Tourism officials describe the Maldives as "the sunny side of life," but for those of us who live there, an archipelago nation of 1,200 coral islands off the southern tip of India, there is a dark side to paradise. This weekend, pro-democracy activists hijacked a government tourism campaign, tweeting that for its inhabitants, the "sunny side of life" is laced with blood, tear gas and brutal police crackdowns.
I was fortunate to be voted into office as the Maldives' first democratically elected president in 2008, ending 30 years of one-man rule by former president Gayoom. But in February this year, I resigned from office, following a police and military mutiny and threats from armed soldiers that they would harm me, my family, and my supporters if I did not step down within the hour. My Vice President, Mohamed Waheed Hassan, who I believe had prior knowledge of this coup d'état, quickly assumed office and stacked his administration with figures from the country's authoritarian past.
Since February, the Maldives has been in a political tailspin: the new regime has launched a violent crackdown, arresting over 700 pro-democracy activists who have been protesting for early elections and the restoration of democratic rule; Amnesty International has condemned the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments against detainees, particularly women; while Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists has decried an erosion of press freedom.
The regime has even arrested witnesses, including Members of Parliament and a former police intelligence chief, who have testified before a Commission of National Inquiry tasked with investigating February's coup. The European Union, India, and the Commonwealth, which represents 54 countries, have all demanded early elections but Waheed refuses to heed the will of the international community, or his own people.
The nation's economy has fared little better than its politics. My administration, with the help of the IMF, managed to reduce the budget deficit from 22% of GDP in 2009 to 9% last year. But since the coup, and the ensuing chaos on the streets, tourists numbers have fallen while Waheed has been forced to reward those who put him in power, with huge tax breaks for wealthy businessmen and fat pay raises for the security forces. As a result, the country is sliding towards bankruptcy, while vital public services such as universal health insurance are being slashed.
On Sunday, Waheed's regime announced it would press criminal charges against me for ordering the arrest of a judge in January. The judge in question, Abdullah Mohamed, stood accused of abuse of office, corruption, political bias and, in one notorious incident, instructed a small girl to act out the sex abuse she had suffered, in open court and in front of the accused. Mohamed was detained by the military after he quashed his own police arrest warrant, and used his position on the bench to halt an official investigation into his own misconduct. I know of no democracy that would passively condone such unlawful actions by a judge.
Waheed's Home Minister, Mohamed Jameel, who promised shortly after the coup that I would spend the rest of my life behind bars, has described the charges against me as "historic" and said it is the government's "first step towards national healing." I was recently elected as my party's candidate for the next presidential election. But if I am convicted of these charges -- which is a given, considering the political bias of the judiciary -- I will conveniently be barred from standing against Waheed or his allies in any forthcoming poll.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, which last week grilled the Maldives on its poor human rights record, had this to say of the judiciary:
The Committee is deeply concerned about the state of the judiciary in the Maldives. The State has admitted that this body's independence is seriously compromised. The Committee has said the judiciary is desperately in need of more serious training, and higher standards of qualification... This must be done to guarantee just trials, and fair judgments for the people of Maldives.
The Maldives is a small, far-flung country. There are few foreign embassies based here, and even fewer international journalists. As such, it is difficult for us to highlight just how bad things have become. I encourage the international media, diplomats and human rights organizations to visit the Maldives and conduct their own independent assessments of the situation. I also implore the international community to apply diplomatic pressure upon the regime to restore genuine democracy.
As Waheed's legitimacy sinks further with each passing week, and the country becomes increasingly unstable, I fear there can be one of only two outcomes: either Waheed recognises domestic and international pressure and agrees to hold early elections; or he resorts to increasingly desperate, unlawful and violent measures to maintain his grip on power.
I sincerely hope Waheed chooses to relent and hold early elections; not because my career or my presidency is of particular importance but because Maldivians, just like people everywhere, have the right to be ruled not through coercion, down the barrel of a gun, but peacefully, by popular consent via the ballot box. There can be no other source of a ruler's legitimacy.
Follow Mohamed Nasheed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MohamedNasheed
One of the problems with politicians such as this, is that while they speak out against something (in this case Global Warning) they pocket $ from those that think they are helping. There are plenty of articles in addition to those I posted (google Maldives corruption)
I fear we will never return.
