Opposition misleading international media to sabotage economy, claims government
11 May 2011, 5:22 PM
Neil Merrett
The government has continued to criticise opposition politicians, including representatives of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, for “misleading” international media over the scale of protests in Male’ last week.
The protests were today labelled by the Washington Post as one of the 29 largest crackdowns of the last decade, eclipsing the riots following the death of Evan Naseem.
After seven days of demonstrations across Male’ last week, purportedly in protest against the government’s decision to implement a managed float of the rufiyaa – police on Wednesday (May 4) announced that any protests not held in the open artificial beach or tsunami monument areas would be immediately dispersed.
The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has insisted the protests are ‘youth-led’ despite the apparent leadership of its MPs, and tried to replicate the ‘Arab Spring’ protests across the Middle East by branding President Nasheed as a despot to the international media and dubbing a busy Male’ intersection ‘Youth Square’.
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