President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s Special Advisor, Dr Hassan Saeed, has said in a second leaked audio clip that given the current situation in the Maldives, the change of government on February 7 was “a new kind of coup”.
In the audio clip, said to be recorded while he was speaking to the Maldivian students in the UK, Saeed states: ʺThis is how we observe coups in practice. So the Maldives [case] has become a new category of coup. You have a coup. Within twenty four hours you have the deposed President campaigning in the media with full protection.”
ʺSo, we have to add another new category of coup to the normal definition. Obviously this is different, different than the [coups] that I know of,” Saeed continues.
“The way the person who assumed power came in after the coup was different in this case. The way we treat a deposed President after a coup has also changed.”
At the end of the clip, Saeed suggests that the events of February 7 was a contribution from the Maldives to political science.
Dr Saeed and Dr Waheed’s Press Secretary, Masood Imad, had not responded to calls at time of press.
However speaking to local newspaper Haveeru, Saeed dismissed the claims that his remarks were an admission that the change of government was a coup.
“If it was a coup that was brought in the Maldives, then it is a new type of coup,” he told Haveeru.
ʺFor an example, after the coup in Pakistan, Bhutto [father of Benazir Bhutto] was hanged. After the Libya revolution, Gaddafi was killed. In Philippines, Marcos [Ferdinand] fled the country. But in the case of Maldives, I said such occurrences did not take place.
“If the change of government happened via a coup, the current president gets the protection of police and the military. Cabinet meetings are held. The President is able to meet the public. The former President gets protection. He is able to live within the people. Therefore if it was a coup, then it’s a whole new type of coup,ʺ Saeed told Haveeru.
In another leaked audio recording yesterday, Dr Saeed described Dr Waheed as “politically the weakest person in the Maldives” with “a lot of legitimacy issues”.
Following that leak, President Waheed’s Press Secretary told Minivan News that Dr Saeed has said he “had been played” and that the recording had been “taken out of context”.
Dr Saeed was the former Attorney General during Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom’s administration, before he resigned to contest the presidential election in 2008.
He came third in the race, but joined Mohamed Nasheed in the second round and became his special advisor after Nasheed won the presidency. He subsequently left the government and joined the opposition.
Transcript – Dr Hassan Saeed:
ʺCoup, most recently we saw the Egypt coup, Mubarak was ousted. Tunisia had a coup recently, and after that Gaddafi. If we even go further back, the case of Marcos [Ferdinand Marcos] of Philippines, he fled the country.
This is how we observe coups in practice. So the Maldives [case] has become a new category of coup. You have a coup. Within twenty four hours you have the deposed president campaign in the media with full protection.
When all these things happen, in parallel, the next president came in to power through a constitutional route. This is a unique case, which we have got to study ourselves.
So, we have to add another new category of coup to the normal definition. Obviously this is different, different than the things [coups] that I know of. This is different from the normal examples I know of.
And, the way the person who assumed power came in after the coup was different in this case. The way we treat a deposed president after a coup has also changed.
Actually, a Maldivian contribution to what type of science is this? Political science?
The thing is, this is a new case, this is a case that has to be studied.ʺ
![](https://minivannewsarchive.com/cmsMUIH10/wp-content/plugins/like-dislike-counter-for-posts-pages-and-comments/images/up.png)
![](https://minivannewsarchive.com/cmsMUIH10/wp-content/plugins/like-dislike-counter-for-posts-pages-and-comments/images/down.png)