Maldives' very own Sarah Palin?

Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) has chosen Fathimath Nahid Shakir as his running mate in the coming election. Nahid Shakir has been working in the education sector for over 14 years. She is also one of the wives of popular reformist and former MDP member X-ray Athif.

Choosing Nahid is obviously a calculated move by the Social Liberal Party to try to buy women's votes, and perhaps show that they are indeed liberal and sensitive to social issues. I believe that the outcome of such a move in Maldives would be different from somewhere like the US. There are several reasons for this, including:

1) Although we like to believe otherwise, when it comes to politics, still a large proportion of Maldivian women either don't care much or would rather not have the "social turmoil" brought about by the reform movement. I am not discounting the fact that there are many women activists and even politicians in the reform movement, but the fact also remains that ordinary women in Male' and the atolls fall into the former category. It might even sound sexist, but I'm a woman myself and this is what I have seen among many of my associates - including many of the so-called educated women.

2) Many conservative Maldivians, especially the increasing religious fundamentalists would not want a woman to be vice president. This was supposedly one of the reasons why Anni could not choose Aminath Jameel as his running mate.

3) I also wonder whether in Maldivian politics, the running mate has much power to change the vote. Each of the current presidential candidates have a group of very loyal supporters, and it would take a VERY STRONG running mate from a rival group to change their vote. Take Anni, for example: would one of Anni's loyalists who has liberal thinking change their vote to Ibra, because Ibra's running mate is a woman?

4) Then there is the group of people who believe that having a woman vice-president is nothing more than a facade. We have had women ministers and senior governmment officials in the past, but has it helped the social issues much? Would this be any different?

So, has Ibra come up with the perfect ticket to win the elections? How many of us are going to be swayed by this move? Let me know what you think...

The height of delusion or just plain hypocisy?

Our Dear Demented Dictator has once again given us a bunch of blatant lies on public TV. In answer to a question about having Ilyas Ibrahim on his cabinet again after the corruption scandal, he said that he's NEVER had a person convicted of corruption on his cabinet. Does he really not remember how Ilyas was convicted and how HIS office issued a public statement saying that Ilyas had fled Maldives after the conviction? Is Maumoon really so demented that he has forgotten about the alleged plots by Ilyas to kill him (through black magic, no less!) and become president?

In some ways it is amusing to see how DESPERATE Maumoon is to hold on to his waning power.

More running mate news: Dr.Waheed as Anni's running mate!

A new alliance of MDP and Qaumee Ithihad has been formed, with Dr.Waheed as Anni's running mate. What are the implications of this to MDP's potential votes? I believe this is a good move, considering the lack of popular leader-material (for a running mate) among the present MDP members. Sadly, MDP has lost many popular candidates in the past few months to other parties. But as MDP's supporters say, it's probably their loss!

Dr. Waheed would certainly help bring a new group of voters from Male'. But what about the islands? Apart from the occasional bid for presidency, Dr.Waheed hasn't been a familiar face to all of us. Only time will tell.

Who is Ahmed Ali Sawad?

Qasim Ibrahim announced last night that his running mate would be Ahmed Ali Sawad. When a lot of us heard this, our first question is, Who is he? The only thing I know is that he certainly is a stranger to Maldivian politics. Is this the reason for his nomination? Perhaps Qasim wanted a person who hasn't yet been tainted, a "pure" person who hasn't had any dirty affiliation with Maumoon. Apparently he is from both Male' and Addu. So one of the motives could be to gain back the potential Adduan votes that he lost when he did not choose Munavvar, as previously thought.

On the other hand, would people really care for a new face? Unlike some people like Munavvar, Sawad would not have a powerful support base in Addu (apart from family, I suppose). Would the die-hard Addu reformists change loyalties just because the running mate has some Addu connections?

In my opinion, if Sawad wants to gain popularity (and help Qasim in the process, of course), he needs to really be out in the public in the next few weeks. He needs to become a familiar face that reminds people of what he (supposedly) is - an untainted politician who truly wants to help bring the change we need.

Milestone in Zimbabwe politics

Today marks a milestone in Zimbabwean politics. President Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980 finally has agreed to a power-sharing deal with the opposition. Another long-standing dictator stripped of power. Is Maumoon squirming in his brocade seat thinking that his days are numbered?

The Teachers' Vote and Qasim

The Association for Teachers’ Link has again got back at the government for continuing to fund for various establishing various agencies and new high-salaried posts. They are saying that, despite the government’s claim of not having funds for non-budgeted items, it is continuing to fund projects with an obvious political motive.

The teachers’ frustration is understandable. As we have seen in the teachers’ strike earlier this year, they also hold immense power and support in the society. It was interesting to see how even parents (apart from a handful of powerful politicians) supported the teachers’ pleas during the strike. I wonder how the teachers’ frustrations would have an impact on the coming election. Who, among the presidential candidates, would be in the good books, or more importantly in the “black list” of teachers? Maumoon, undoubtedly would not be a popular candidate among the revolutionary teachers’ group. What about Qasim, who was the Finance Minister during all this turmoil? Would the premise that he was in charge of the budget during that time prove to be a disadvantage for him during the election?

However, it is also true that Qasim has personally helped many a teacher throughout the country to get higher education, etc. His foundation has sent many in the education sector abroad for training. Would this be enough for him to gain the much needed support of teachers? If not him, who, among the candidates, would teachers see as a true reformer who would help them?