Since 2010, we’ve paid five former presidents MVR 158 million. That’s enough to buy 135 island ambulances.
The office allowances were finally cut last December, but MVR 10 million a year still goes out, for life, to whoever leaves office next.
We’re not wealthy enough as a nation to allocate this much public money to a handful of political elites. Besides, all of them are perfectly capable of fending for themselves without public funding.
After MPs’ salaries, this should be the next issue we question.
Public money should serve public priorities, not political elites.
@ShimranAb Manikufaa fadha dhogu veriege fahatha bayaku aran heyonuvaane. May day ge muzaahiraa dhekki karudhaas bondi, home minister Kan libunee v thane kurevunu kame, hoadhunu, kame neiy, dhogu ilzaam meehunge boluga elhu v. Thailand gos hurey.
Citizens petition to remove MP healthcare,
Citizens campaign to abolish MP benefits, Committee response: a 30% raise for the Speaker
This must be a form of mockery
MP Mohamed Mustafa,
When we speak about how things are done in the world's most developed countries, you, like many other Maldivian politicians, seem to become rather uncomfortable, even “frightened” as your said yourself.
Perhaps you find it threatening when ordinary citizens are educated about how citizen-centred countries are governed, because they might begin to understand the standards and principles by which their own country should be governed.
Perhaps you are afraid that your constituents will discover that while they struggle to access basic medical treatment, you, your wife and your children enjoy healthcare coverage in 19 countries around the world, including Singapore, Dubai and Türkiye.
Perhaps you are afraid that your constituents will discover that even if you are never elected to Parliament again, you will continue to enjoy this health insurance coverage for the rest of your life.
For nearly 20 years, since the introduction of what we call democracy in the Maldives, politicians from every political party have continued to enjoy extravagant privileges funded by taxpayers.
They have convinced ordinary citizens that this is how democracy works, that these arrangements are normal and that this is how things are done elsewhere in the world.
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens have been kept in the dark, and their living conditions have continued to deteriorate.
Perhaps what frightens you is that the public is finally beginning to understand all of this.
If you genuinely opposed MPs receiving privileges unavailable to ordinary citizens, you would not have remained silent all these years. You would have taken action to amend the laws that allow these privileges to continue.
But now the public knows.
You all have enjoyed the benefits of keeping ordinary citizens in the dark for long enough.
It is time to stop!
MPs should not be entitled to special healthcare privileges that are unavailable to the ordinary citizens they were elected to represent.
Public office is a responsibility, not a lifetime entitlement to privileges funded by taxpayers.
#HealthcareEqualityMV #EndHealthcareDiscrimination #EqualHealthcareForAll
MP Saleem, it’s not that we don’t know. It’s that you think we don’t know.
You’ve very cunningly broken down MPs’ health insurance benefits into monthly figures, telling the public that MPs receive “ONLY MVR 2,000 per month,” hoping the smaller figure would make the privilege seem insignificant.
But is MVR 2,000 really that small?
Let’s apply the same monthly calculation to ordinary Maldivians.
2026 figures:
- Maldivian population: 382,639
- Asandha budget: 2.022 billion
- NSPA budget: 3.40 billion
Monthly allocation per Maldivian:
Asandha: 440/-
NSPA: 740/-
And according to you, MPs and their families receive 2,000 per person per month. That is 4.5 TIMES the average monthly Asandha allocation per Maldivian!
You call it “ONLY MVR 2,000” because you want people to believe it’s a small amount.
But when we apply your own method of calculation to ordinary citizens, the inequality becomes impossible to hide.
MP Saleem, the problem isn’t that Maldivians cannot understand the numbers. The problem is that you think we cannot.