to baqaavaaiy against the state when MDP is not in power AND NOT OK when MDP is in power ?
How can MDP call on the police to do the same thing that they have been campaigning against since the change of govt ?
If the police start bowing to every command issued at a protest by someone holding a megaphone, wont that be classified as rebellion against the state, as MDP had been condemning ?
How can MDP criticize Maldives Police Service for disobeying orders of MDP state ministers during their tenure, and yet call on the Police to do the same exact thing again when they are now the one's protesting ?
Isnt that kinda hypocritical ?
Nasheed is a big lier and what ever you says will be taken the opposite of what you says.
We do not you be the leader ever. We do not want Garudiya pipelines and we do not want Rihaakru pipe lines, we are sick of hearing your lies.
You may become the President of Republic of Kenereege.