Comment: What went wrong on June 12?
14 Jun 2015, 1:30 PM
Ahmed
When ex-president Mohamed Nasheed was arrested on February 22, we protested every night, for three months. We signed petitions. We took to the streets in the tens of thousands on February 27 and May 1. Our MPs disrupted parliament. Our former rivals, the Adhaalath Party and the Jumhooree Party, allied with us. The international community denounced President Abdulla Yameen’s increasingly authoritarian tactics to remain in power.
But on June 12, only some 2,000 people took to the streets for the planned sit-in. What went wrong?
The June 12 protest was aimless. In the weeks leading up to June 12, opposition leaders were preparing for talks with the government, not for a mass protest. The MDP had even come up with a draft position paper outlining a roadmap for political reconciliation. Opposition MPs had ended their parliamentary siege. Why stage a sit-in to reiterate the same demands? Why protest when we had forced President Yameen to capitulate and call for talks after the May Day protest?
On February 27, the Jumhooree Party let us down. But we scared the government by our numbers. On May 1, despite all the intimidation and threats by the government, we turned up again with twice the number of people. We did not manage to enter Malé’s Republic Square or topple President Yameen’s government as hoped. Instead, nearly 200 people were arrested. The police could not cope with the large number of detainees at Dhoonidhoo.
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