By IANS
Colombo : Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia’s longest-serving leader, has said that the political reforms initiated in the Indian Ocean island nation four years ago will be implemented in full and will be his “legacy”.
“I firmly believe that the political reforms that I proposed in June 2004 can be implemented in full in a few years from now,” Gayoom told Hamaroalhi Daily, a Maldivian newspaper last week.
“I want the reform agenda to be my legacy,” he said ahead of multi-party elections in the Maldives scheduled for November next year. He described the completion of the democratic reforms and the transition from a ‘least developed country’ to the middle-income status as his “topmost priority”.
With the country’s special Majlis writing the constitution making “good progress”, Gayoom said that the delayed new constitution might be completed “as the opposition has succumbed to public pressure to stop obstructing constitutional reform”.
“Once the constitution is completed, we can push all the pending reforms through in quick succession,” he said. These “pending reforms” include setting up an independent election commission and a revised regulation on public elections to allow participation by political parties.
He also added that the opposition “has so far failed to present itself as a viable alternative to my government”.
Gayoom said that that the Maldives’ national identity, based on Islamic faith, has to be strengthened. He asserted that extremism could not be curbed just by “tough legal measures”.
“We have to enlighten people to the fact that Islam calls for tolerance, peaceful co-existence and harmony,” he said, adding that people were being “misled”, which needs to be mitigated by raising awareness on religious matters, especially in more remote communities.
The Maldives president was referring to the bomb blast in the capital in October, which injured many tourists, and the subsequent crackdown on extremists.
“Also, the people realize that such incidents, if repeated, would harm our tourism industry. The international community has also recognized and welcomed the government for taking a “no nonsense” approach to root out terrorism,” said Gayoom.