Former President Mohamed Nasheed has criticised President Abdulla Yameen for dividing his cabinet among coalition partners and “giving half of it to a business tycoon.”
Speaking at the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) local council campaign rally in Addu City last night, Nasheed said development projects that had come to a halt during Dr Mohamed Waheed’s “coup government” had not restarted after the election of the new government.
Yameen’s administration “does not even have a development plan,” Nasheed alleged.
The ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) won the second round of presidential polls held on November 16 with the backing of third-placed candidate business tycoon Gasim Ibrahim’s Jumhooree Gulhun.
The coalition constituted the Jumhooree Party (JP), the religious Adhaalath Party, and the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP). The PPM promised the Jumhooree Coalition over 30 percent of government positions.
“The Maldivian state does not have a cabinet, the president does not have a cabinet. There is no government, and there will be no development a non-existent government could provide for the people of Maldives,” Nasheed said.
The former president has been a vocal critic of coalition governments after having come to power as part of a short-lived coalition in 2008, with the backing of several smaller parties including the JP and DQP.
Speaking on decentralisation, Nasheed said Yameen’s half-brother and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s loyalists had initially been critical of the policy.
It was the MDP who had drafted and proposed chapter eight of the constitution on decentralised administration, he said.
Nasheed accused the government of trying to “fit the decentralised system into a unitary system”.
He said that the result of a unitary system would be similar to what had happened “during the thirty long years and hundreds of years before that” where Island Chiefs were at the mercy of Ministers in the capital Malé, thus slowing down development.
Responding to Nasheed’s comments, President’s Office Spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali said that Nasheed “likes to lie when elections are approaching” and that his comments were targeted only for upcoming local elections.
“I think it is in his nature to do this sort of thing, perhaps it is because he does not have much to say politically. But people are more aware now, people know what exactly is happening here.” Muaz said.
“The people of Addu City would be asking whether a dysfunctional government would be working to build a multi-specialty hospital in Hulhumale, airports in Felivaru and Kulhudhufushi, and Hulhumale’ bridge. And would such a government ease the obtaining of Indian visas and construction materials, expunge criminal records of youth. Will a dysfunctional government do all these things?” he asked.
Muaz stated that President Yameen was working very efficiently with the JP’s Gasim Ibrahim, the MDA’s Ahmed Shiyam, the Adhaalath Party and other members of the coalition.
“The cabinet we have now is a very capable one. It is divided into two councils, an Economc Council and a Social Council. Both councils will report directly to the president or the vice president”.
“All members of the cabinet are working very hard as a single team. Perhaps Nasheed was referring to 29 June 2010, when he did not have a cabinet,” Muaz continued, referring to the mass resignation of Nasheed’s Cabinet in 2010.
Nasheed, who is in Addu City for local council election campaign, will be visiting all regions of the city and will participate in a door to door campaign.
At last night’s rally he endorsed MDP candidates for Addu City council and all MDP candidates for other councils, calling on the public to “vote for the MDP ideology”.
He has announced that he will be travelling to all inhabited islands of the Maldives before the parliamentary elections on March 22.
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Maldives is doomed as it is caught in the poisonous web of both Nasheed and Qayoom.
I would put it differently. The nation is polarised between these two men. At the moment Gayoom is winning. This is a relatively new situation in Maldives because traditionally there has been one-man rule.
The system of one-man rule became one-family rule under Gayoom.
This system has now got a new lease of life.
The common man in the Maldives may not see anything wrong with this system because they are so used to it, and they cannot see any alternative in the pipeline.
Virtually half the population supported Nasheed and MDP may have a salutary effect on the PPM government.
The position of Gasim Ibrahim in Maldivian politics is another novel and interesting factor.
if you have Qasim around, you dont need a cabinet or policy makers.
Qasim made Sunisland or Airports without a cabinet. Also Villa Collage and Villa Gas is sucessful without a cabinet..
Nasheed do not know how things function in real life.
Gasim knows that he will never get the presidential seat. His next best option seems to be to stick to the side that will give him and his business the most lucrative deals. That side is PPM for now because PPM needs Gasim.
