Foreign troops irrelevant; sovereignty lost via debt, says Nasheed
While rival candidates are making various promises, Nasheed said that Ilyas is the only candidate who takes up the issue of debt.
By
Ahmed Sadhoof Moosa
The Democrats founder and speaker of parliament Mohamed Nasheed said on Thursday that it is not important to check for presence of foreign troops in the Maldives, but rather that the country's independence and sovereignty are linked to the country's indebtedness.
The opposition PPM-PNC is running a massive campaign called 'India Out', claiming that Indian troops are in Maldives. During the campaign of main opposition candidate Dr Mohamed Muizz, it has been repeatedly said that Indian troops will be forced out of the country.
Nasheed, who has been praising some aspects of the PPM-PNC lately, is close to India. Nasheed has also criticised the 'India Out' movement in the past.
Nasheed spoke about foreign troops and debt at a special rally held at Sultan Park in Male on Thursday evening to conclude the campaign of The Democrats’ candidate Ilyas Labeeb for Saturday's presidential election.
Nasheed's speech focused on the country's economy and debt.
Nasheed said Maldives' independence, sovereignty and prosperity of the people are also linked to debt. He also noted that debt is the measure of whether a country has lost its independence in today's world.
"If the military of another country is here or not, that's not wise," he said.
"We are losing our freedom every time we becoming indebted”.
Nasheed cited two examples of the impact of debt on Maldives's independence:
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In 1987, Maldives fell into debt to the Voara merchants of India
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Maldives went under British protection
Referring to the two incidents, Nasheed said that the Indian merchants set fire to various parts of the city, stabbed and killed many people and banished many others.
Nasheed said the British came to Maldives to stabilize the situation and when the debt of the merchants was paid off, Maldives went under British protection.
Nasheed said Maldives has since been heavily indebted to China. The debt to other countries and neighbouring India has also increased, he said.
"If we don't manage our debt, our future will be very dark. We will not be prosperous and the difficulties will be very, very serious," Nasheed said.
"We have seen very well what happened to Sri Lanka."
The former president of Maldives said that the individual prosperity of the people depends on a government that will continue by the people and for the people.
Citing Ilyas Labeeb as a perfect example, Nasheed said Ilyas came to the people with a perfect vision. Most important to him, Nasheed said, is Ilyas' vision of debt reduction.
Nasheed said:
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By 2026, Maldives will have to repay more than USD 1 billion in debt
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He criticised the government for saying that the debt will be repaid by refinancing
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Earlier, the debt taken by the previous government was repaid by this government
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That is not a rule that the people of Maldives will accept; that would be a huge blow to the country
Nasheed said there were no people in this election who knew what to do except Ilyas Labeeb and his running mate Hussain Amr Mohammed Rashad. While rival candidates are making various promises, Nasheed said that Ilyas is the only candidate who takes up the issue of debt.
“Someone is saying that he will provide the sun, moon and stars to all the people,” Nasheed said, referring to other candidates.
"Documents, perfume, certificates, cigars and all these things, some people are saying that they will give chocolates for free”.
Nasheed said we could eat chocolate and smell perfume only after solving the debt problem.
“I would like to tell all the people of Maldives that if you want to eat three times a day and live after 2026, vote for Ilyas Labeeb and Amr,” Nasheed said.