The topic of thimarafushee has been one of the most debatable and well-known throughout the country in connection with first ever multi-party parliamentary election. It is not secret that thimarafushi does have a history of post and pre election conflicts. One of the most prominent incidents in our time was 1999 pre-election conflicts and its consequences. By then, I was just an 18 years old boy and I still remember how it was dealt with. Probably it may be the reason why I had to think about political, social and economic reform in this lovely nation. In fact, I was victimized almost all the election held since 1999 parliamentary election for some reasons.
Today, we are having a presidential form of government where, executive, judicial and legislator as separate institutions. Let’s not forget that what had happened in the past cannot be excused simply by saying all it was something with our legislative practice. But rather, it all happened due to a brutal and autocratic regime, where very basic constitutional rights were denied by an iron fist.
Let’s not forget that, 30 years is more than enough to reform a nation like this with wealth accumulated thousands of millions of dollars annually. But what was the outcome after a 30 long years? It is evident that, all the major setbacks what we are suffering today is directly inherited from the previous regime and it takes years to overcome all such setbacks. This is why the majority of the nation decided a change and in fact the change that should prosper life of every single Maldivian. So why then we are so hesitant today?
As I have mentioned above, I was victimized almost all the election held since 1999 parliamentary election. I was really stunned to see that Mr. Musthafa’s campaign was designed to propagate and terrorize the opposition not knowing that they are violating many of the articles which guaranteed basic rights by the constitution. For an instance; under the articles 16 to 20 and 26, 27, guarantees every basic rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of choosing who they support or practicing voting rights independently. However, any form of discrimination can be considered as a criminal offence and it must be prosecuted.
What had happened to Mr. Ghassaan maumoon’s campaign team should not be tolerated at all as per our constitution. Critics may argue that I am a pro DRP and whatever I say today is biased. The fact is that I am neither a supporter of DRP nor a member of that party. But the reality is that, even with the political reforms we brought vehemently, some are still in difficulty to understand and tolerate equal rights. Whichever the government is whoever the president is? I stand for prospering democratic values and equal rights for all despite who they are, color of skin, where they belongs to and of course regardless of their faith.
Who is responsible?
The problem of thimarafushee is evident that they have been continuously and purposefully denied many basic needs and long awaited promises by the past regime. Once I was the stronghold for criticizing such denial of basic rights and long awaited promises. I made countless effort to make the government responsible by then. Unfortunately, the anger among the people you see today is motivated, designed and instructed in order to accomplish a purposeful political gain by this government.
The campaign of the MDP candidate Mr. Musthafa started almost six months ago. Basically promoting the idea of electing someone who belongs to thimarafushi and someone who has the prospective political influence where long awaited dreams of every thimarafuishians could be colored. This ideology has really worked and the momentum of the campaign rose. The financial capability of Mr. Musthafa has helped him to keep the momentum for such a long run.
I was fortunate to be there in the middle of all heats during the campaign. To be honest, I was too surprised to see that the MDP candidate built the campaign momentum and at the same time they were not allowing other candidates to carry out campaign activities. Although I and my brother are purely from thimarafushi, we couldn’t even address our policies to the people. Few housing visits were conducted on random basis due to difficulty from the MDP supporters and they were so reluctant to allow us to see the people.
Another major factor was that, we were totally abused verbally and warned, and even tried to chase us physically. Abusive language and songs were often and the respective authorities were not at all bothered. With all my sense, I repeatedly urge Maldives Police Service to increase their presence in order to make the atmosphere more secured. It all seemed like a choreographed roll-play directed by the government and consequently the opposition candidates were totally victimized and many of the electoral rights were denied.
Let’s have a look on the government influence over the election. A day the before the election, a group of high ranking officials including the vice president arrived to thimarafushi and signed a memorandum of understanding which enables to develop thimarafushi airport, sewerage system, reclamation, and city hotel etc. When the time of ceremony was held, the MDP candidate Mr. Musthafa sat aside of the officials. What’s more there to influence on the election?
When the day of election, it was all like a show hosted by the MDP and the supporters of Mr. Musthafa were not hesitant to violate the electoral regulations. I was victimized thrice during the Election Day within the permitted area of 100 x 100 feet. He Mr. Musthafa himself approached me and warned me so brutal manner. Unfortunately, a drug addict was along with him. I was surprised to see that one of the most prominent supporters of Mr. Musthafa has warned and abused a police officer by saying, “I am telling you, this is the order beyond you? So you shall have to obey this, if not you will be thrown from your post” What a mess is this? If it was an action of courage, I wonder what the hell there were there for?
All my sense has confided me that, Mr. Musthafa must be responsible for whatever going on there and he must face the criminal offences he supported and encouraged and persuaded.
At last, I feel sorry for my people and I urged them to stop involving such undemocratic, indecent criminal offences as I know that they are all innocent and I truly love them. I stand against those who are trying to portray this election as free and fair. In fact, it’s a shame for democracy.
