Political Parties Promoting Hatred

The multi party political system came into being in Maldives as a means to find a way to remove a president who was serving his 6th consecutive term of 5 years. Historically it has been very hard for Maldivian leaders to relinquish power.

Politics in Maldives has not been driven by any ideology or political philosophy of thinking (such as liberalism or conservatism in the US- the model that we are following), or even on the basis of Islam. All political parties have used Islam for political convenience. All parties insist that Maldives must remain a 100 per cent Muslim nation, with no real desire to deliver social justice that is strongly emphasised in Islam.


For more than 30 years we had no coherent policy on economic development, building infrastructure and housing, providing health care and quality education, or even maintaining social and religious harmony. It was political expediency at best. Just like the dictatorships in the middle east, our government vigorously pursued the extravagant trappings of power while neglecting the poor.


Now our nation is preparing to elect the members of parliament under the new presidential system. It took an MDP coalition to bring down the DRP government. Before the month was up for the MDP led government, Gasim Ibrahim, the wealthy businessman and philanthropist broke ranks with MDP. Although Maldivians have begun to see how fickle-minded these politicians are, they have not fully realised the horse trading that political parties indulge to buy over elected members to increase their chances to govern the nation.


Regardless of which party they represent, most Maldivians do not trust their elected officials because of the past experience. Politicians who needed their vote would appear on their doorstep once in 5 years. The promises they make are routinely broken and the electorate has turned cynical.

Few political parties except the MDP and DRP have developed into national party systems capable of organising candidates for elections or mobilise support to sway public support for party policies.

When the DRP was in power, they challenged their opponents not against the merit of how they wanted to improve what was wrong but by unleashing vicious personal attacks. It appeared as though no one had any reputation to protect. Now the DRP is in opposition. Its main role has to be to question the government and hold them accountable to the public. DRP should be able to offer better alternatives to the MDP led government's decentralisation- the main policy of this government. Where there is wide public support for a government's policy, it is in the public interest for the opposition to support such policy. The MDP and DRP and other political parties will have to learn how work together for the public good.

Even in this adversarial system, the public wants these politicians to work for their good. The personal attacks and vitriol need not be part of that process.