President 'responded' without 'reacting'

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has been recognised as a humble and inarticulate person. This is also one of the things that his presidential primary candidate, Mohamed Nasheed, pointed out at the first event of his campaign. According to Nasheed, President Solih does not react to things. When he shares his concerns, he said there was never any reaction from the president. However, that was up until last evening, Wednesday night.

President Solih looked very different at his first campaign meeting held at MDP’s headquarters on Wednesday night. He was very different from the man who was seen on the podiums in the past. He responded to some of the criticisms against himself and the current government. Or, as he said, he 'responded'.

"I've been trying so far to not react, as they say. But in some cases, we need to respond", he said.

When the president said this, the supporters stood up and clapped their hands.

Stating that there is a need to respond to certain issues, President Solih responded to Nasheed's comments and statements about the government's policies and debts, and his statements to create "hatred against the government".

"With the Covid  pandemic, every day, we had to listen to things like ‘the country is going to starve tomorrow, there will be no foodstuff available, no medicines, there will be body bags coming from the islands’. I have spent the last two years having these tales ring in my ears," he said.

"Think about how we managed to control Covid in Maldives, and tell me if you saw anyone starving or going hungry, or unable to attain any basic services.”

One of Nasheed's strongest criticisms of President Solih and this government is about the state's debt. Both his parliament sessions and the ongoing primary campaign have been critical of the debt issue. President Solih responded to these statements with statistics.

President Solih said that Nasheed has repeatedly said that the Maldives has been crippled and the entire country has come to a standstill. This, he said, was meant to take the situation in the country to what was in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

President Solih responded to Nasheed's comments on debt during his visit to Fuvahmulah for his campaign.

"What did you say just yesterday in Fuvahmulah? The government has to pay USD 79 million to repay the loan in January alone. Every year, every month, we'll have to keep on paying USD 45 million to USD 50 million. There is nothing to match that in the government," president Solih said.

Stating that this was not a "reaction", president Solih shared the amount of debt that was to be paid every month in the first three months of the current fiscal year. He said:

"It is, therefore, shameful that such things are being done to gain political mileage. The result of this is that there is fear among the people and they stop doing what they have to do for their livelihood and start thinking about it," he said.

"I appeal to my rival candidate not to keep this up."

On the fisheries sector, the president said that the previous governments had made empty talks. Apart from selling at a loss of $299 after procuring at MVR 26 per kg of fish, what was done appears to have been done by this government.

What needs to be done, he said, is to increase storage and freezing capacity.

"(What needs to be done) isn't it about trying to cut taxes on fish sold to Europe? Isn't it about trying to cut taxes on fish cans sold to the UK? When Abdulla Shahid accomplishes it, now [Nasheed] says it will happen next month," president Solih said.

President Solih responded to Nasheed's tweet in December. In a series of tweets, Nasheed said that some of his friendly British government officials have said that they will cut duties on fish imported into the UK within the next two months.

He concluded the speech with a request to vote for him in the upcoming primaries.

"I'll finish for the night, I think. Otherwise, I will start reacting," he said.

"I want all of you to make a conscious decision in the upcoming primaries. To back a candidate who can win the election and fulfil the promises made to the people. God willing, I am that candidate."