News Desk
The ruling People’s National Congress held a rally in Male’ on Saturday night that turned into an extended public reckoning with former President Abdulla Yameen, with senior party figures taking turns to denounce his record in government and dismiss his recent criticism of the current administration.
Abdulla Raheem, PNC Chairperson and Speaker of Parliament
Abdulla Raheem delivered the sharpest attack of the evening, responding directly to Yameen’s recent remarks in which the former president described the People’s Majlis as a “dog’s cage” and suggested its members lacked independence.
Raheem said those words revealed more about Yameen than about parliament.
“When a former president cannot even bring himself to use the title of the sitting president, that tells you everything about the envy that has taken root in his heart,” Raheem said. “What else could it be but envy?”
He then listed, in a series of blunt declarations, the reasons he said Yameen’s presidency ended in defeat.
“His rule ended because of arrogance. It ended because of pride. It ended because of cruelty. It ended because he would not listen. It ended because justice was not served. It ended because of oppression. It ended because of betrayal. It ended because the public treasury was looted. It ended because he was under the thumb of his wife.”
Raheem said he had no interest in responding to Yameen’s comments but then proceeded to do so at length, telling the audience that Muizzu’s government had not ended and would not end, and that Yameen’s had.
He also dismissed suggestions that PNC members of parliament were wavering in their support for Muizzu.
“No spell, no sorcery that Yameen knows will crack the PNC,” Raheem said. “We are here, solidly, with sincerity.”
He said the party’s upcoming senate session, scheduled for 15 to 18 September, would conclude with the formation of the campaign team for President Muizzu’s 2028 re-election bid.
On the economy, Raheem argued that criticism of the current government was premature. The debts being repaid today were inherited, he said, and the five-year term had not yet run its course.
“Streets are safer. Justice is being served. People are settled. Real development is not just a bridge. Real development is building a sound human society. That work is ongoing. The five years are not up. There is no room yet for criticism.”
Ibrahim Falaahu, PNC Parliamentary Group Leader, Inguraidhoo MP
Falaahu opened with membership figures. PNC now has 77,000 registered members, he said, making it the largest party in the country under the multiparty system established by the current constitution. The MDP has 55,399 members and the Jumhooree Party 10,401.
He dismissed opposition claims that a quiet revolt was under way inside the PNC parliamentary group.
“Every single PNC member of the 20th Majlis is standing firmly with President Muizzu,” he said. “Many attempts have been made to divide us. All have failed because of the complete trust our members place in the president.”
On the dollar rate, Falaahu told the audience that the foreign exchange law amendments passed by the Majlis had already begun to work.
“When the foreign exchange law was passed, the black market rate stood at 23 rufiyaa. It has since fallen to 19.80. It will not be long before it returns to the rate it was when President Muizzu first took office.”
He also drew a pointed comparison between the audience’s response to Yameen’s name and their response to Muizzu’s, saying the difference in applause was itself evidence of where public sentiment lay. He compared the disciplined applause for Muizzu to that of North Korea, though he appeared to intend it as a compliment rather than a warning.
In an unusual segment of the evening, Falaahu made detailed allegations about the use of black magic during the Yameen era, claiming that in the period leading up to the 2018 presidential election, Yameen employed someone who practised sorcery and that this person was regularly taken to the seafront near the bridge late at night.
“Every night, at midnight, this person was put into the sea at the wave break area, without clothes. This is a serious, true story,” Falaahu said. He also claimed that during the 2018 election campaign, red herons, considered significant in local folk belief, were not available anywhere in the atolls because all of them were under Yameen’s control.
Falaahu also alleged that when a particularly strong Friday sermon against sorcery was delivered that year, Yameen’s practitioner told him he could no longer continue his work, to which Yameen allegedly responded that questions about the afterlife would come later and that for now the work should proceed.
Mohamed Ismail, Vilimalé MP and PNC Deputy Parliamentary Group Leader
Mohamed Ismail was the first speaker of the evening to describe Yameen’s government as corrupt. He said state funds allocated to the PPM during the Yameen years had been used for personal expenses, including legal fees to free Yameen from prison.
“We remember what happened to the public funds given to PPM when that party was in power,” he said.
He questioned whether opposition parties that had failed to bring meaningful change during their time in government deserved another chance, and called on PNC members to accelerate work toward securing Muizzu a second term in 2028.
