The Maldives right now is moving towards establishing a liberal democracy. In this transition the only way forward is to maintain adopt a democracy in line with our  ethnic, cultural, and religious  standards.

Two Maldivian Democratic Party MPS Mariya Didi and Ahmed Adil  attended the UK conservative Party’s Spring Conference following the technical support agreement brokered by Maldivian Democratic Communication Officer Adam Cooper(one may wonder about the shocking moral short coming of MDP as a political party when they decided to employ a western foreigner in the party) and the conservative party. The trip is said to have two broad aims. That is to develop political contacts and increase the profile of MDP within the Conservative Party; and to learn from the methods employed by the Conservative Party to develop and publicise new policy[1]. This was followed by another interaction between the two parties when MDP Chairperson Mohamed Nasheed led a delegation to the United Kingdom recently to help and learn from the Conservative Party local elections campaign.

Further to this; Conservative Party International Office and Chairman of the Conservative Human Rights Commission  Gary Streeter visited  Maldives and spend three day meetings with officials and members of the Maldivian Democratic Party. The most recent venture between the two party is; the Conservative Party officials came all the way from UK to Maldives to conduct a training workshop. The workshop held in a lavish resort is named as ‘The Leadership Retreat’.  The workshop is about structuring of the party, party promotion; and campaign strategies  for winning the next election. The main focus according to Ubaidulla Muaz is about winning all future elections. The 22 MDP participants only and exclusively comprised of  the powerful elites of the party. No ordinary members were given the chance to participate which ultimately is for the best anyway. 

These activities are some of the work  undertaken by UK Conservatives after the agreement made between the two parties in February 2007 to establish the formal working relationship. Reflecting on this brings  disturbing thoughts. What will Maldives be under MDP after receiving Conservative Party training in capacity building  and party structuring [2].

Before contemplating on this issue it is important to know about UK conservatives. The UK conservative party is a political party that stopped winning elections because of their local level elite conservative policies and the parties elite ideology. The incumbent 'old guard' method of conservative party is said to be responsible for the party’s failure. The party lost the last two elections to labour and the next election in 2009 is said to be looking bleak and  even worse for the Conservatives than before. Tories continue to be famously known as "Right Wing", obstinate, and insular as they were formerly,[3]

The party since formation is associated with strong right wing ideologies. In advanced liberal democracies, perhaps more than anything else the right has been defined in opposition to social democracy. As a result, the ideologies and philosophies of right-wing political parties have included elements of conservatism, Christian democracy, self identified ideologies of nationalism; and for extreme-right parties racism and fascism[4]. Furthermore the conservative party of UK  is based on the values of  old established form of Englishness and,  the British conservative identities. It reflected the attitudes of rich elite land owning class, and championed in the institutions of the monarchy, and imperialism. The partys’ idealogy is based on strong chrisitan values and saw the Anglican chruch responsible for and as the best defence of the social order. In the early stages of the party it seemed to be totally opposed to any process that seemed to undermine the old traditional christian values and the new industrial elite that influenced United Kingdom were seen by many conservatives also known as Tories as enemies to their elite imperial social order.

MDP is happily with total disregard is been mentored by this party; a party whose guiding principles include promotion of private property and enterprise, maintenance, and preservation of traditional English cultural values and institutions based on strong Christian standards. The Conservative Party and its  appeal to the urban elite upper  classes and many other negatives as such associated with the Party has caused a brand contamination of the party over the years and it has lost the trust of the majority of the voting population of the middle class and lower class citizens of UK. The failure of the Tories to make a net advance and take in the dynamics of the UK society in the political environment despite having a young leader as David Cameron lies in the central fact that no matter what the Tories promise they fail to attract voters anymore. The 2005 defeat in the election was mainly to those reasons. In 1997, the Conservatives secured 30.7 per cent of the vote. In 2001, 31.7; in 2005, 32.3 per cent. At this rate of increase, it is said that it will be the year 2037 before the Tories can even hope to form a parliamentary majority to form a government. The majority of Conservative voters were the faithful elderly, population with strong English old school values. It is said that currently if the Conservative Party support for a policy it actually puts people off it. So the people reject and withdraw their support if they know that the Conservatives are behind[5].

In literature on democratic transition and consolidation there is widespread agreement that political parties and party systems must play a vital role in not only democratic values, but cultural and religious values that develops following the transition process. Particular qualities individual parties should have, is of utmost importance to preserve our culture, our religion. The context of  western elite driven conservative values of UK conservatives holds no appeal to Maldivian. The fact of the matter is as a British political  party  the Conservatives no longer hold any appeal in their own  diversified multicultural United Kingdom. So what on earth is MDP doing by establishing a teacher pupil relation ship with a party that is still regarded as out of date and a party that  has not even an ounce of understanding of what the average Maldivian wants. The driven ideology of British Conservative party and their training of these MDP members of high profile and the ideology of the training these members will receive is very far fetched from our transition process. It is terrifying to imagine what will happen to our Traditional Muslim Maldivian Society. This is more than enough for any Maldivian to want to shun the Maldivian Democratic Party and run away as fast as they could to another alternative party option. There is no way the Maldivian can relate to a conservative brain washed  MDP with its repeated alliances as such.

What is the solution to this problem?. The Maldivian Democratic Party needs to sufficiently disentangle itself from the Conservatives to avoid institutionalization of the British Conservative  features. The main reason is institutionalization of individual parties and the values and method they adopt will relate itself, impact and reflect on the kind of party system and institutionalization we will have in our country. We definitely do not want the conservative right wing ideology to find its way  into our young democratic political system[6]. An area of conflict could arise when a major source of institutional strength for a party is its identification with an exclusive ethnic or cultural grouping that is totally different from the Maldivian origin. This will also detract from the competitiveness of the party system; and it is also likely, that significant social sectors are excluded not only from power but from any meaningful party representation.

The party system as a whole will be lacking in responsiveness or adaptability to the Maldives way, which will undermine popular trust in MDP. As a political party this alliance with UK conservatives can have very bad consequences for MDP in terms of success; credibility and durability of the party. The  ultimate consequence for the Maldivian if MDP does not change their ways and who they associates with could be;  repression of secular cultural, religious, political  viewpoints of the Maldivian  by MDP in favour of the British  Conservative Party  politics and the western way. Before these episodes of alliances affect the mentality of the people MDP need to work heard on improving their damaged  image and representation as a Maldives Political Party that embodies the ethnic cultural and religious  values of the society .