For the majority of the Maldivian people, democracy is something that is at best, confusing. Having lived under autocratic rule for most of their lives (for some all of their lives), democracy is something of a misnomer in the Maldives. In this scenario, many believe that nothing much would change when the dictator allowed political parties to operate. And their skepticisms are somewhat justified, having witnessed how the DRP members are trying to hold the Speaker of the Constitutional Assembly to ransom by forcing him to conduct the sessions according to their wishes. Ironically, the Speaker of Constitutional Assembly is also one of the 2 remaining deputy leaders of DRP. A sign that Dictator Gayyoom and his cronies are totally divided and confused, to say the least.

Those DRP members who have been elected have conveniently forgotten that they are elected as individuals in the first place. They were not elected on the basis that the people read the DRP manifesto, accepted DRP polices, and supported them. Hence, this attempt to destroy the constitution claiming "party-line" is a total betrayal of their constituents.

Did they ever ask their constituents how they wanted them to vote? Did they ever consult their constituents on the interim chapter of the constitution, leave alone the whole constitution? The answer to the above is a resounding NO. No elected MP from the DRP has ever held any surgeries with their consultants, have ever discussed the constitution with them, or even informed them of the so-called "party-line". As such it is not a surprise that Maldivians are unconvinced of this whole democratic process on the whole.

Of course, one cannot categories those unelected MPs of DRP in the same catagory. They are there appointed by their master to serve him. Therefore, they have to follow the party-line in order to save their heads from the guillotine. As such one cannot blame the likes of Kutti Nasheed for derri�re-kissing his God. But those MPs such as Aneesa Ahmed who is there purely because the hard-working people of the Meemu Atoll were arm twisted into voting for her, have absolutely no respect for the Meemu Atoll people in behaving in this manner in the Special Majlis.

How could the DRP justify their behaviour? The answer is they cannot. The Maldives is NOT a democracy and this is how things work in a dictatorship.