How it started
As the election of 2018 neared the inevitable
climax, the MDP saw a line of their faithful grassroots singing and chanting in
happiness for their success. The 2018 election saw a clear majority for Ibu
Solih as an MDP candidate in the first round itself. Solih was able to garner
more votes as the MDP grassroots saw him as a personification of the party,
while for the so called silent majority and religious strongholds he was a
clean, good natured, patient and highly experienced politician. Additionally
the performance of Solih as PG leader of MDP, demonstrating his righteousness
and morality in many challenging instances gave him the moral underpinning and
trust which no other MDP presidential candidate could have achieved. Soon after
the elections Solih was heralded as the hope for renewal of democracy, rule of
law and as the saviour of the nation from the cesspool of blatant corruption of
previous Government.
After being sworn in, a new cabinet was formed
and as Solih came with a united Coalition of other parties, his cabinet was
divided according to the agreements with coalition partners. The loyal
grassroots of MDP were in a euphoria and never saw the chickens which came to
roost in the homes of other parties from the ousted PPM. Soon after the government
came to power various political posts were filled by same rotten eggs who had
history of corruption from previous regime. As the government began to function
compensating for various individuals, companies and private businesses for the
loss incurred by them due to previous government, dishonouring contracts became
inevitable. The faithful and the good in the MDP started ringing alarm bells.
It was given a deaf ear and corruption became rampant at various levels. Some
kept on beating their own drums and blowing the whistles, while opposition and
media became more vigilant on corruption. For the bad rotten eggs the biggest
blow came with the corruption related to COVID-19 Pandemic. The good and
faithful began losing hope.
From bromance to sour grapes
Many corruption related cases of previous
regime was not pursued at the speed expected by the faithful grassroots who now
became more frustrated as government spending for COVID became more erratic and
questionable. Meanwhile the super majority parliament of MDP and their government
led by Solih continued failing in fulfilling the AGENDA19 of MDP. Even the
pledges by Solih for his first 100 days have gone unfulfilled until now. While
executive branch continues to underperform, the Parliament used their powers to
remove incompetent ministers according to their books. The first cabinet minister
to resign was gender Minister who was on a portfolio for Adhaalth Party. Several
frustrations and turmoils in her ministry continued unresolved leading until
the public outrage became inevitable. In case of Minister, accused of ventilator
corruption a group of MDP parliamentarians threatened the concerned minister of
no confidence, who then resigned before a no confident vote. The infamous run
away, Waheed who recently fled the country was expelled from his ministerial
post as tourism minister by Solih himself, after being accused of rape and
corruption. The only minister who lost
his post so far with a no confidence vote was Maleeh who was science and communications
minister filling in for Jumhooree Party. Though he was removed on allegations of his
incapacity to deliver the pledges of the government a thorough investigation
was not done for his lack of performance or inefficiency. He was alleged to have failed in making
internet prices cheap, though he may have obstacles beyond his own control as
the service providers are private companies adamant on losing their profits.
The crux of the matter is whether the turmoil
in Solih’s cabinet has resulted in any change. In the first case, the gender
ministry still continues with many issues unresolved while the perpetrators of
ventilator corruption still remain at large unscathed from any trials. Both the
Prosecutor General and Anti-Corruption Commission came to loggerheads with
regard to available evidence to proceed with a prosecution for ventilator corruption.
As for the case of Ali Waheed, accused of multiple allegations of rape and
abuse of power fleeing the country, those responsible are yet to be found while
serving justice for his victims seems a long way. In the case of Maleeh who
cannot have enough of sour grapes for losing his post and his “Oval Office”, continues
to rightly point his finger at failures of the government he served until he lost
parliament confidence. The fact remains that nothing changed with the internet
prices for which he was blamed. Meanwhile both MDP leaders heading the
executive branch and legislature are now in a quarrel over the slow pace of
delivering the Agenda19 pledges of the government, both accusing each other for
the consequences of these failures which resulted in a huge blow for MDP in local
council elections in Capital City.
Conclusion
Owing to the big loss MDP faced in the recent
local council elections in the capital, the good and faithful grassroots of the
MDP are publicly commenting and debating on the future of MDP. Various perspectives
from pundits are being publicly debated. While the good and faithful of MDP
believes in the slow delivery of the Agenda19 by the government, they are
unable to choose between the two rifting factions of MDP. While some blame coalition’s
ministers as the main factor of government incompetency, and calls for dismantling
the coalition, others accuse of lack of accountability from various institutions
of the government. Hence, under performance of the executive branch and sluggishness
of independent institutions is considered as the root cause of incompetency of
the government. As history has shown and proven in all elections after 2008,
the public always prefer the opposition over the incumbent regime. With government
pledges reaching to the moon and most of it undelivered, MDP faithful are
losing hope in wining 2024. The possibilities of renewing their hopes is not
simply making drastic changes to the system of governance in my opinion. I believe
the only hope for MDP is in being steadfast in their delivery. The executive
should recognise that all pledges cannot be fulfilled and hence prioritise on
the most critical, especially for recovering from the pandemic as a more
resilient nation. The Legislature should perform their job by making the laws
critical for a more robust recovery and by increasing the accountability of
those accountable to the parliament, especially Anti-Corruption Commission, Prosecutor
General and State Owned Enterprises to ensure they serve the interest of the
State over those of oligarchs. In addition, instead of dismantling the
coalition, we must strengthen the coalition and discard off underperforming political
appointees from coalition partners and get better performers from the coalition
parties. The only hope for MDP for 2024 is in unity and working with their
coalition and becoming steadfast in delivering Agenda19.
