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Editorial

Do you think we have too many political parties?

A.S.I. Moosa (Sappe'), Editor-in-Chief, Dhivehi Observer, 26 May 2008

Democracy and party politics is something very new to the Maldives. Almost all of our past rulers were autocrats and had no intention of relinquishing their absolute power except perhaps former president Ibrahim Nasir, who resigned in 1978, after governing the country for more than two decades. In his resignation letter, he said that it was not proper for someone to stay in power for too long as it leads to corruption and mismanagement. According to most political thinkers in the country including historians, he practically gifted the reign of power to the incumbent dictator on a plate, in the hope that an educated religious scholar was what the country needed most at the time. Nasir could not have been more wrong and today many Maldivians blame him for not putting in a proper political system in place before passing the reign of power to someone else. Almost three decades have passed and we are still suffering as a result of his mistake.

Dictator Gayyoom always had his way until we began the democracy movement at the end of 2003, after the brutal murder of several inmates in Maafushi jail by the police. Until then, he had full control over media, political dissent was crushed by force and public services were compromised to allow him to live like a billionaire. Justice system was abused to protect his power-base. However, the sustained campaign by us have yielded great results in just 4 years and we are now expecting the emergence of a full-fledge democracy.

Today, things are very different. Political parties are operating and media freedom is beginning to take shape. Most importantly, the first multiparty presidential elections are due in a couple of months and there are many options for us to debate and discuss before we finally go to the poll. This time it's not a simple Yes or No, to the contrary, we will have several choices.

I remember the last presidential referendum back in October 2003. There was no one campaigning against Gayyoom. All the government apparatuses and institutions were mobilised to get the bastard elected for a 6th term. In addition to that, votes were heavily rigged to ensure that he does not loose under any circumstance. It was seen as illegal to campaign against him. In fact, I wrote an open letter to the public urging them to vote NO in the referendum but it was very difficult and dangerous to distribute it. I also recall suggesting to my friends that we should all wear a white t-shirt on the day of polling, with a small cross at the front but everyone rejected the idea saying that we would all end up in jail.

Fast-forward 4 years and 4 months and the contrast is mind boggling. Now we are debating about who should challenge him and demanding political parties to back a unity candidate. Yes, political parties and a candidate to challenge the dictator. If someone had told me back in 2003 that in this election, we will be going for a proper presidential election within a multiparty setup, I would have dismissed it as wishful thinking but the fact of the matter is that we are all now talking about it quite freely and without fear. We are demanding our leaders to come up with a good strategy to ensure that the dictator is removed from power with a powerful democratic mandate.

In these discussions some people are saying that we don't need that many parties in such a small country. In fact, some say that we only need two; one to govern and the other to be the opposition. I believe that such comments are reasonable but lack substance. The problem is that most Maldivians are completely alien to multiparty democracy and the concept of free media. For example, when a party holds an internal election to elect its leadership, there will obviously be separate groups supporting their preferred candidate. This is seen by many as a cause for division. They don't realise that if we don't hold these internal elections, then we are not practicing democracy. Similarly, those who worry about the rising number of political parties are unaware that it is part of the whole democratic process and that at the end of the day when all the dust is settled, there will be 2 major parties who will compete with each other to win the support and trust of the people. It is the case in almost all major developed nations. The small parties also have a critical role to play because when the two main parties have equal support bases, the smaller parties emerge as the power brokers and form the required coalition government. Let's also not forget that there will also be issue-based parties, who will continue to operate within multiparty democracies, to gain support for their individual causes.

The way I see it, it is good that we have many parties because it means more and more people are involved and interested in politics which can only be a good thing. This means they will make an informed choice at the ballot boxes and will campaign hard to get the correct message across to the other voters. That message is clear and simple "Don't Vote for Dictator Gayyoom!".

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