Maldives News | Dhivehi Observer | South Asia | Statesman Big-Water-Well House Mustafa turns out to be a complete wanker

Editorial

'Big-Water-Well-House' Mustafa turns out to be a complete wanker

Dhivehi Observer, 7 January 2008

When Musthafa Hussain dusted off his suit and rolled up to the political forefront after years on the shelf, many expected him to play the role of an elder statesman of the country. However, the recent interview given to the Minivan News has made people realize that this is far from reality. It is indeed sad, that Musthafa Hussain, a man of experience and education, a man at one time the people of Maldives had thought of as a future leader, turns out to be nothing but a bitter old codger still living in a past where aristocratic families had dominated life in the Maldives, someone who is now unable to comprehend the reality of modern 21st century politics of the Maldives.

When you want to play the role of an elder statesman then you have to act like one. Calling the MDP "babies" is not acting like an elder statesman. What Musthafa fails to understand is that even within the MDP, there are those who are activists and those who are more reserved, and rightly so. Every mature political party in the world has both. If he claims that the MDP has broken laws and rules, then he should have justified those statements. That would have been a statesman speaking. If he just claims that the MDP has broken laws and left it without qualifying his statement, then it is rather immature and childish.

To call the MDP " the kind of thing that could have been only started by very young people – people young enough to be looked after by parents" is to put it blatantly, a very puerile statement and rather offensive both to the young people of Maldives and the more mature politician. Young people of Maldives form a large majority of the stakeholders of our country. They are politically aware, and they know what kind of Maldives they want in the future. For argument's sake, what if they started the MDP? What is wrong with that? Surely they have every right to participate in the political process of this country as anyone else?

Furthermore, it is quite insulting to the more mature politicians of the MDP, especially those who do not participate in the more active protests of the party. The MDP is a democratic party and not everyone has to be on the street. Therefore for Musthafa to say that, ""We mustn't be activists all the time, "We can be babies when we are babies" – but "you have to grow up" is downright insulting.

Musthafa’s true colours came out when he criticized the current generation of politicians who have been able to serve in the government and then change sides. When he claimed that "Now you are a big shot when you resign - you are a star!" but leaving the government in the 1980s meant losing friends and becoming "a hostile enemy of the government" is plainly sour grapes. People are free to draw whatever conclusions they may draw from his interview but it sounds as if Musthafa has a serious problem with the younger politicians of this country. It appears that he is rather bitter about his own political demise, and cannot stomach the rise of the new breed of younger politicians who are able to desert their government posts and move to opposition politics.

However, the most obnoxious of his statements were directed at the islanders of the Maldives. To claim that the island people, "don't care whether the sun rises or the sun sets" and "can be bought" seems to be the thoughts of someone far removed from reality of the current Maldives. It appears to be the view of someone who has been stagnant in the Maldivian past where rich and aristocratic people of Male’ patronized the islanders who slaved themselves in these aristocratic homes for nothing while their masters enriched themselves at their expense.

Times have changed. This is not the Maldives that Musthafa served as a politician. This is the 21st century. The days of aristocratic revering are gone. If Musthafa wants to play the elder statesman, he has to change and accommodate the politics of the modern Maldives. He has to leave his own bitter experiences behind. He must learn, and learn quickly, that the islanders are no more "fas kulhandhu madhu bee rattehin". Otherwise, the people of the 21st century Maldives will not have the stomach for the likes of such an archaic fossil.

What an absolute wanker!

visit www.delightmaldives.com

click here to visit kobaaNet