Days of a facade republic are over, says president

President Mohamed Nasheed has said a Maldivian ruler would no longer be able to govern the country as a false republic under a facade of democracy.

In his address to the nation on Republic Day, which also marks the one year anniversary of the first democratically elected government, the president said that a democratic republic was the solution to the slavery and oppression of history.

“Therefore, God willing, no Maldivian ruler would be able to govern a republic in name only,” he said. “That uncivilised tradition was washed away from these shores by you, by the beloved people of Maldives, by Dhivehin.”

Meaningful change

In his opening remarks, the president said it was fitting to look back on the lead-up to the inauguration of the country’s first democratic government on 11 November 2008.

“It was the day that the rulers of the past 30 long years and the way they ruled changed,” he said. “It was the moment in the nation’s life when it changed from one state to another.”

The reason the change was possible was because the public seized the moment, he said.

There were many reasons Maldivians longed for change, he continued, and it would not have come to pass if people prioritised material benefit.

“Unless citizens want a meaningful change more than material gain, human history has not shown that a long autocracy could be changed to a democracy,” he said.

Maldivians yearned for a philosophy that placed human dignity and honour at its centre and longed to be free from fear and anxiety.

“Today it is one year since we began the journey towards this meaningful change,” he said. “However, Maldivians have longed for this meaningful change for hundreds of years.”

As time passed, it became an unattainable goal, he continued, and they could not free themselves from the clutches of power-hungry rulers and their devious designs.

“Hopelessness and despair” came to reign and people came to believe that slavery was freedom, he said.

A new day

The president said he wished to assure all citizens that he would carry out his responsibility and would not waver in surmounting the obstacles in his path.

He added that the new administration would do all it could to consolidate democracy and ensure that only compassionate governments would follow.

The essential rights and freedoms of the new constitution existed in the old one as well, he said, such as the right to an attorney.

“Until those in power vow to govern fairly, a law that is written down would not be of much benefit to the people,” said Nasheed.

Further, he said, an administration intent on good governance would not use the lack of legislation as an “excuse” to not work for the well-being and benefit of the public.

“One thing I know for certain is that there are thousands of people in this country who long for justice and their rights,” he said. “But, understand, the change you the people brought to this country is not a small and ordinary change. This day last year was not just the day that a presidential term ended and a new one began.”

He added the hardest task at hand was bringing the country back on track after years of inequitable and unjust practices.

“Therefore, it is not just individuals that we have to get justice for,” he said. “Finding justice for this country is a higher, loftier responsibility.”

Just as individual liberty and basic rights are guaranteed, he said, what the government was doing was ensuring justice for the country.

Growing pains

There has never been a government in Maldivian history except the current one that ended a year without arresting political prisoners, said Nasheed.

The new government has a vision that will last for generations, the president said, and it took the responsibility upon itself because it had the intelligence, sincerity and courage.

The change that was envisioned would only be possible when people change from a tribal mindset to “stand tall to the nation’s true height”.

The president concluded his speech by expressing confidence that the Supreme Court and parliament would mature and develop.

“It will hurt when new teeth grows,” he said.

In the introductory remarks, Home Minister Mohamed Shihab said the country was in “a bitter state” when democracy was won.

“The democratic Maldives inherited a devastated and despairing generation, a weakened and indebted economy, a poor and impoverished people,” he said.

He added the first responsibility of the first democratic government was rescuing the country from a “deep pit”, establish freedom, justice and mechanisms for a compassionate government.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)