“Any attempt to review Dr Waheed’s half year in the presidency should bear in mind the challenges he faced and the past behaviours of his predecessor that he avoided adopting himself. Only thereafter will we be able to fully assess any material advances his presidency brought,” writes President Waheed’s Special Advisor and leader of the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), Dr Hassan Saeed for Haveeru.
“Dr Waheed was called in to office in a most unusual manner. The day after he took the oath of office, his predecessor claimed that he had resigned at gunpoint.
To anyone who was not aware of the character of the people involved, this chain of events might not sound like a normal governmental transition.
Perhaps understandably, some international organizations were soon demanding answers to why this change had happened with some people in them questioning the legitimacy of his rule. I’m sure everyone will recall attitudes in the international community shifted back and forth over those early weeks.
As a small country, the Maldives relations with its neighbours and with international institutions are vitally important. Clearly as a result of this a significant percentage of Dr. Waheed’s time was spent on addressing the concerns raised. This work has in recent months stabilized with the establishment of the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI).
CoNI was not just established to respond to international opinion, but also to demonstrate that the Government could be transparent to its own people. Having set this up in the most professional and impartial manner, one would have hoped that the natural reaction from all sides of the argument would have been to wait for its outcome.
However that was not to be the case. Nasheed and his supporters have been out on the streets creating havoc and committing crimes. Security forces have had to spend a lot of time attending to these activities at a time when the public has been demanding the government does more in addressing crime and punishing criminals in response to recent high profile cases of murder.”