George W. Bush or Mohamed Nasheed

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On my visit to the Maldives, just last week, I was able to see how the country is being run by his Excellency President Mohamed Nasheed.

On my return flight to Birmingham, just yesterday, I had the chance to watch ‘ W. ’ (A chronicle on the life and presidency of George W. Bush). I agree whole heartedly with George W. that in history we will all be dead.

I have not been able to decide which one of the two I should be reviewing here on my blog and why.

By admin on Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Get active and do something. Do not just accept the status quo.
(2) Comments so far: add yours, get involved | Permalink

Comments

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john said...

No matter what Nasheed is the president of Maldives. but he do not expose any of the quality of a president. He and his administration is being stupid asking innocent people of Maldives to dream. He needs to open up his eyes more whats going on in this world, not always promising the people of what no president in this world does. Infact he is a big fat liar!. If you see his speaches before being a president you will knows what i am trying to say is the truth

Thursday, May 14, 2009 9:42 AM

Abraham Hossein Abdul said...

Mr. President! As a citizen of this country, it was distressing and disappointing, to listen to you speak, Saturday night, at the official launch of the MDP parliamentary campaign.

It is overwhelmingly difficult for me to address these words to the president of my country. It becomes profoundly painful to make these utterances when that president is also known to me personally.

It is a fact that I have written on this blog many a time about the importance of you, as our president, speaking with courtesy and civility, dignity and grace, reflective of the high elected office that you hold in the country.

Almost everyone in this country knows that you are an energetic speaker with a fantastic passion for energizing your audiences with the rabble-rousing rhetoric. You have grown so accustomed to employing the stance in your public speeches during the recent years of your activism that it had almost become your unfailing trademark, your ultimate brand.

However, the present day reality must be divorced from the days of your activist life. Something extraordinary has happened in between, if you might wish to understand. People of this country have elected you to the highest office of their nation. They have made you their president.

Amongst your people, there are individuals like us who are trying to forget your past inflammatory performances as part of the necessary romance of your activism. There are individuals like us who are wishing that you would ultimately settle down as the compassionate leader of the entire Maldivian nation.

Whatever anyone may say, there is no challenging of the fact, that you are the president of the Maldives, today. There is also no challenging of the fact that you would, tomorrow and for all days to come thereafter, be a person who has been the president of this country.

Both these facts compel you to show that grace in your demeanor, civility in your attitude, and humility in your speech.

Shortly after you took office, anyone who studied your language, would agree that you did try to be a more composed, more rational, more diplomatic, and more civil person in public appearances and public comments.

The difference between the activist Nasheed and the president Nasheed was too evident and too obvious, for anyone who saw you in action few days before being elected and few days after becoming president. That was a very encouraging turn.

It is not only the jacket that you wear or the glasses you put on that transform you from a party’s activist to our nation’s leader. It is your courtesy towards the people of this country, the temperate language that you employ, the grace you extend to them, and the dignity evident in yourself that define the quality of your person and your presidency.

However, we happen to gather that, whenever you are put under pressure, whenever your confidence is shaken, and whenever the vision gets blurred, you seem to relapse to your previous bouts of arrogant and instigating rhetoric that defy every other being in this country.

Your language, last Saturday night, was way off the mark for any president of any country to speak to his people, or a section of his people. You labeled members of a political party as thieves, wrongdoers, and ones who have committed criminal breach of trust.

You know very well that I have myself had serious confrontation with the party you singled out in your speech. However, I thought, your language was unbecoming to be used to address any party or any person. I would never want to see my president, the leader of the Maldives, speak that language to either a Maldivian or even a foreign national.

I would have said this to you even if you spoke of any other party or person or being.

In addition to calling all sorts of names to members of that party, you went on to tell your people not to elect or vote for anyone from that party.

In the process you undermined the need to have an opposition party in the first place, you discredited several Maldivian people, and you alleged wrongdoing to several unidentified Maldivians who have not been held guilty in a court of law. You even went on to name a few and ridicule their political activity in the public court of opinion.

As president, I thought it was important that you knew that every Maldivian is innocent unless proven guilty by a court of law.

As president, I thought, it was important that you knew that every Maldivian is entitled to the sanctity of his life, reputation and good name.

As president, I thought it was important that you knew that none is entitled to encroach into the electoral rights possessed by others in this country – whether that person is a peasant or a president.

These are not only fundamental rights granted by the constitution. These are sacred beliefs that form the fabric of our society. Every time these fabrics have been torn apart, we have been dealt with serious blows to our unity and solidarity as a people and as a country.

As president, I thought, it was important that you knew that you are not only the first member of a political party, but also the first citizen of the entire country.

You are our head of state, head of government, commander of the armed forces, and the president of the republic. Even as I write this, you are travelling to the United Kingdom to represent the people of the Maldives and their government.

Needless to mention, that you are the symbol of our unity, the collective voice of the Maldivian people, and the depository of all our aspirations. It is you who represent our country, its government and its people.

There is no escaping of the fact that you are the guardian of all Maldivians, whether they belong to your party or not, whether they voted for you or not.

It is unfortunate that you opt to disregard that every time you speak to the audience of your party members. It is unfortunate that you keep forgetting that there may be people who would be intimidated to hear their president utter such harsh language. It is unfortunate that you do not seem to recognize that there may be people who may not approve of such inflammatory language from their president.

It is truly sad that the president of the Maldives, head of state, head of government, chief of the armed forces, and the highest authority in the nation, knowingly, assertively, and willfully engages in public speech to promote his own party, discredit other parties, throw challenges at other political figures, and demean several Maldivian people.

You have conveniently forgotten that once elected to the highest office, you ought to refrain from demeanor that belittles other Maldivians or offends any one of them. You have conveniently forgotten that you are the president of the Maldives and not necessarily the president of some twenty thousand MDP members.

Mr. President! Please be civil, please be humble, and please be polite to other Maldivians. Minus all the political differences you may have with other parties or men, please treat them all as your compatriots. After all, you have the stewardship of this nation, and you are every ounce responsible for the betterment of all people of this country.

Mr. President! Please do not be intoxicated by the trappings of office, or the power you currently hold. Our recent experiences, of which you have been a dominant player, have shown us all too well how quickly power can shift hands, and that a presidency may only be as strong as its weakest link.

Mr. President! You are no longer a performer on the streets of Male’ shouting from the bottom of your lungs for democracy, human rights and rule of law. You are the president of this country sitting on its throne, and very much in charge of that process of democracy, human rights and rule of law.

Mr. President! You are no more an activist of your party. You are the president of the Republic of Maldives. You occupy the most sacred office in the country.

Let people of the Maldives cherish that for you - for the sake of the institution of the presidency, and of course, our beloved nation.

Thursday, May 14, 2009 9:44 AM