The campaign for the presidential election in Maldives is gaining momentum and is largely driven one factor: the removal of the incumbent president who has declared his intention to seek re-election under the new constitution which limits the president's tenure to two terms. The opposition's campaign is cluttered with vitriol against the president who is completing his 6th five-year term. There is a manic frenzy by the opposition in the special majlis to push this particular agenda while amending the constitution, now in its last stage. Who ever contests for the presidency will have to put up with the rigors of political skulduggery. The issues of health care, education, housing, drug addiction, religious extremism and increasing gang violence that plague our country are drowned out by the political madness that has gripped the political parties.
Political parties are funded by public money and therefore they have a responsibility to educate and explain their policies in public forums on how to deal with these problems.
If the political campaigns are only based on personalities, the critical issues of the country will be left out. The road circus that the public was treated to when former president Ibrahim Nasir resigned nearly 30 years back will not be the most civilized and productive way to address grievances or to resolve conflicts. Long before Maldives engaged the world's top PR company Hill and Knowlton, our country was using its own equally clever PR masters and spin doctors. They used hypocrisy and deception with devastating effect to rob our civil rights and destroy our unity. The public is only now waking up from the insecurities and mind-controlling servitude that they introduced.
Though we claim to be a 100 per cent Muslim country, our true faith has always been missing. Our leaders are compromising good with evil which never pays in the end. Materialism is the guiding force that motivates us in life. This has resulted in a society that lacks care and empathy towards the less fortunate, --- a society with profound struggles for those living at the lower end of society.
It is a crying shame that our economic development has only enriched the economic and political elites while completely neglecting the interest of the common man for so long.
It is time to claim back our human rights and civil rights from the politicians who have exploited us. We cannot allow our future generations to be doomed. We should challenge the preachers who act out with holier-than-thou attitude and do not practise what they preach. Our system needs changing and politicians should not confuse people of what the real issues are. They should lock in ideological debates with political opponents but must stick to the issues so that solutions can be found for the future. No system causes problems, it is people within the system who cause them.
We are now at a turning point in our history- for good or for worse.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I agree with you wholeheartedly. You have expressed the same sentiments as mine, like on many occasions with your posts.
sometimes it is so frustrating to see where this country is heading. You are very right. It is either now or never. Or we might have to wait for a long long time.
Please people. It is time to wake up and handle the real issues. Ask your politicians about what they have for us. Ask them how they are going to achieve them.
i agree with you.we must not make everything revolve around zeemu.for example,when it came to barulamaanee/riyaasee some people went for barulamaanee, just to be against him. they forgot we are deciding this for our future, not to remove zaeemu.
but we also have to understand that zaeemu's grip on this country is very strong, and it will have a lot to do with him.talk about religion, its him.talk about humanrights, again him.talk about failure of any ministry,it him.talk about gang violence, its him.talk about free elections, its him.even talk about boyscouts, again him.his tentacles are every where!
having absolute power with no criticism and challenge for 30 years had made him the center of everything.so when MDP was first formed it was actually a movement of people wanting change, not a political party (seriously, there is no such person i would call a real leader in MDP (not Anni for sure).even zaeemu is a better -though evil- as a leader. still it is a movement dedicated to remove the man and change the system.i believe after this goal is achieved there will be lot of changes in the political scenario.people changing from one party to another,splits,new parties, end of old parties maybe.
but even so; we should not keep everything for those days.I think you are right.we should start concentrating on those stuff from now.differences in policies should not be a reason for the alliance to divide.all parties have to cooperate and obey the laws, and promote their policies.i doubt even most of have any policies.
Believe me if the opposition talks about zaeem, zaeem and zaeem in their campaign especially in the islands – THEY ARE GONNA LOSE. The political parties are somehow ignoring the real issue. If there is a solution to all our problems (and theirs), it is freeing civil servants (especially the katheebs or the administrators of the islands) from the clutches of the politicians and giving power to the people in the communities.
Formation of Civil services commission and Islands Council could be the best thing that could happen to us. The other point is even though Male and addu might get excited when talking about removing zaeem, the rest of the island communities aren’t. Thanks to decades of propaganda and blackmail. The result is they don’t care who the Joker is at the top. But they care about jobs, education, health, a way to stay in the island and earn an income…. Talking about ,zaeem is free publicity for zaeem and does nothing to wake up the island communities. People are not dumb and too much ‘zaeem’ in a speech indicates that you don’t have real policies to talk about and wants an easy way to power as zaeem says, thereby helping zaeem to spread his message about the opposition. If they want power, start talking about issues and policies more and less of zaeem- as you have pointed out. .
Hi maldiveshealth
Thank you for your concurrence on what I have stated.
Yes, it is awfully frustrating that we, (the people) cannot see through the games these politicians play. Whatever we think of the president and other public officials who are responsible for the things that have gone wrong, we can only put them aright by starting to address those issues such as health care and others.
We have to demand from the political parties to come out with their manifesto of policies on each one of them so that the public can vote on an informed basis. Without the public's pursuit of these goals, the political parties will take us for another ride.
Hi moyameeha
Thank you for your comment. I have stated in my blog earlier of my belief that this barulamaanee/riyasee vote was a complete waste of public time and money. Like many other political nonsense, this too was a distraction from the real issues of our country.
As you have stated, president Gayoom has remained the centre of power for 30 years. Whatever the problems we have now, regardless of who should take the responsibility, they can only be put aright by addressing the real issues.
For e.g; Inflow of drugs into Maldives. We can stop this if adopt vigorous inspections at all entry points into Maldives and adopt tough punitive measures while providing the necessary treatment and care to those who suffer from addiction. Public debate has to be followed with the action and results will dramatically improve.
Political parties will have to address these issues before they come to the public and ask for their vote.
Hi muna
Thank you for the comment.
The opposition's strategy of continually bad-mouthing president Gayoom is not going to solve our social problems that is crippling our society like health care and others that I mentioned. We have to call the political parties to address the real issues and bring out their policies to enable the public to cast their vote for the best option.
Freeing the civil service and island council is an important first step for us to create independent institutions and a begin a civic culture. Instead of becoming cynical, the public should demand the political parties to engage in meaningful debates to advance public interest.
Post a Comment