“As in many young democracies, the transition to a functioning system of checks and balances between different branches of government is very challenging,” Blake said.
Blake said that he had discussed with President Mohamed Nasheed the steps the Maldives was taking to try and stabilise the economy and reduce the budget deficit, and urged the opposition to involve itself in finding a solution.
“It is very important for them to come together and for [the opposition] to come up with an alternative – if they have an alternative – and negotiate an agreed plan. It is most important to continue momentum, reduce the deficit and put the economy on a firmer financial footing, while at the same time continuing the process of strengthening democracy.
“I encourage the government and opposition to work to together to try and tackle the prblems the Maldives is facing. Even in an older and more established democracy such as our own, politicians can find it difficult to work together across party lines in a spirit of fairness and bipartisanship, for the sake of governing well. But when they do, everybody benefits.”
Blake said he was encouraged during his meeting with the President that Nasheed had “reaffirmed his commitment to freedom of assembly”, and noted that despite the country’s political “growing pains”, “the Maldives’ international influence far exceeds its size, particularly in multilateral organisations such as the UN and its human rights council.”
He thanked Nasheed for the Maldives’ votes concerning Syria, Libya and Iran, and noted that he had “become one of he world’s leading climate change advocates, with a flair for drawing attention to the critical impact climate change is having on island nations.”
US-Maldives cooperation extended to visits by figures from the US legislature, student exchange programs, visiting American Muslim speakers, and military collaboration on security and training, he noted. Blake suggested further cooperation with the new Maldives National University, with faculty visiting from US universities.
Blake also spoke briefly on the successful US assassination of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, explaining the State Department’s decision to issue a worldwide caution for American citizens.
“I think difficult to predict [the reaction],” he said. “It is reasonable to assume that Al-Qaeda will try to retaliate for the loss of its leader, and we wanted to make sure people were aware of this development, especially in areas where there is already anti-American sentiment.”
Blake left for Sri Lanka last night, visiting USAID-supported programs and meeting with local leaders in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
(0)Dislikes
(0)
Thanks for coming Mr. Secretary but there is one thing you don't understand. Your crazies Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and the Tea Partiers, don't have such a big following as our "Zaeem" and his Zoo-DRPiers.
The Secretary is absolutely right! And at this point, all elected politicians in Maldives should go home, read about democracy, think of why they are elected, no matter what party they represent. It is for a fact like this. MDP is holding the President of the country since they won the last election for presidency. But that does not mean they hold all power alone. The power is in the parliament where many parties are represented. MDP are in majority due to the election and holds the government. They have the chance to inflict their politics to govern the country and various means to do this the best way THEY think. But still - being a democracy - it is in PARLIAMENT all cases are voted for and decided! So please stop pointing fingers at each other like children in the kinder garden. To be a elected politician and having a seat in parliament means that you have a responsibility just as much as MDP. If something goes in a negative way it is not always MDP's fault. It is not so that we all can shout for MDP to come and fix everything. It is the elected politicians TOGETHER that have to find the best way. That means that MDP will win some cases and also that opposition will do the same voting against various proposals. Grow up, know your place and responsibility - go to work EVERY DAY in parliament and do your individual DUTIES for the people who elected you - either you are blue, yellow, purple, green, red or whatever....
Dear Mr. Blake,
We are not interested in alternative solutions, all we want is to be back in power, we are not asking for much, are we?
From the day Mohamed Nasheed became that president, all I wanted was the Presidency back which I held for thirty years.
Its mine, its mine, I will get it back no matter what the cost.
This will work if only Anni listens to the opposition. But he won't. He only does whatever he feels best.
How about the US Government give Maldives a few $billion US Dollars without any catch. If you can give Israel around usd$3billion.. yes 3 billion in U.S Dollar funding to the state of Israel, than why not give Maldives atleast a fraction of it to show how much you support democracy in the Maldives.
When you can give that much to a well established racist government with a hidden nuclear weapons programme, than why not give a country which actually wants to be democratic and for the American way the same type of funding.
Being a small population, we dont even mind USD.1 Billion every 2 years. Oh well.. you can make it every 3 years and we promise not to even kill innocent Palestinians after taking your money.
Your tax payers does not seem to worry about your funding to Israel. So I am pretty sure donating to Maldives will not even raise an eye brow.
Further more, you can actually proof to Maldivians that you are serious about democratic movements even when we have no oil to give you back.
Thanx a lot Secretary Blake, we appreciate your efforts to bring the Government & the Opposition together which only shall reduce indeed reduce the existing economic & law and order issues
Dear Mr Blake,
The following comments by you made me think that you agree that our present government is unable to solve our current economic crisis.
"... and urged the opposition to involve itself in finding a solution."
"It is very important for them to come together and for [the opposition] to come up with an alternative – if they have an alternative – and negotiate an agreed plan."
"I encourage the government and opposition to work to together to try and tackle the prblems the Maldives is facing."
Thinking that the government does not know what they are doing is one thing. But asking the opposition to bring them out of the mess they created is, for me, very funny.
Perhaps, there is no choice, but to ask the opposition to do something?
But how can you expect the opposition to teach the government how to run the country?
What I learned from your visit is that you believe that the opposition is more capable than the government. This is good news. So, thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Robin
Hey US Secretary, its easy for you to say blah blah... show action instead of empty words.
Make a healthy contribution to the Maldives economy and assist us during this time of difficulty. That would solve the chaos.
Your words are easy but its worthless. If you can't practically assist us, then sit down and shut up. Save your breath.
