Mention the Maldives, and an image of an idyllic holiday paradise, clear blue water, pristine beaches and luxury resorts comes to mind. The Indian Ocean archipelago with a population of little more than 300,000 rarely features on the world's political agenda. On February 7, however, the tiny nation was gripped by political turmoil as its nascent democracy was strangled in its infancy. Mohamed Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically-elected president, was forced to resign at gunpoint by a cabal of rebel police, Islamists, and his own deputy, with the former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom pulling the strings.
This was a coup, yet it has been accepted as a legitimate transfer of power. Reactions from around the world have been astonishing in their weakness. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake visiting Male merely said "some people say it was a coup, some people say it was a peaceful and constitutional transfer of power. That is not for the U.S. to decide, that is for the Maldivians." Yet, even the new president's own brother Naushad Waheed Hassan resigned from his position as Acting High Commissioner of the Maldives in the United Kingdom stating, "I cannot serve a regime that brought down the democratically-elected government in a coup d'etat" saying to his brother, "[D]o the right thing -- resign and hold fresh elections. Let the people of Maldives decide."
Nasheed, 44, is no stranger to political struggle. For more than three decades, Gayoom ruled the country with an iron fist, every bit an archetypal dictator. Corrupt and brutal, he did not hesitate to jail and torture his opponents. Educated abroad, Nasheed was first imprisoned in 1990, for an article accusing Gayoom of rigging the previous year's election. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience. Over the next 16 years, Nasheed was arrested 12 times, tortured, jailed for over six years, kept in solitary confinement for 18 months and detained under house arrest.
In 2003, Nasheed founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), which grew into a powerful political force in opposition to Gayoom's dictatorship. Just three years later, Nasheed was released from house arrest and in 2008, the country's first free and fair multi-party elections were held. Nasheed won, ending Gayoom's 30 years of dictatorship.
As president, Nasheed set about cleaning up the country's corrupt institutions, instituting democracy and fighting climate change. Greeted as a hero by environmentalists for his efforts to secure an agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen summit, he warned that the Maldives would cease to exist due to rising water levels if the issue was not tackled. He became a role model for democratic transition in the Muslim world, and was a precursor to the Arab Spring.
It was his determined effort to take on vested interests in the Maldives, however, that led to his downfall. The judiciary is stacked with Gayoom's appointees, who have done everything they could to obstruct reform and protect corrupt members of the old regime. A month ago, he ordered the arrest of Abdullah Mohamed, chief judge of the criminal court, on charges of corruption and political bias. The judge had a track record failing to follow the law, and now it was their turn to protect him. Demonstrations began, stirred up by Islamists who see Nasheed as too liberal.
It all came to a head on February 7. Police stormed the MDP headquarters, attacking members and looting and burning property. Security forces seized control of the state television station, renaming it "Television Maldives (TVM)," the name it had in Gayoom's day. And they stormed the National Museum, destroying numerous Buddhist artifacts from the Maldives' pre-Islamic era. After a night of violence, more than a dozen armed men stormed the president's office the following morning and told him at gunpoint if he didn't sign a resignation letter, they would take up arms. Just after midday, he was frogmarched to a press conference by Mohamed Nazim, a former Army colonel he had sacked from his government and who is now the Defense Minister in the new regime. Nasheed announced his resignation, saying he wanted to avoid further bloodshed. He was then held incommunicado for a day so the rebels could claim the transfer of power was legitimate.
If this is not a coup, what is? Whatever criticisms there may be of Nasheed, and there is an appropriate debate to be had about whether he was right to arrest the judge, forcing a democratically-elected president from office under the threat of violence can never be justified.
The world's failure to stand up to all this must be corrected. These events must be recognized as a coup, and appropriate action taken. The United Nations should immediately demand the Maldives agree to an independent investigation of what occurred. The United States should impose the sanctions that are automatically triggered by law when a military coup overthrows a democratically-elected government. Pressure should be mounted to ensure Nasheed's security and liberty. And fresh elections should be held within a few months, with Nasheed and his party free to contest them. The new regime should be granted no legitimacy - only once the people of the Maldives have had their say can the international community recognize the country's government as legitimate.
The Maldives may be a small country, but there is a big principle at stake. It cannot be in the international community's interests to allow six years of democratic transition to be undone in a few hours.
Jared Genser is a human-rights lawyer and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Benedict Rogers is Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission in the United Kingdom. He visited Mohamed Nasheed in 2006, when he was under house arrest as opposition leader, and campaigned for his release.
who said it is a coup.
