Maldives is no longer a place that its youth can peacefully live in and they have become a demographic that is routinely isolated and harassed, says former president Mohamed Nasheed.

Nasheed said this in an audio clip uploaded on SoundCloud on Monday, akin to the weekly radio addresses he used to give during his tenure as president.

Nasheed said that the number of educated individuals among the youth is at the highest it has ever been in the Maldives and they have a significant role in its development.

“The situation in the Maldives has regressed to the point that the youth cannot live in this country. They are targeted and harassed on the streets and made to feel foreign to the Maldives” Nasheed said.

Nasheed, leader of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party as well, further said that there is ‘no Maldives’ without the full support and participation of the youth.

The opposition leader said that their manifesto ahead of the presidential elections will be inclusive of the needs of the youth, as well as other social groups.

Highlighting the generational rift between Maldives’ older and more conservative generations and the youth, described in the address as having an affinity for entertainment, Nasheed said that politicians should not ignore their needs in ‘fear of being labelled sacrilegious or averse to culture’.