President Nasheed declares war on the Parliament and states he will yet again go outside the Constitution to keep on employing the Ministers that failed to secure the Constitutional Parliament Endorsement

Breaking the norms of the Constitution is the only thing that the Man we call President is consistently engaged in over the two years he spent in power. First, he got all his Ministers to resign because just one Minister in the Cabinet faced a no confidence vote. When the whole world started taking a second look at his irrational behaviour, several weeks later he decided, to once again employ them in their old Cabinet positions. But there is a problem. The Constitution stipulates that Ministers need Parliamentary endorsement before they can be appointed to the position of a Minister.
Next the President over the next few months used several tactics to delay the Parliament voting and endorsement process, mostly getting his party MP’s to disrupt the Parliament to the point the Parliament was unable to function for months.
Finally today the vote took place and five performing Ministers got Parliament endorsement, while seven failed to secure the needed endorsement.
The Ministers that failed are those that the Public hated from day one due to their disregard to rule of law and the Constitution repeatedly in the running of their Ministries. For example Home Minister Mohamed Shihab that failed to get endorsed resort to the use of Police as a paramilitary force to suppress political freedom and liberty of the people using violent methods. Most of all he ignored the crisis of daily stabbing and murders and failed to do anything to stop them. Similarly the Defence Minister who on a regular basis resort to arbitrary arrest of opposition political party leaders failed to secure an endorsement.
By keeping the Ministers that abused their position of power in government the MDP and President Nasheed failed to act in the national interest. But then again for them government and power is only and always about securing more membership for MDP and securing the next election and finding financial incentives for those that demonstrate loyalty to them.
For two years Nasheed as President of Maldives ignored the economic sufferings brought out by the recession. He deceived the IMF by firing thousands of civil servants while employing more loyalists triple the amount paid to the dismissed civil servants.
He failed to stop the escalated violence and growth of knife related crime that as we speak lead to death and murder on a daily basis. To top it all he kept on employing party activists and political neophytes as Ministers and use them to administer a Dictatorship where they engage in selling of national assets, the land and even the sea on a daily basis. He also kept using them to twist and turn the Constitution to suit his particular need. He changed the Judges in the Supreme Court and the Judiciary in order to use the Judiciary to manipulate the functions of the Parliament, the only power that he cannot secure a control, despite of daylight bribery of MP’s.
Now he is saying he is going to hold onto the Ministers that failed to secure the Parliament endorsement. Many of these Ministers are the reason why Maldives performed so badly in the World corruption index, dropping backward 33 places lower just in two years under his Presidency. Ministers that order the Police to attack journalists and civilians with baton, gas canisters and pepper spray, an Attorney General who manipulates the law and Constitutional clauses to fit the needs of the President like a straight jacket, a Defence Minister who gets the Military to break into peoples houses, take them by force at gun point and then hold them in solitary confinement for weeks without explanation do not deserve the Parliament endorsement.
The Parliament in this matter acted in the national interest. The people have been calling for the resignation of the likes of Home Minister Shihab and Foreign Minister Shaheed from day one and it is time the President act in the national interest. His weakness is he undermines the Maldivian people and want to hang on to some very despotic people despite of their fatal defects as Ministers. Although many from the MDP and the President himself see the messy Cabinet affair he started as a battle between them and the main opposition dominated Parliament this is what the people want. The people want to see the back of these Ministers.
There are very competent capable trustworthy people in the Maldives that the President chose to ignore acting in self interest and in the interest of his party activists over the national interest. The employment of an incompetent bunch of ignorant novices in the Cabinet is the reason why the President landed in the mess and instead of wedging deeper and deeper in it; it is time he respects the Constitutional and not waste any time in prolonging this crisis further.
It is time he move forward and for a change declare that he will respect the Parliaments’ decision and will look for more competent capable candidates to join his Cabinet. That will be music to our ears. Cabinet reshuffle and renewal brings health and competency to the administration process and it is high time the President explores such venues. We strongly call on the President to not repeat the mistake of going outside the Constitution this time. The number of times he went outside the Constitution is the reason why he is labelled as a Dictator in the Maldives as well as losing respect internationally. We all know what the Constitution says about this matter. Continuing to employ people as Ministers who failed to secure the Parliament endorsement is a desperate crime and it will not be justified, no matter what he says or does. It will leave a permanent stain on his leadership that people will find it hard to overcome. Specially with an election looming ahead it is not his activists he needs to impress but the Maldivian people.