The commonwealth team's finding was inconclusive. so please stop saying it is a coup government. once a decision is
on the table declaring it as a coup government Maldivians truly will accept it.
There are Maldivians who back the current government who came to power once President Nasheed resigned in front of
media.
since then, he came up lots of stories to tell people ( his supporters) that he was forced to resign. Please go back
and see what he has done during his 3 years as President. He was elected as democratic leader but he barely showed
it to the People. People who voted for a change were disappointed with his actions. Now he should stop talking on
behalf of all Maldivians, I wont mind him saying on behalf of his supporters cos i do not agree that he has got
support of whole Maldives.
Even if he is re-elected we will respect him cos we respect democracy but please stop calling for violence and
elections.
Cant he wait for 2013. we want peace and harmony, not a bunch of people who gathers everynight and use false
languages. When they are practicing their rights at the expense of others we do not believe that its democratic..
So i here by urge to verify all of this, from the relevant authories, such Elections commission, human rights commission, the parliment president, judicial service commission, auditor general, anti corruption commssion... just
by listening to Nasheed cannot bring out a report.. we need to know there's always two sides to a coin. so pls pls, times of india, the guardian, Sunday times, Forbes, the economist, AP, Reuters, or any other international media... see these facts before writing up your reports...
Thank You!
While in power had given many unlawful and unconstitutional acts, such as the lock down of the supreme courts,
disobeying to court rulings, employing corrupt people around his, not obeying guidance from independent institutions .. such as Anti Corruption Commission, Human Rights Commission, Auditor general, continued to go on this...
then, mass protests went on street for a 22 day period [till 7th February], due to kidnapping of supreme court judge by the police and keeping him in isolation in a military island, not allowing him to meet his family...police were given orders to forcefully to disperse protests in this 22 day protests.. gave orders to allow MDP activists to attack the protesters protesting against Nasheed. the police were upset for this, they joined the protesters. btw the constitution allows, the police just like any other individual to peacefully protest, and not obey unlawful orders from any one under any circumstance.. all of this lead to the fall of Nasheed, and his regime...
Pls read my small text here. I just want to describe you the facts on ground about Mohamaed Nasheed (the former president),
(1) has no respect for the law, the constitution, and enforcement authorities of the this country
(2) has no respect for (a) parliament (b) the judiciary. pls see headlines before 7th September for details
(3) his party is not even democratic. none of the senior leaders are elected. are being called for violence. put fire on public properties including a dozen police stations and a dozen court houses. Nasheed made no public
condemnation on these illicit and barbaric acts of his supporters.
Nasheeed in past has been jailed on a number of occasion while calling for democracy, and for which he got a lot of support.
in the first round of presidential elections Nasheed got only 25% of voting. in the second round he formed coalition with most of the member in the current government including Waheed, and he got 52 percent in this round [source: Elections Commission of the Maldives]
1. To prevent the Country from chaos and avoid pressure from the International community. ( 07.02.2012)
2. He was forced to resign at gun point. (08.02.2012)
3. In order to have a mid term election which he promised the country before he came to power. (09.02.2012)
4. Government was overthrown by a coup organised by Yameen and Gasim (10.02.2012).
5. Because of his calls for drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions, was forced to resign—at gunpoint - NGC
(09.02.2012).
6. Sheikh Ilyas gave a religious speech turned police and MNDF to an Angry Mob, forcing him to resign (27.02.2012).
waiting for more.................
Many of us who actually live and work in the Maldives do feel considerable frustration that some international commentators seem more intent on peddling a partisan and demonstrably inaccurate line than helping us learn from the last three years and to move forward as a united nation. As I write this I am watching on the TV the attempts by the MDP to prevent the President exercising his constitutional duty to address that Peoples Majilis at the start of its new session. It does not fill me with confidence that they are prepared to put aside self interest for the good of the country. I hope they will.
• President Nasheed was not ‘held incommunicado’ after his resignation. He certainly disappeared from view for a day-I guess he had a lot of explaining to do to the many hundreds of government political appointees that now found themselves out of work. And of course he had to come up with his story that he ‘was forced to resign at gunpoint’. Incidentally even Mr. Nasheed now seems to have stopped repeating this mistruth…
I have only corrected some of the most glaring inaccuracies and omissions. And there is much that I haven’t mentioned in detail such as the millions of ruffias worth of damage that have been done to our country’s precious assets in MDP provoked violence in Addu city .
Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to have different interpretations about the events leading up to February 7th (which is why the National Unity Government has set up an Independent investigation-with international assistance to consider this) it is not acceptable to misrepresent the facts.
• It is ironic that reference is made to the ‘security forces seizing control of the state TV station’ when under Mr. Nasheed any semblance of its political impartiality had been lost.
• To suggest that the security forces also ‘stormed the national museum destroying numerous Buddhist artifacts’ is a new one on me. Presumably the intent is to conjure up comparisons with the Taliban and the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Well it’s not true. And as to the actual culprits? Well it now appears that it was more likely to be a gang of opportunistic and mindless vandals who were taking advantage of the disturbances prior to the 7th October
• If it were true that ‘a dozen armed men stormed the president’s office the following morning….etc etc’(which it isn’t) they would have been disappointed - he wasn’t there. He was actually (by his own choice) at the HQ of the Maldives National Defence Force. This was just before he drove to his office to meet with his cabinet where he informed them of his decision to resign. He then announced this resignation-live on TV-surrounded by his staff and cabinet. He was clearly not under duress.
• Mr. Nasheed has achieved celebrity status amongst some environmentalists and he deserves credit for raising awareness of issues surrounding climate change. But this does not excuse his autocratic and unconstitutional behavior on the domestic front. It was galling for many Maldivians that some commentators in the West turned a blind eye to his misbehaviors at home because of his international profile about an issue –climate change - that they felt strongly about. And yes we care about it too.
• The introduction of democracy to a country is more of a process than a single event. And of course there is room for improvement in all the institutions that make up our young democracy. But if you don’t get your own way you don’t arrest someone, lock them up incommunicado and refuse to release them despite being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court. Rather you should seek to unite the country around your vision of democracy and move forward as a united people.
• It is simply an untruth to suggest that ‘demonstrations began, stirred up by Islamists’ following the arrest of Chief Judge Abdullah. The coalition protesting at this injustice involved the eight leading opposition parties in the Maldives-including many former supporters of Mr.Nasheed. Once termed ‘moderates’ by Mr Nasheed (until his behavior drove them out of the coalition) he now terms them as ‘extremists’
I am a Maldivian and I live here as well. Let me try and respond to some of the points that the authors make:
• Mr.Nasheed did indeed win the presidential election in 2008-in the second round. Crucially he needed the support of a coalition of parties to secure victory. A coalition that started to disintegrate within days of him actually coming to power. Governing by consensus or respecting a democratic constitution does not come naturally to Mr. Nasheed as his coalition partners soon found out.
• Mr. Nasheed, amongst others less well known, played an honorable role in the struggle for democracy in the Maldives. And he suffered for his beliefs and actions. The article refers to the previous regime’s habit of jailing its opponents. This makes it all the more regrettable that similar tactics were used by Mr. Nasheed with regards to his political opponents-My Qasim, Mr Yameen and Dr. Jameel (three times)
CONTINUES...
This HuffPost is the best I have seen for a World Citizen to understand the Maldives at present. It is readable and places all aspects of the case very fairly before the reader without that pretense of impartiality that obscures the crucial aspects in a 15 minutes read. The Situation is of Universal Significance.
The one thing that is glossed over is the economic mess that the average Maldivian is faced with. This is because Nasheed is too much an idealist and dreamer. He did not come come down hard enough on those who have entrenched themselves in the system, and he himself got surrounded by self-seeking sycophants. For half a century now, leaders in Sri Lanka have been "getting opponents disappeared". The World must respect Anni for not having emulated his neighbours in Sri Lanka. But Anni must understand that he cannot run a country only on respect and idealism. The economic mess is unfair by Average Maldivians.
Let us hope that events in the Maldives usher in a "South Asian Spring". Regard the sad plight of Human Rights in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand and even prosperous Malaysia.
Defense Minister Tholhath who was outrage and frustrated shot tear gas canister against Police. That's where things got escalated. No one in army wants to confront Police, neither does Police. Army denied any further unnecessary confrontations and bloodshed, then joined Police. That's when our President decided he has failed and he suggested himself to resign. There are audio tapes and stuff leaked which will confirm this. His first statement after resignation was different than the second one, the third one, fourth, fifth ... so on and so forth.
I condemn Police brutal crackdown on February 8th against pro Nasheed protesters.