What do I think of YRY?
I think they’re cynical sock-puppets for a repressive government that realizes a soft-spoken, agreeable brand does better at making increasingly dictatorial behavior more palatable.
I think that of all the possible branding they could’ve gone with for a pro-government campaign, they went with a play on “y?”, which is either tone-deaf or disgusting and callous.
I think they use academic credentials as a way to lend a sense of authority to calmly spoken bullshit, and their academic experience to know how best to frame bullshit in a way that sounds like it means something. There’s so many better uses of the skills you learn slapping together an essay for college without having done all the readings than using it to try prop up an authoritarian.
I think they’re the Dhivehi Ben Shapiro.
I think that labeling themselves Marxist or Socialist is as bad-faith as every other aspect of the YRY brand and a way to try brand authoritarian ideas as being somehow socialist to try get some of the left on board while discrediting socialist ideas. I’m not saying that they’re National Socialists, but it’s the same tactic.
I think that refusing to put their arguments online here in detail is a cowardly refusal to subject those arguments to scrutiny, and that their insistence on in-person debate is because they’re better at sounding like they’re making good points than they are at making good points.
I think they don’t have answers to any real questions, and are really good at evading them.
I think insisting on debating opposition in person and in public is a cowardly attempt to benefit from the fact that people opposed to the government have some fear for their safety if they’re too public and too vocal about it. Whether or not they insist there’s no reason for fear, the fact is that people do have reason to fear reprisal.
I think that they’re more style than substance, and that that style is just a cynical appeal to patriotism and religion.
I think that insisting only one ordinary mortal man can keep the country from becoming “laadheenee” is a demonstration of the same arrogance shown by politicians saying the same. The Maldives is a country full of devout Muslims. Who holds the presidency doesn’t dictate what lies within the hearts of our people, and what fate befalls us lies in the hands of Allah, not with any ordinary man. It’s not a serious argument and I think there’s no point in engaging with it.
I think them firmly saying that they have support from the statistics but their Statistics page just being links to the National Yearbook, Service Charges Update, and Tourism Update, not any detailed reports of supporting statistical evidence, is because that’s what their whole thing is: misdirection. Talk about your views as if they’re just obvious facts backed up by mountains of evidence and do so with enough confidence, and people might believe you.
I think that their insistence on separating the policy from the person is self-contradicting. If YAG really is responsible for all these policies, then what he is as a person has real policy implications. If the policies are separate from the person, why make a Faustian bargain to keep on an authoritarian to ensure they continue?
But let’s look at some of the points they’ve made on their Twitter. Normally I wouldn’t go through someone’s Twitter because I think it’s pretty rude and doesn’t give much insight into an individual, but I don’t think that applies to a political campaign social media account with the explicit purpose of making points to the public. Anyway, we’ll leave the stuff about debt, infrastructure, and China for later and look at a few of the others first:
Loans aren’t given to people who can’t pay them back, so there’s no reason to worry about our debt burden as a government (x, x)
Banks don’t have anything to gain geopolitically from debt holders struggling with payments or defaulting on them. Countries do. China in particular does, which we’ll outline below.
There’s also the little point that saying we don’t need to worry about defaults because lenders don’t give loans unless they’ll definitely be paid back is ridiculous. Many bank loans do end up unable to be paid back. This is the percentage of non-performing loans in the Maldives compared to other SAARC countries- we’re on the high end of average, and 10-15% of loans are non-performing. That’s over one in every ten.
Nothing good can be brought to a land without peace (x)
I have no idea how this is supposed to be a point for RY, because I don’t think disappearances, murders, massive corruption scandals, terror threats, states of emergency, and civil unrest due to crackdowns on opposition count as peace.
YAG has been good for our foreign relations
Well, aside from the Commonwealth, and major tourism market the EU, and any country an increasingly reckless Saudi Arabia decides to oppose on the day, including Qatar who were looking to invest here before we sided with Saudi Arabia against them instead of staying neutral, and an India increasingly spooked by Chinese presence here…
There’s also the question of how much of our sovereignty has been ceded to our two main sources of debt, China and Saudi Arabia. For example, do we jump into every conflict of the Saudi regime, whether it’s with Qatar or with Canada, for our national self-interest, or do we do so because the Saudi government has undue influence over ours?
Political freedoms given without economic freedoms benefit only the political class (x)
Firstly, there’s no reason the two should be mutually exclusive. It’s possible for people to have economic freedoms while also being politically free. Secondly, is it economic freedom if you’re pressured to show support to a party to be able to keep your government job and maintain a source of income? What if you’re an employee in a company that’s been given debilitating fines for speaking against the government? What if you’re unable to pursue your life, economic or otherwise, without fear or threat of harm?
Stability of the nation is more important than the political agenda of any individual faction (x)
… Is this gaslighting?
We’re focused on the long term development of the country (x)
It’s impossible to isolate questions of freedom, rights, the ability to live without fear, and equal justice and only discuss the economy as a way to measure development. Quoting Amartya Sen:
The long-term deterioration of the democratic process and democratic institutions is part of it. Keeping someone who will only continue to suppress democracy and freedom in power is neglecting the long-term.
In conclusion…
mvlcontent 