Country must not be constrained within the struggle of two political ideologies: President

President Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that the country must not be constrained within the struggle between two political ideologies.

Speaking to the people of Kaafu Thulusdhoo this morning, the President said that the country is of utmost importance and that it should not be constrained within the struggle for two political ideologies, and that work towards progress should not be withheld.

President said that Kaafu Thulusdhoo has been deprived of progress due to such a struggle of ideologies, brought about by political change.

“The island community's decisions, that is what they think is best. The way the people see things in a democracy, the decisions they make, the government shall assist (to implement) these decisions. Support towards a certain ideology, or a certain party, or lack of support for a certain party should not be the cause to withhold development projects for the islands. It is a great injustice,” President Waheed said.

He said that Thulusdhoo needs special attention, as a number of development projects were unjustly withheld from the community.

Noting that there is a considerable amount of currency flowing into the country, the President said that all governments had initiated increasingly more development projects with imminent elections around the horizon and that this had resulted in increased government spending, which had in turn caused the country to be accumulate considerable amounts of debt. Year after year of continuous deficit budgets have resulted in a weak government financial position he stated

The President said that a number of steps have been taken to strengthen the government financial position during the past one and a half years and that the government has been able to bring down an accumulated a debt of MVR 1.6 billion to MVR 1.3 billion within this period. He said that the government has repaid a MVR 100 million loan to the State Bank of India and continue to repay their debt to all foreign parties.

President Waheed said that Maldivian are not a people who have accumulating debts on their heads, and that the people have endured by fully repaying loans in the past.