Male’, Maldives – Former President of Maldives and Current Speaker of the Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed stated today that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is allowing Adhaalath Party to monopolize his every decision.
Speaker Nasheed released a statement noting that the ruling MDP party won the presidential elections by a wide margin in 2018 because the people voted in support of the principles, love of freedom, equality and vibrant Maldivian culture and heritage the party MDP embodies.
Although the political progress was made with the support of coalition partners, Speaker Nasheed stated that the decision of President Solih to allow Adhaalath Party to monopolize every decision of his clearly shows that the current dynamics of the coalition violates every principle of the representative democracy.
Speaker Nasheed added that the vast majority of Maldivians are progressive and that they cherish liberty, freedom of expression, music, culture and economic prosperity along with moderate religious views.
Maldivians have voted for progressive candidates who share these views – they did not vote for religious extremists who would deny their liberty and remove the things they love most from our society.
Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed
In the statement, Speaker Nasheed further states that along with diplomacy and compromise, MDP leadership requires courage and steadfastness on the issues that are fundamental to what the party has always believed in; freedom, equality and economic prosperity.
Mentioning the terrorist attack against him and the extremism-motivated murders of Dr. Afraasheem, Railway and Yameen, Speaker Nasheed stated that the recent history clearly shows that the people who are targeted and labeled as “Un-Islamic” followed by hate crimes towards them are mostly politicians, journalists and every-day people who exercise free speech in the country.
Speaker Nasheed stated that a bill was sent to the parliament against such hatred acts, however, he stated that as soon as the “conservative religious parties who are part of a political alliance with the government” objected and stood against the bill, the government withdrew support for its own bill. Speaker Nasheed expressed his belief that it was realized that politicians who supported the bill would be exposed to the exact same deadly labelling that the bill is calling on to stop.
Therefore, if the government is unable to employ the leadership required to support this bill and all it stands for, then I find it very difficult to support the government.
Current Speaker of the Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed
Speaker Nasheed stated that the reins of democratic leadership and the course of Maldivian progress must never be handed “out of fear” to minor coalition partners that did not carry that vote and demanded the elected leaders to maintain their contract with the people and to defend MDP’s most basic standards.
