The reality that politicians do not acknowledge.

Since the inception of political parties in Maldives, times have changed. The defeat of incumbent president of 30 years by a popular vote is the beginning of a reality that all politicians of Maldives have to accept. No one party is ever likely to win a Presidential election in Maldives and no one party will likely enjoy an absolute majority of the Peoples Majlis. So where do we go from here? The answer is we will always see coalitions in Governments now and there will be a very close number of people who are in Opposition, who are very much citizens of this country with as much rights and deserve as much as those who support the Government of the day.

                                                                                               Currently MDP enjoys the majority of eligible voters who are registered to vote, and that is just 22% of the total eligible voters of Maldives. While MDP is way ahead of other parties in their organisational skills and publicity it may seem that the backing they have is huge. It may not be the true picture and the party heads will know this. Crowds of just 5,000 people in one area of Male’ will appear huge in photographs. Anything above 10,000 people will look similar to the Tahrir Square gathering in Egypt in photos.

 

 

From January 16^th till February 6^th crowds gathered every night to demonstrate against the government of President Nasheed. Organised by a coalition of all the political parties except MDP and different NGOs, their belief was that most of the population were backing them and half of Male’ were taking part in the protests. The Maldives Police Service (MPS) and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) personnel worked day and night to control the crowds for 3 weeks. Often confrontations were there, tear gas used and allegations of brutal force were made.

With the unprecedented resignation of President Nasheed on 7^th January, the MPS took a heavy blow. They were seen as the catalyst for the change of government by the supporters of MDP, not without reason. The stand off between MPS and MNDF and the miscalculations of politicians was probably what led to the resignation of Nasheed. While coup theories are numerous, my belief is that had the police personnel’s case was handled professionally and prudently, Nasheed would still be the President of Maldives.

The following day, 8^th February would mark another dark day in MPS history. The way police handled the protesters from MDP and numerous incidents of brutal attacks became the talking point of media and social networks. The Police were seen as a force who were backing an illegitimate regime who came to power through the back door. Unscrupulous people took the opportunity to photoshop pictures showing police hitting people on the head with batons. It became difficult to differentiate between genuine picture and fake ones. At the same time twitter and social networks started to flood with allegations of police brutality, some true and some complete fabrications. The result was, a genuine feeling of resentment towards police slowly but surely started to build, ending tonight with the attack of two brothers of a police officer who stopped a person for speeding.

It is Dr.Waheed who is President today with the backing of most of the political parties. It may be a MDP Government with Nasheed as President after the next election. The fact is the security services will remain. A few heads may rolls with every change of Government, but the majority of the forces, the part whom we face on the streets will remain, and regardless of which government comes in, they will need them. Destroying the reputation of these institutions and creating public hate towards them will neither help the people nor any of the politicians with an ambition to rule this county. Instead of bringing out their supporters as a first choice can politicians of all parties learn to negotiate first and use people power as a last resort?

There will be offenders in any part of society. Offenders have to be identified and dealt with as per law, even if they wear a uniform.  I cannot accept that as an institution either MPS or MNDF will have a policy of beating the very people they are sworn to protect.

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