Former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has accused the current administration of spending MVR 100 million from state finances to fund the parliamentary campaign of the ruling party, PNC.

Main opposition MDP held a walk to conclude its parliamentary campaign on Friday evening. Speaking to supporters at Artificial Beach after the walk, Solih strongly criticized the government for its failure to disclose the details of expenses.

He said his travels to various Maldivian islands for MDP’s parliamentary campaign had shown how discontent the people are with the current administration.

“I see discontentment from everywhere. Concern over President Dr. [Mohamed] Muizzu’s failure to fulfill the pledges he had made to come to power. Because this needs to be changed, voices are being raised on behalf of all people across all of Maldives,” he said.

The former president said the public is unaware of the details of how the current administration is operating despite five months into assuming office. He particularly criticized the government for failure to disclose matters related to state finances.

“No information regarding the state’s finances has been disclosed in the past three weeks,” he added.

“What we know is political posts have been increased through the roof. Information publicized three weeks ago shows that MVR 450 million more was spent on salaries than the first three months last year,” he further detailed.

Solih alleged that over MVR 100 million was spent from state finances to fund the trips President Muizzu and senior officials of the government undertook to campaign for the parliamentary election. Underscoring that no response has been given when questioned on these matters, Solih stressed that these wrongs can only be righted by ensuring MDP gets the parliament majority.

“If you are voting for pro-government candidates, that is a vote against development. A vote to stop the projects. A vote to distribute the flats as they want. A vote to change the list of recipients of land,” he added.

Speaking further, Solih said the current administration has no intention to develop the islands, specifically accusing the government of sidelining smaller islands. He also said the current administration was showing a façade to Male’ residents, which he states will be proven through the ‘Rasmale’ project.

MDP has the largest number of candidates contesting this parliamentary election for 90 constituencies, followed by PNC for 89 constituencies.

A total of 368 candidates are contesting Sunday’s election for 93 constituencies.

Source(s): sun.mv

Anyone familiar with U.S. history knows that Washington’s foreign and economic policies are often crafted to serve its own interests at the expense of others.

BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) — Beneath Washington’s veneer of lofty ideals and grandiose phrases championing economic globalization and free market principles lies a stark truth: These professed ideals serve merely as a convenient cover for its relentless pursuit of hegemony.

While concerns mount over U.S. government intrusions in business, such as the attempted forced sale of TikTok and the blocking of a Japanese firm’s takeover bid for U.S. Steel, anyone familiar with U.S. history knows that Washington’s foreign and economic policies are often crafted to serve its own interests at the expense of others.

Washington’s political elites denounced Donald Trump’s four years in office as a departure from the United States’ self-proclaimed role of “leading the world.” Though they spurned his “America First” banner like a pestilence, it embodies Washington’s approach to conducting business.

One such example is the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which aimed to prevent European powers from interfering in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. While framed as a policy to protect the sovereignty of newly independent Latin American nations, it only served to advance U.S. hegemony in the region.

Regarding trade, protectionist measures such as tariffs and trade barriers have been utilized throughout U.S. history to shield domestic industries and promote economic growth. For instance, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 increased U.S. tariffs on agricultural imports and more than 20,000 imported goods and stifled global trade.

While the Trump administration was unabashed on its protectionist stance, the current U.S. administration has adopted a more covert but essentially similar approach, leveraging the concept of national security for its agenda.

The Biden administration’s relentless pursuit of weaponizing technology and economic matters against China, coupled with the U.S. campaigns of “de-risking” and “de-coupling” from China, also exposes Washington’s glaring hypocrisy in maintaining its hegemony.

Despite its longstanding rhetoric of advocating “free trade” in sectors where the U.S. holds dominance, Washington conveniently wields protectionist measures under the guise of national security in areas where its supremacy is challenged.

From using coercive tactics such as the Plaza Accord to counter Japan’s economic influence to implementing measures like extraterritorial jurisdiction to dismantle iconic French manufacturing company Alstom and continually finding pretexts to hurt competitive Chinese high-tech enterprises, Washington has long indulged in “dressed-up protectionism,” quickly abandoning the very free market principles it has professed to uphold.

These U.S. maneuvers reveal Washington’s adeptness at exploiting the so-called rules-based global order, which it helped establish, to serve its interests while brazenly advocating the law of the jungle wherein actions like plunder, deceit, coercion, extortion or even violent conquest are condoned.

By employing tactics reminiscent of a bygone era of colonialism and unchecked imperialism, the United States undermines the very foundations of the global order it claims to champion. The world cannot afford to ignore this ugly truth about Washington.

Source(s): Xinhua

Maldives has expressed disheartenment after the United States blocked Palestine’s second attempt to become a full member of the United Nations (UN).

US vetoed the widely supported Palestine’s UN membership resolution at the UN Security Council during a vote on Thursday.

Maldivian Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer, in a post on X, said Maldives stands with more than 140 UN member states to support the Palestinian cause and their application to become admitted to the UN as a full member.

“It is imperative that the UN upholds its principles of justice and equality for all,” he stressed.

Minister Zameer also reaffirmed Maldives’ call for a just and lasting solution based on the establishment of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine based on the pre-1967 border.

Mohamed Naseer, the Principal Secretary at the President’s Office on Foreign Affairs, delivered Maldives’ statement at the UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.

Maldives, in the statement, called on the members of the United Nations; especially the permanent members of the UN Security Council to give their full and unconditional support for the admission of Palestine to the UN as a full member state.

Maldives also called on the UN Security Council to impose sanctions, including an arms embargo on Israel for violating the Charter of the Council on multiple occasions.

Thursday’s vote came more than six months into Israel’s military invasion in the besieged Palestinian territory that has left nearly 34,000 Palestinians dead — mostly babies, women and children — and wounded over 76,770.

Source(s): sun.mv