Reference: 53/04/2012

22 April 2012

The Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) today expressed its concern at the insulting and disrespectful language being used by Government officials to attack the member governments of CMAG. The MDP noted that such public insults are part of a systematic attempt by the Government to attack the Commonwealth and its organs and to discredit it. MDP also noted that CMAG includes many countries which have until now been close friends and allies of the Maldives. “The Waheed regime’s behaviour towards the international community is marked by contempt and demonstrates a total lack of respect for our international partners”, said MDP spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor. “The Government seems intent on following a path that can only lead to international isolation. By personally attacking the Honourable Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu, the Waheed regime is showing its true colours despite the best efforts of its newly- hired PR advisors to present a positive picture of it”.


MDP’s spokesperson was speaking after, earlier today, Mr.Fuad Gasim, Fisheries State Minister suggested CMAG governments and foreign ministers are ignorant, claiming that “those who released the CMAG statement do not even know where the Maldives is”. “The statement was released by the foreign ministers of nine countries. Those foreign ministers not only do not know where the Maldives is, they do not even know what colour we are” said Gasim using racial undertones.


The Fisheries Minister’s views were echoed by the State Minister for Tourism, Mr. Ahmed Shameem, who accused the Commonwealth of demonstrating contempt for the Maldives and its Constitution: “The call of the Commonwealth for us to hold early elections, when they believe that the transfer of power on February 7th was conducted constitutionally, is similar to calling for the President to resign” he claimed. Shameem then went on to suggest that the CMAG’s moves are part of a British conspiracy to undermine the “Islamic unity of the Maldives”. “Some entities of the UK are trying to shatter the Islamic unity of the country” he said. “Nasheed rules the Maldives as a puppet of the United Kingdom. Nasheed is ready to destroy the Islamic unity of the Maldives” he said.


Commenting on these statements, part of an orchestrated attempt by the Government to attack perceived international “enemies” of the Maldives, MDP’s spokesperson, Ghafoor, said: “The Government has responded to CMAG’s latest statement on the Maldives by throwing aside any pretence of cooperation and dialogue, and resorting to a flat rejection of CMAG’s call for elections in 2012 and by insulting Commonwealth member States. The Government is also using alleged threats against Islam to whip-up religious feeling against the West. This should give all our international partners cause for concern. It is clear that under Waheed, the Maldives will likely follow the route of Myanmar’s junta, or Zimbabwe or Fiji – the path of international isolation. This demonstrates once again the need for the immediate restoration of democracy in the Maldives through early elections in 2012”.


http://www.miadhu.com/2012/04/local-news/no-one-has-the-right-to-ask-for-the-resignation-of-president-waheed-ahmed-shameem/


http://www.miadhu.com/dv/?p=53134


ENDS


Hamid Abdul Ghafoor
Spokesperson, International Affairs
Mobile: +9607778285
Tel: +9603340044