Yameen: You got your positions because of my team; have the courage to take to the streets

Former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom says that people got their top “air-conditioned cabin” jobs because of the efforts of him and his team, and that they should therefore have the courage to take to the streets to fights for his rights.

President-elect Dr. Mohamed Muizzu had appealed for a pause to rallies against Yameen’s imprisonment, and for a chance for him to secure the opposition leader’s release in due process. In his first press conference upon winning the presidential runoff election on Saturday, he asked the incumbent president, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, to use his executive powers to transfer Yameen to house arrest. The outgoing president complied, and Yameen was transferred to his home in Male’, the next day.

But with the conviction against him in place, he remains a prisoner.

Despite Muizzu’s appeal for a halt to protests, Yameen’s supporters continue to gather outside his residence, every night.

He spoke to his supporters from out a window of his residence on Wednesday night.

Yameen said that most of the people out on the streets fighting for his rights were everyday citizens, most of them women.

He said that it was because of him and his supporters that top officials got their jobs.

“The people sitting in big chairs got that luxury because of the efforts of President Yameen and because of you,” said Yameen, addressing the supporters gathered outside his residence. “Its human nature, once you get your positions, you forget, and taking to the streets becomes something that is beneath them.”

Yameen said that the people must ask parliamentary candidates who come to them for votes whether they are contesting for the sake of the country, or to promote personal interests.

“If they are working for the sake of this country, then, they should have the courage to take to the streets with you, when the leader who worked the hardest for the sake of this country is detained. They should have the courage. They should have the courage to take to the streets,” he said.

Yameen said that he would be free, is he received a free and fair trial. He said that he would not plead for his freedom, either from the current the administration or any other administration.

You cannot take away the love of the people, even if you put me in a jail cell, he said.

Yameen said that he does not wish to take office because of the power and prestige it comes with.

“What makes me sad is that all these people think I desperately want to become president. Presidency isn’t something you face out of the desire for power and prestige… And it isn’t something you want because you desire the MVR 100,000 salary,” he said.

Yameen said that though he may have to go back to prison, he takes pleasure in seeing the fall of the current administration.

The people who spoke against tyranny, became tyrants to the Maldivian people themselves, he said.