‘No matter the courage, you can’t squeeze orange juice from an orange’: MP Ziyad slams government’s constant policy shifts

MP for Vaikaradhoo, Hussain Ziyad, has sharply criticised the government’s frequent policy reversals, saying the 20th Parliament is doing nothing but lifting President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s “wet box”. Speaking during Monday’s parliamentary session on a government-sponsored bill to amend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law concerning foreign booking platforms, travel agents and tour operators, Ziyad said that no matter how much courage one shows, “you cannot squeeze orange juice from an orange”. He accused the government of making changes to suit the President’s whims and questioned why a policy that was good yesterday is wrong today. Ziyad also highlighted stalled development projects in the constituency of the bill’s proposer, Ibrahim Didi of Kolamafushi, including an unfinished sewerage system and halted land reclamation work. He argued that such instability is eroding public trust and warned that if laws change as often as the wind between monsoons, people will never have confidence in the government.