@Robin
"Thinking that the government does not know what they are doing is one thing. But asking the opposition to bring them out of the mess they created is, for me, very funny."
It's not funny at all! I'm not an MDP supporter or a government supporter. But I do understand the governments efforts to stabilise an economy that's been spiralling out of control for 6-7 years now.
It's in EVERYONE's interests to stabilise the economy. There is no formula you can apply to do this. Rather than shouting and screaming and abusing every move of the government, responsible politicians would try to find a solution. I've never heard of an ALTERNATIVE plan by the opposition. Do they have one? We don't know, since they have kept very quiet about that.
Why don't the opposition tell the people about their plan for the economy? It'll be much easier to convince people if they actually came out with a plan than protesting on the streets.
@ ABABS
"But I do understand the governments efforts to stabilise an economy that’s been spiralling out of control for 6-7 years now."
I disagree that our economy was spiralling out of control for the past 6-7 years. May be it was headed in the wrong direction, but the government was very much in its control.
The government completely lost its grip on the economy only recenlty, because of which they HAD to devalue our currency.
"It’s not funny at all! I’m not an MDP supporter or a government supporter. But I do understand the governments efforts to stabilise an economy ..."
This is laughable, ABABS.
What are the government's efforts to stbilise our economy before the recent crisis?
The government seems to have realised the consequences of its policies also ONLY now. Otherwise it would not have been such a spendthrift.
If you think this government has made efforts to reign in the economy, you have to be a supporter of them. No one else will say that their policies helped the economy. If our economy was doomed to fail, the actions of this government has simply accelerated the process.
In my humble opinion, the government did not deliberately do this. They just did not know what will happen to the economy or what the consequences of their action will be. They did what they wanted, not knowing they are worsening the situation. And now that they have realised that they created a mess, and that they have to come out of the mess, they seem helpless.
"It’s in EVERYONE’s interests to stabilise the economy. ... I’ve never heard of an ALTERNATIVE plan by the opposition. Do they have one? We don’t know, since they have kept very quiet about that."
Indeed it is in everyone's interest to stabilise the economy.
But do you really expect the opposition to tutuor the government?
Even if the opposition has a valid plan, who is going to implement it?
This is as if you are asking the opposition to run the government for them.
"Why don’t the opposition tell the people about their plan for the economy? It’ll be much easier to convince people if they actually came out with a plan than protesting on the streets."
Thinking from the perspective of those who are on the streets .....
What is required to be done at this moment is NOT convincing people of a plan.
What is required to be done is reduction of the price values on commodities.
Most people are out on the streets not because they like to protest. But because they simply cannot manage to feed and support their families because of the rise in prices.
This did not happen overnight when our currency got devalued. This has been going on for the past few years. Goods became unaffordable only after the exchange rate was revised. Before that, people barely managed to feed their families.
I have seen people comment here, that the prices have gone high, even a year ago. But such commenters were scoffed at by the MDP supporters of this website. I don't think the MDP supporters even believe that the prices have gone high. This is the impression I got from the kind of comments made by the president on a recent speech.
If the prices have not gone high, the government has done nothing wrong. So what is there to correct? People on the streets must be all bitten by a mad dog. No?
@ Robin
"I disagree that our economy was spiraling out of control for the past 6-7 years. May be it was headed in the wrong direction, but the government was very much in its control."
Remember the 2008 economic crisis? Until just a few days before Lehman brothers fell in September that year, everything was rosy. Only a handful of economists were warning that it might happen, everyone else was happy happy happy with ever increasing profits and standards of living. Then all of a sudden, boom!, everything gone. Did it all happen on that 15th of September 2008 alone? Or did it build up over months and years before that? No economic crisis like the one we see right now in Maldives happens in a day, or a week, or a month. It's the result of years and years of mismanagement and abuse, the general public just doesn't perceive it that way because the house of cards only comes crashing down when the powers to be can't manipulate their way out of it any longer.
The government lost control of the economy years ago, so much so that even printing money wasn't sufficient to stuff holes. Or why do you think they suddenly doubled the number of resorts for tourism development, in less than 3 years, with all of the new ones having to pay 15% of 10yrs rent in advance? Doing so is like borrowing money from the future, the effect of which is felt right now.
The previous government has to take the blame for creating this situation, and it's the current government who has to take blame for being too weak to rectify it, especially in the tourism sector. If they would only take a non-corrupt no-tolerance approach to resort owners paying their rent fully and on time, this alone would wash tens of millions of dollars into state coffers. But as long as even 'Special Advisors' to the President get away with not paying rent even for their running resorts, nothing will change. Instead the government decides to put more and more islands on bid, and thereby further inflating the tourism product and putting off foreign investors. Go figure!
Can anyone brief us on what the US doing to assist our first democratically elected government? Just curious.
Can anyone brief us on what the US is doing to assist our first democratically elected government? Just curious
"No economic crisis like the one we see right now in Maldives happens in a day, or a week, or a month. It’s the result of years and years of mismanagement and abuse, ..."
Okay, lets us assume you are right.
I expect smart people to rectify problems. Not to aggravate the causes of the problems.
The policies of this government should be made so that our economy will get strengthened. But this is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing is that their policies are weakening the economy further. This is my grievance.
"The government lost control of the economy years ago, so much so that even printing money wasn’t sufficient to stuff holes."
I am no economist. But I disagree that printing money to stuff holes is the remedy. In our situation, I think printing money is the worst thing one can do to prevent the economy from crashing.