Gayoom and Nasheed need to step-aside from politics: Alhan

Ousted vice-President of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), Alhan Fahmy has said that MDP is a party with an impressive history and that former President Mohamed Nasheed needs to step aside from politics. In a news conference held on Thursday with the ousted President of MDP, Ibrahim Didi and the Secretary General of MDP, Hassan Shah, whom the party’s national congress is trying to cast out by taking a no-confidence vote, Alhan said that same as Nasheed, pro-government Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) will only be “independent” when its interim President and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom leaves the political arena.

Alhan said that he will continue efforts from within and outside, to liberate politics from their “claws”.

“This is the reality evident to the people. These two people had hijacked the whole country’s political beliefs during the political turmoil in the country. This is not an idea anymore. Former President Gayoom and former President Nasheed are here now. The people need to understand that democracy is not something we get by following a certain person’s belief,” Alhan who had worked closely with the two former Presidents said.

Alhan said that during the rule of MDP, he had cooperated with Nasheed, even with their differences in opinion, for national harmony. Alhan said that he had also encouraged Nasheed towards reform while working in the front-lines.

“We do not have to take the responsibility for the outcome of Nasheed’s actions as he had only taken the word from Mariya (Machchangoalhi-north constituency MP Mariyam Ahmed Didi) and had done a lot of things that we did not approve of. We were blacklisted as we had spoken out and eventually forced us out due to this reason” Alhan said at a live news conference on DhiTV.

Alhan said that the people who joined the “journey to justice” are not only the people who want the same justice that Nasheed wants.

He said that on February 7 Nasheed had decided to resign on his own and that he had not taken the advice offered to him.

“We are the youth of this nation. We are the youth leadership in this country. No one should think that we will be silent. If I had been silent when I was working with Nasheed, I would have been his closest ally and the highest authority. But I did not strive for that. We want the nation to go on a straight course. We want to maintain MDP as a positive political movement” Alhan said.

Alhan said that even if an election is to be held tomorrow or even on 2013, MDP will fail with Nasheed at its helm.
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