Ex-Presidents tried to paint Maldives as a small nation, with no potential: Ambassador Shareef

The Maldivian Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mohamed Hussain Shareef has criticized the foreign policies of former Presidents.

Speaking in Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) campaign house Rumaalu2 the Ambassador on Sunday night, Shareef, a protégé of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, criticized the foreign polices of Presidents Maumoon and Mohamed Nasheed. Shareef said the previous administrations had attempted to portray Maldives as a small nation and one that lacked in potential.

‘We were taught to think that we are a very small, small nation, a weak nation. We were taught that if we toed the line, listened to what others say, then we may benefit from what they give us. This was the first thing fed to us as a foreign policy view. We were shown our stature as insignificant; several times more insignificant than we really are,’ he said, talking about the foreign policy of the Maumoon administration

He attacked the foreign policy of the Nasheed administration as well. Shareef said the public was taught to believe that we must abandon our values, culture and past work to develop the nation.

‘They said that if we emulate others, then they will take us to another destination. That was the next policy view,’ he said.

President Yameen’s foreign policy, he said, was the view that Maldives was as capable and gifted as the most influential nations.

‘Today we see our nation not in the same way as past President’s had seen. Today, we go to foreign nations, we see what we’re really capable of, we’re proud of that,’ he added.

Shareef said that in the previous administrations there was no talk of Maldives seeking a seat in the United Nations Security Council. This, he remarked, will become a reality under this administration.

Shareef further extolled President Yameen’s administration, stating that relations between Maldives and nations such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, had strengthened under this administration.

President Yameen also said that there was no other person more qualified than President Yameen for the leadership of the nation.

Though Shareef praised Yameen administration’s foreign policy, this administration’s foreign policy for most part is seen as divisive and controversy riddled. The Yameen administration veered from the decades old non-aligned foreign policy to a China and Saudi Arabia centric policy which had deeply concerned regional allies such as India.