The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) was to hold two concurrent protests this evening after the ‘For Sale’ protest organised by the party’s Deputy Leader Umar Naseer for Friday was delayed due to weather.
However continuing poor weather led to the cancellation of both protests, which would have coincided at the Artificial Beach this evening at 9pm.
Naseer told Minivan News that both protests “were planned to take place as one.”
The outspoken and uncompromising critic of the government’s privatisation of state assets issued a press statement this week announcing the ‘For Sale’ protest, without the apparent approval of the party’s secretariat.
The party’s council voted 16-11 in favour of bringing Naseer before the party’s disciplinary committee over the matter, leading Naseer on Wednesday to publicly question the sincerity of DRP leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, and allege that senior officials in the party “are known to be involved in secret deals with the government.”
In support of Naseer, DRP MPs Ilham Ahmed and Ahmed Mahlouf condemned the council’s decision as characteristic of a “dictatorship.”
The DRP Council meanwhile announced a protest for this evening at 9pm at the Artifical Beach, coinciding with Umar Naseer’s protest until the cancellation of both.
Factional rumblings within the DRP became noticeable during its last congress, when the party voted against holding primary elections to determine the party’s presidential candidate, and instead opted for the leader to automatically become the candidate. Thasmeen was then elected to leadership unopposed, after prior public endorsement by former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
Naseer, who had resigned from and attempted to disband his own Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) to pursue higher political ambitions, was a vocal critic of the decision to not hold primaries.
Following the congress Faathin Hameed, one of the DRP’s formative members and niece of the former President, told Minivan News that the voting itself was suspect because delegates “were bought before they even got [to Male’].”
“There were a lot of complaints from the islands lodged directly at the DRP office,” Faathin told Minivan News in March. “I made a point of writing to the committee in charge of the congress, headed by the [Parliamentary] Speaker Abdulla Shahid, reporting the complaints I was receiving and requesting action in order to ensure a transparent, free and fair democratic process.”
Faathin claimed the DRP’s “failure to fund its grass-root groups” had made the party dependent on outside financial support at the island-level, which had resulted in delegations from Male’ travelling to went to the islands “to ‘assist’ in holding the elections – teams sent by people with vested interests.”
Among the complaints shown to Minivan News were allegations from party members that they had been deliberately excluded from participating in island-level meetings, that island-level meetings were not announced or held in secrecy, that agendas were not announced in advance, and that candidates were not given the opportunity to put themselves forward. There were also disputes over vote counting.
Despite apparent tension over the issue of holding primaries, the party continued to insisted it was united even as a subsequent court case related to US$100,000 in debts was levelled at then-DRP leader elect Thasmeen by Abdulla Yameen, the former President’s half-brother and leader of the DRP’s coalition partner the People’s Alliance (PA).
Yameen contended at the time that that court case was “a civil case with no bearing on a political arrangement”.
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Saabas!
Holy cow. Would you give this a rest.
You have had your chance and it did not turn out any better.
I am almost 100% sure MDP's actions would not be must better either, but I am willing to give them an opportunity to prove their pledges.
This party politics is the destruction of Maldives.
I am willing to bet, most Maldivians could not care less about politics, except as an only form of entertainment, in a dreadfully entertainment-less environment.
But now its getting out of control and wreaking the social fabric and what ever sanity that is left of Maldives.
Stupid and selfish MP's! But mostly ignorant Maldivians who voted for these MP's!
goodness gracious. tis as if the gods just dont want to make light room for mdp...support of cos with all parties of humans- but election vote goes to yameen. If not then ibra as PM & waheed as HIP will have to do.
p.s if hassan saeed n his party wud accept the managerial role of running the various ministries in this utopian coalition im mentioning here, wud be truly a success
lets recap.
support for yameen, not necessarily for drp. support also for a coalition of DQP and an ibra-waheed duo. that'l be all. thank you very much.
hmm..?..oh yes. yes indeed
hullo im aware it was an drp protest to begin with, but seems to me mdp has a real opponent in this opposition drp as a whole. so delyed DRP protest only adds to the momentum and the fun. illogical magic wont u say.
k then,.. now behave mdp n pls make ur way to the nearest exit. ur time is almost coming. remain calm throughout.
All this political disunity as mentioned in this article made me reflect...
A deeply rooted seed of intense grief and tragedy is the real, underlying cause of the violent narcisism which characterises so much Maldivian political life, business practice and legal affairs.
Until the seed of grief is uprooted there will never be an unselfish, nation serving rather than self serving force of unity capable of healing the Maldives of its real issues.
Gangsterism, inequality before the law, the threat of terrorism are some of the symptoms of this self reinforcing cycle of tragic despair and its eventual consequence...ultimately destructive narcissism (destructive for both self and others...)
Too much social pain, rejection and hurt leads to an eventual inability of one to genuinely care for another, because, to care for another is to make yourself vulnerable to being hurt by them. So to protect oneself from being hurt, one becomes self serving, hedonistic, one seeks ones own pleasure in a desparate bid to be happy without having any real care for others. Yet it becomes a vengeful pursuit of pleasure, as it becomes so all consuming that all others are exploited and used towards the end of ones own pleasure. People are treated as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. This is degrading, dehumanising.
Some feel incapable of confronting this issue and simply just fall into a state of despair, a deep state of helplessness, resignation and fatalism which has a religious depth... My first experience of Maldivian Islam was one explaining Taqdir (divine decree) the fundamental tenet of Sunni Islam proclaiming that all things are in the Qadar (the will or the power) of Allah... Whislt this is true, it was never meant to lead to the type of inaction, the passivity and lack of an attempt to stand up against tyranny the way it has so often lead too. (Tyrants have misused this doctrine to render potential challenges completely docile and feeling defeated and impotent...yet it was originally meant to inspire determination, fortitude and courage in the struggle for justice and not its opposite which is the defeatism which characterises many poor Muslim people.)
However, the only way to uproot this seed of pain, to create a society which reverences the dignity of humanity as the very much loved and special creation of Allah is for one to be capable of caring, even if it hurts one to be caring. The pain of caring has to be embraced as a special J-H-D (a special struggle and self sacrifice) and if one can be given a sense by Allah that all pain for the sake of others will ultimately be rewarded spiritually... "Or think you that you will enter Paradise without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? They were afflicted with severe Poverty, Ailments & were Shaken". (Quran 2:214)
The essence of Allah is Mercy, hence we say Arrahmani-Rahim, this essence has to be struggled for, hurt for, Suffering and struggling due to mercy for others is the way to truly serve Allah as is taught by the Qur'an in Surah 4: 75...
4: "75- And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? - Men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!"
In being true to the essence of the religion, one must struggle in a strictly non-violent manner, as was the preferance of the Prophet (SAW). If we study Islam deeply we will discover that he only ever resorted to violence when there really was no other way to save innocent human life...
One must work to re-install basic care ... true self sacrificial love is the only power capable of inspiring the capacity for true Adhalaath (justice), Al-Qisas (Equity) and Muwahid (oneness) capable of healing the Maldives.
Wow that was simple!
Can someone pls explain?
I think the solution to this is simple
they should privatize the met office
this way - they would get better weather information in advance and the DRP can finally hold a rally against privatization
Saleem
I prefer services to be managed by private companies instead of by a drp governent wich pockets all money themselves