The increased feeling of hatred from the bureaucrats upon entering Male and the news reports of the Islamists taking control will not allow me to put my three daughters and my wife in harms way... real or perceived.
This make me sad and I hope that Muslims around the world will find a common thread that can lead to a reformation that will control the extreme members of your religion. Islam like many other religions needs to find a way to co-exist with the modern world.
His film the island president originally was created as the active president documentary, later he changed to a film about Maldives Environment, just because he was expecting international award. May I ask from the journalists what he have done to protect our enviroment? Nasheed destroyed our Country Economy, our Future, our Nationality, our Religion, our Culture. That is the reason Maldivian forced him to resign from his office on 7th Feb 2012.
After resigning he is playing every day drama and gathering drama slides near the Military boundary. And taking gathered evidence to Amnesty, European Union, UN agencies, His journalists are paid from the Christian missionaries and the bribes President has taken from Indian businesses like GMR, TATA. The truth is he was organizational a dictator and Christian missionary agent behind the Maldivian identity.
"The vandalism was reminiscent of the Taliban’s demolition of the great carved Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001, and it has raised fears here that extremists are gaining ground in the Maldives, a Sunni Muslim country that historians say converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century. The country has incorporated elements of Islamic law into its jurisprudence for years. Idols cannot be brought into the country, for example, and alcohol and pork products are allowed only at resorts that cater to foreigners."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/world/asia/political-turmoil-threatens-archaeological-treasures-in-maldives.html
When the fellow across the street -- who was a member of the Majlis chamber -- fell off this bicycle and broke the head of his femur, I was called over to see if I couldn't help him with the pain as it cost too much to fly to Sri Lanka to have it set. I had just gotten into acupuncture as a way to keep my health together as I went across Asia and his son came over and said that his father couldn't stand the pain any more and was asking the son to kill him. Was there anything I could do?
I had no idea but I had a good book on how to deal with various problems. In this case it meant inserting a 4 inch needle in the buttock which I'd never done, but I gave it a try while the whole family stood around and watched. After some minutes the father said, "Barabara" (good) and everybody gave a sigh of relief, especially me! The bone never healed right so when the father walked again he was kind of dumpy as one leg was shorter than the other, but he lived without pain and could again ride his bicycle.
Memories of peaceful, beautiful, Maldives still come to mind, but they're only memories.
Nasheed should explain to the world social media, why he closed Supreme Court by ordering his military? Closed judiciary ? His party parliament leader opened a court on the road in front of the school children and the drug dealers? Why he gave the only international airport to GMR after taking 27million as bribe for his party against our law?
From the first day he came to the power he started selling Government Companies, and giving all the islands to his activists for FREE, he started giving free visa for all the Christian missionaries, free visa for Taliban activists and gave permission for them to hold their meeting at the resorts. Started ruling the country with iron bars; he started opening Bars in a Muslim country, night clubs, allowing prostitutes to opened massage clubs in front of the mosques.
Before he came to the power he called the tourist boycuts, during his Presidency he called the tourists boycots, said he is going to buy one land for Maldivian and our islands will disappear soon. Now after resignation he is calling tourists to boycotts Maldives. We must put him behind the bars as soon as possible. International community must come and visit the Maldives and experiences the situation and learn his 3 years of ruling.
Dr. Waheed elected 2008 with Nasheed as his Vice President, according to the new constitution if the President resigns, automatically vice President must take the oath.
Nasheed gave about 400 islands to his friends without even charging land rents, the most corrupted president we have ever seen our history. Daylight robbery cases at his office under Privatization Committee, he was the chair of the committee. He changed dollar rates and now Maldivians' are suffering from foreign exchange, and after 30 years of Gayyoom ruling we have to buy dollars from black market just because suddenly Nasheed increased dollar to 15.42 from 12.85. Due to this issues now dollars are exchanged from the black market at 18.00MVR per 1$, due to this baby foods gone up, fuel gone up, water and electricity gone 40% up. when he resigned from office over 2.5billion unpaid bills kept without accounting.
OTOH how big is the Maldives military? Our last big win was against Grenada. A win might just make us feel proud to be 'merricans again.