Aasanda was aimed at political goals: Dr. Didi

Dr. Ibrahim Didi, Former President of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and current President of the Jumhoory Party (JP) has said that Aasanda, the national health insurance scheme, was introduced with political motives.

Dr. Didi said that MDP government led by former President Mohamed Nasheed introduced Aasanda, while Didi himself was also in Nasheed’s cabinet, “with a lot of political colors”. Dr. Didi said that the scheme failed to keep the pledge of MDP to “stop people from begging for medical treatment”.

Dr. Didi said that after becoming President of JP, his new party has now entered into discussions with President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik in order to find solutions for the many problems threatening to paralyze the Aasanda scheme.

Dr. Didi also confirmed that there was a proposition at the JP Council to propose his name as Health Minister. He said that the Council will make a decision on the matter and that he would respect whatever decisions made by the Council.

“My interest is only to serve the Maldives and JP, and I have no interest in particular positions and fields”, said Dr. Didi.

Dr. Didi criticized MDP, his former Party, with which he spent almost the whole of his political career, and to which many of his supporters belong. He said that while MDP claimed to be the biggest democratic party in the Maldives, what MDP had actually managed was to undermine freedom of political activities in the country.

Dr. Didi said that MDP has conducted an uncivilized, barbaric kind of political activism, in which they ridicule and mock political leaders belonging to other parties, and make life difficult for them. Dr. Didi said that MDP supporters had a habit of assaulting rival political leaders on the road, and ridiculing them by mimicking various kinds of birds.

“The manner in which the party which claims to be the largest democratic political party is conducting itself has undermined the freedom of political activism in this country”, said Dr. Didi.