We should not always have to ask for charity from the international community: Yameen

Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Abdullah Yameen has said that the Maldives should not always have to ask for charity from the international community.

Yameen made this remark while speaking at a pre-Ramadan function held at Artificial Beach by PPM tonight.

“We don’t want our nation to make a habit of asking for charity from the international community, similar to how individuals go from person to person asking for charity. Even though the Maldives is a small country, our aim is to make it one which is respected by other countries. We will start working in this regard, god willing, by winning the vote on 7 September,” he said.

Yameen said that our religion had not been protected over the past three years, and some of our leading politicians continue to have this attitude towards religion.

He went on to say that the Maldives has lost its social well-being, and its people live in poverty and lack several fundamental services.

“There are several young people who need jobs. They are not able to fulfil their dreams. The people who were given the opportunity did not make use of that opportunity, and are now talking about creating 3,000 or 5,000 new jobs. If they made use of the opportunity back then, they would not be saying this now,” he said, referring to MDP’s Presidential Candidate Mohamed Nasheed.

Yameen said that the Maldives, inclusive of all its citizens, should become a rich country.

“This is our wish. There’s no reason not to work towards this goal,” he said.

He said that he, his running mate and his team are campaigning effectively for the upcoming presidential election.

“Our target is clear. We are sure about what we want to do for our people, and we have a complete picture of what our people want from us. Our average citizen can’t pay his electricity bill. That’s why we’ve been talking more about the economy,” he said.

Yameen said that the person who wins the election would be forced to show his capabilities, and would have to face failure otherwise.

“The MDP government failed because they could not find solutions to the economic problems that existed at the time. When politicians started pointing out their mistakes, they started arresting citizens, arresting political leaders, making certain proposals to judges and threatening them, and when they failed to meet those demands, arresting those judges and locking up the courts – several tragic events like these that should not have happened in a civilised society – which eventually led to the end of their rule,” Yameen described the events leading up to Nasheed’s resignation.