About Dr. Hassan Saeed’s presentation of his election manifesto

I listened to Dr. Hassan Saeed’s presentation of his election manifesto Tuesday night. The highlight of which (as far as I’m concerned) is that Dr. Saeed categorically said that he will not reside in Theemuge (current presidential palace) if he gets elected as president. He said that his government will decided on how best Theemuge could be used to benefit the people of this country and use it for the people and that he will under no circumstances use Theemuge as a presidential palace. This implied that he may use Muleeaage as a presidential palace. Which is an excellent decision. I believe that Dr. Saeed will get plenty of support for stating this so categorically. He also implied that he will not use Aarah (the presidential retreat) and the huge fleet of speed boats and yachts that Gayyoom has accumulated as the presidential fleet.

The other highlight of Dr. Saeed’s presentation Tuesday night was his assertion that he will not assign anyone of his extended family for a government post or for a post in a para-statal company. He specifically said that none of his brothers or sisters or parents or uncles or aunts or in-laws would be given such a post. He pointed out that this (nepotism) was one of the great weaknesses of the current regime and pledged to avoid this pitfall.

The other highlight of Dr. Saeed’s presentation was that he will not seek a second term in office if he fails to realize the targets in his manifesto. But when questioned by Monaza Naeem, Dr. Saeed failed to give a convincing answer to the question: how he would finance his “ambitious” manifesto despite the huge budget-deficit forecasted by the Auditor general. Dr. Saeed mentioned that currently there’s more than 300 million dollars of foreign pledged-aid that the regime has not used – which he said could be used as part of his financing package for achieving the targets of his manifesto. This is a farfetched thing and a not very convincing answer.

Dr. Saeed, in his presentation, also said that the country need’s to tighten the belt and reduce excesses in order to overcome the forecasted deficit (40% of GDP), and the huge debt the country has so far incurred.

But when questioned by Monaza Naeem, about how he will deal with dictator Gayyoom, Saeed gave a vague answer. He said that there are two options in front of us. One is that we could do as Gayyoom did with former president Nasir (which is to draw cartoons and vilify Nasir), or that we could do otherwise. Monaza Naeem took this answer as a statement that Dr. Saeed will not pursue Gayyoom in bringing the dictator’s crimes to justice.

Dr. Saeed mentioned the example of South Africa’s “Truth and Reconciliation” commission and how we need to forget and heal ourselves and move forward. This maybe a wise attitude but one that will not sell very well to an electorate hungry to get justice from Gayyoom. I think Dr. Saeed lost this argument to Naeem. Sandhaan Ahammaidhy’s subsequent attack on Naeem didn’t help Dr. Saeed’s cause. What the public really wants to hear from Dr. Saeed or any other presidential candidate is that the next government will pursue Gayyoom and bring justice to the people. Of course we do not need to repeat the dirty tactics of how Gayyoom vilified Nasir but we need top bring Gayyoom to a fair trail. Then only can we heal the past.