Democracy cannot grow without respect: President

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said today that democracy cannot be developed in the country if people fail to respect one another.

Speaking at the ceremony to launch the civic education campaign, President Waheed said that several groups, which commenced aid to Maldives in 2008 subsequent to the Maldives becoming a democratic nation, have ceased providing aid. We believe we have democracy in Maldives and act like it ends there, resulting in the principles of democracy slowly being destroyed and people being confused about the very basics of democracy.

“The most important thing is to respect each other’s freedom. There is no democracy without respect. But the situation we face today, what we are seeing from our leaders, is completely different from our efforts to introduce democracy. Our children are seeing a completely different picture,” the President said.

The President noted that several people had been promised uninhabited islands and land unjustly so that they can enjoy certain benefits. Hostility is created when these groups realise that the process has not been fair; and the first thing to do is to justly assign these resources to people.

“There must be justice when state projects are handed over to groups, it must be done with transparency,” the President said.

The President urged all citizens to abide by the law, and said that the purpose of the civic education campaign is to cultivate knowledge, build a peaceful environment for all, and create awareness on human rights.

The main elements of the civic education program are to create a peaceful environment, protect human dignity, encourage communal activities, exercise the right to information, make the police more responsible, and make citizens more responsible.