Former President and leader of the opposition Abdullah Yameen has offered a justification for the comment he had made earlier about giving jobs to just PPM members under his government.
In an interview with opposition-affiliated 'Channel 13', Yameen said that the current government is taking action against those who support the opposition and the government is also taking action against government employees whose family members are active in garnering support for the opposition.
Yameen described this as a grave injustice to PPM supporters.
The former President further said that the government had created 50 new jobs at the Fenaka branch in Komandoo and had given those jobs to people supporting MDP.
He said that although the government is creating government jobs in the constituency, it is mitigating that by offering those jobs to just MDP members.
Yameen said that this was against the law and that the opposition must work to save the best interests of its supporters. But he said that this does not mean that the next PPM-led government would be giving jobs just to their supporters but would only offer employment opportunities to those qualified for the posts. He added that this applies to the capital Male' as well as in the inhabited islands too.
The former President said that he wanted to secure opportunities for his supporters because they have faced many injustices under this government and that this has affected his supporters and their families.
In his comments, Yameen touched on the opposition-led 'India Out' campaign and said that the campaign cannot be stopped even if the government passes a law criminalizing it.
Yameen said that the campaign is carried out under freedom of expression and that it cannot be stopped.
He said that there was no reason why Indians working in the Maldives should be grieved by the anti-India campaign. He said that the opposition has no qualms with Indian civilians and that MDP is the only party that threatens Indian workers in the country.
