noexplanation
Maldives mystified by scale of MDP's defeat
Moonisa Easa, Political Analyst
Male’, Maldives, 25th January 2006 (olhuala.com) – The Maldives is waking up today still looking for reasons why the Maldivian Democratic Party's call for 'nation-wide' protests was met with such a miserable reception. The MDP have made haphazard attempts at damage limitation, implying things went according to plan but most people felt that the MDP are now at a crossroads and that the onus is on them to denounce direct action once and for all.
By late last evening, the streets of Male' enjoyed a serenity not felt in years. Even the drug addicts and hardcore criminals seemed to be indoors doing some long overdue soul searching.
Various sections of society spent hours discussing Tuesday's events and the possible recriminations. In reality, things as they turned out were a big surprise to all: the MDP had expected thousands more; the government, also anticipating a far bigger crowd, had predicted things would be turned ugly by the MDP. Political analysts meanwhile were agog at the meekness with which the party leadership admitted defeat and abruptly called off the assembly.
Even the MDP's PR machinery was in disarray, producing conflicting messages. Official spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor claimed in an interview to Reuters that "strong threats of violence by the government" forced the MDP's hand in abandoning the action.
This was in contrast to leader Ibrahim Ismail's (Ibra) and clandestine website Mini Van's position that 'what transpired was the prearranged scenario: the MDP proved that it can hold a peaceful gathering'. However, this left a lot of MDP members dissatisfied: "Why did we spend the last few days learning about how to spend several days outside, even in the rain and at night? Why were we told in the official statement that we should take bottled water and parcels of food?
"What do they think we [the ordinary members] are? Fools? Food to survive 90 minutes?" said a disgruntled member.
In a similar vein, the MDP's other clandestine website, DO, refused to provide updates to visitors as soon as Ibra announced the decision to abort. The reported crowd size in Male' dwindled from 10,000 to 8,000 to less than 5,000 at last update as these reports were made a mockery of by television pictures which showed less than 500.
Analysts were in cautiously optimistic mood. maldiveindependent.org articulated a wish most Maldivians dared not hope for: this signals the end of confrontational politics in this country. Public opinion is in agreement as most believe that the MDP has no mandate now to make demands of the government. Dialogue would be the best option, especially for the MDP if it desires inclusion in the political and social reform process.
The mood in the islands was more relaxed by late evening. Although nobody was naive enough to think all the troubles were over, MDP members everywhere were subjected to light-hearted banter. Ibra has reportedly received many calls 'congratulating him on his assumption of office as President of Maldives".
A joke doing the rounds identified the MDP's mistake as announcing the time of assembly as 'after Asr'. Apparently most of the hired parteys (local slang for drug addicts) had no idea when, or indeed what, Asr was.
Click to read full story
Moonisa Easa, Political Analyst
Male’, Maldives, 25th January 2006 (olhuala.com) – The Maldives is waking up today still looking for reasons why the Maldivian Democratic Party's call for 'nation-wide' protests was met with such a miserable reception. The MDP have made haphazard attempts at damage limitation, implying things went according to plan but most people felt that the MDP are now at a crossroads and that the onus is on them to denounce direct action once and for all.
By late last evening, the streets of Male' enjoyed a serenity not felt in years. Even the drug addicts and hardcore criminals seemed to be indoors doing some long overdue soul searching.
Various sections of society spent hours discussing Tuesday's events and the possible recriminations. In reality, things as they turned out were a big surprise to all: the MDP had expected thousands more; the government, also anticipating a far bigger crowd, had predicted things would be turned ugly by the MDP. Political analysts meanwhile were agog at the meekness with which the party leadership admitted defeat and abruptly called off the assembly.
Even the MDP's PR machinery was in disarray, producing conflicting messages. Official spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor claimed in an interview to Reuters that "strong threats of violence by the government" forced the MDP's hand in abandoning the action.
This was in contrast to leader Ibrahim Ismail's (Ibra) and clandestine website Mini Van's position that 'what transpired was the prearranged scenario: the MDP proved that it can hold a peaceful gathering'. However, this left a lot of MDP members dissatisfied: "Why did we spend the last few days learning about how to spend several days outside, even in the rain and at night? Why were we told in the official statement that we should take bottled water and parcels of food?
"What do they think we [the ordinary members] are? Fools? Food to survive 90 minutes?" said a disgruntled member.
In a similar vein, the MDP's other clandestine website, DO, refused to provide updates to visitors as soon as Ibra announced the decision to abort. The reported crowd size in Male' dwindled from 10,000 to 8,000 to less than 5,000 at last update as these reports were made a mockery of by television pictures which showed less than 500.
Analysts were in cautiously optimistic mood. maldiveindependent.org articulated a wish most Maldivians dared not hope for: this signals the end of confrontational politics in this country. Public opinion is in agreement as most believe that the MDP has no mandate now to make demands of the government. Dialogue would be the best option, especially for the MDP if it desires inclusion in the political and social reform process.
The mood in the islands was more relaxed by late evening. Although nobody was naive enough to think all the troubles were over, MDP members everywhere were subjected to light-hearted banter. Ibra has reportedly received many calls 'congratulating him on his assumption of office as President of Maldives".
A joke doing the rounds identified the MDP's mistake as announcing the time of assembly as 'after Asr'. Apparently most of the hired parteys (local slang for drug addicts) had no idea when, or indeed what, Asr was.
Click to read full story