Education Minister Dr Musthafa Luthfy, who recently joined the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) after resigning from the deputy leadership of coalition partner Gaumy Ihthihaadh Party (GIP), has described President Mohamed Nasheed as “a national hero.”
Dr Luthfy said he left GIP because he did not wanted to be a member of a party criticising President Mohamed Nasheed’s government.
”I would not want to criticise the government while I am a member of it,” Dr Luthfy said. ”In particular, I do not wish to remain in a gathering which criticises President Mohamed Nasheed.”
Dr Luthfy said that opposition parties were criticising the government because the current government was doing many things the former government could not do.
”Opposition parties are crititcising the current government because the current government is doing many things that the former government could not do to the people,” Dr Luthfy said, ”things like amendment of the national school curriculum, building harbors in many of the islands, providing ferry services and direct aid to the people through Madhana [a health scheme].”
Maldivian Democratic Party parliamentary group leader MP Moosa ‘Reeko’ Manik recently called on any ministers who applauded when the government was criticised “to resign immediately.”
This was targeted at ministers present at a rally led by GIP, a party of which Dr Luthfy was a member and reportedly one of the people applauding its criticism.
Today Reeko said that the government’s senior posts “should be filled only with people who support the MDP manifesto and accept the President’s thinking.”
Right after the coalition agreement between MDP and GIP was terminated by MDP’s national council last Saturday, Dr Luthfy and Deputy Trade Minister Ahmed Inaz left the GIP to join the ruling MDP.
Dr Luthfy recently said he joined MDP not because he had been influenced or under threat of losing his job, but because he felt that it was “the best way to continue serving the people.”
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