A cynic will say that Maldivians will once again let King Maumoon rule over them. The King's formula is quite simple. It's a bit like this. When Bill Gates was told that the Chinese are pirating his Windows software, Bill remarked: Let them get addicted to it; after all there are billions of them. The King's method is the same. Get them addicted to whatever they want, as long as that comes from PPM.
Good remark from mode.
How did this idiot Nasheed won election in 2008 and how did he divided his cabinet ? That was right and it was OK that time.
Did he ever won 2008, election by himself and did he only got 21% of the popular vote by MDP in the first round ?
Did he told that that people of Maldives had clearly told that they did not want him to be the President by himself , rather need to form a coalition with Gaasim , Hassan Saeed and Adaalath and all other parties except DRP?
This was all fine since all these things were in favor of him.
In simple, anything in favor of him is right and anything not in favor is wrong ?
This is how this idiot Nasheed sees things and how he sees right and wrong.
This guy does not know that those era had gone and history and Maldivian are not that crazy now and things are changing.
Basically Nasheed is a virus and he is the man who is responsible for most of the violence in the country. Since there has not been much violence and riots and protest for last 2 months, he wanted to bring the people on the road to bring the violation.
He can not live peacefully and he always want violence. But i doubt that he can now mobilize his gangs the way used to in the past and MDP leadership will not bow their heads to this guy any more.
They have given enough chance and they had enough of the guy and now will need a new leaders to come out rescue the party from this idiot who has ruined the country and the party.
A country only gets the type of leader it deserves. We have shown that we are for sale, our votes are for sale and that as long as we are not directly affected, we can look the other way in the face of corruption, rape, drugs, and even murder. So this country will continue to have such leaders in both the government, the parliament and the judiciary whom we as Maldivians have accepted, irrespective of their dirty deeds. We are too shallow to see beyond the party system, and to hold individuals, irrespective of the party they belong to, accountable for their actions, especially when they misuse the power and authority given to them, as elected leaders and as leaders appointed and trusted to develop the country. No use in blaming MAG, Nasheed, Yamin or Gasim, if we have the guts, let's blame ourselves first shall we.
Neither Yameen has cabinet, nor a policy to run a government. Few who heled to electe Yameen actually wanted to preserve religion, and the nationalism, both of this tasks , seems beyond Yameen’s capacity. Religion is of course a personal matter, what Yameen can do to make me believe Islam, this is how my brain works and there is one on the face of earth who can convince me, Even Allah is incapable of this task. The second task is to preserve Maldives with its culture of wearing Mundu, eating garudhiya and Rihaakuru and smoking biddies, eating suparies, which is also beyond Yameen’s capacity as he has no power to control the evolving meme culture through social media networks and evolving cosmopolitan culture of Maldivian by traveling to different cultures around the world. It is human nature to copy things what they see and definitely there will lot of Maldivian who will copy things they see.
If we talk about the true policy of government, then it must be based on the development of socio economy, which of course he can’t carry out with his supporters whish of preserving the religion and nationalism, Yameen is simply a man with no mandate and will be holding only a talk show until the Maldivian realize that we live in a cooperative world and there is no way you can do anything today without joining the evolving human race.
I agree with you Hero.
When Nasheed wants to make coalition, then it is ok. But when others make coalition MDP people jump up and down saying Coaliton is not part of presidential system.
In 2008 when Nasheed made coalition with Adhaalath, Jumhoory party and Hassan Saeed coalition was good. But in 2013 when PPM made coalition agreements Nasheed is saying Coalition is not good. What rubbish is this ?
Also remember during the 2nd round of presidential elections, Nasheed personally approached Qasim Ibrahim to get his backing, and promised JP a 30% stake in next govt should MDP win the elections with Qasims support. At that time, coalition was ok for Nasheed. But when Nasheed lost the election, again coalition has become not good.
This proves the stupid politics of MDP, and the lying and deception they will stoop to. When they do coalition, it is good, but when others do coalition it is bad. Rubbish minded people.