The Battle of Reform is heating up

These are nervous times for politicians wanting to cling on to power. Politics is a dirty game and every rule, if there is any, is made to be broken. No refereeing is required for the victor takes all and the vanquished must be destroyed as the ancient Romans did inside the Colosseum in front of the watchful eye of their emperor who amused in the gory gladiator fights.

The nation is bleeding from old wounds. The hostilities among rival armed gangs in our nation has reached staggering heights. Only the tough and well-connected can survive. A significant number of our youth are depressingly high on drugs and we are just waking up to the reality that we have been in a culture of denial for too long.

The holier-than-thou political Imams of our country with their self-righteous hypocrisy of intolerance have destroyed religious unity and harmony which we took for granted for all these years.

We face turbulent times ahead. Now we have to bite the bullet to solve our problems brought about by the folly of our leaders.

This the beginning of the deadly game of brinkmanship between rival political parties taking aim to grab political power. The sole purpose of the opponents is to bring down the present government and seize power.

The main opposition political parties who were at each other's throats until recently have declared a truce and formed an alliance to challenge the government. One would think these are strange bedfellows, given the hard line opposition of the mainly conservative Adhaalat to the secular MDP.

Presidential contender Dr. Hassan Saeed now accuses the Government of wastefulness and arrogance. Echoing the Alliance's shared vision of what an interim government should look like, MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) who has defined himself by his unflinching opposition to President Gayoom has called for the president to be given immunity from prosecution.

It is impossible to guess where our country will end up on this path of reform. Looking back into history, we know that political leadership transitions have always been messy. We have wretched social conditions in Maldives from housing, health care, pensions, rising cost of living etc. The voices of public disquiet of unaddressed grievances are growing louder. Even our parliament where traditionally stone-faced men who represented unsuspecting constituents has become more boisterous. Their unholy alliances and shifting loyalties has nothing to do with any political ideology or betterment for their constituents. It is an intriguing public spectacle of scheming chameleon-like characters. Socially, our country is operating at boiling point, a dangerous level for a country that depends on the tourist dollar promoting itself as a tranquil paradise for the rich and famous.