Category: Society & Culture

President Waheed appoints housing, environment ministers

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan has appointed Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed as Islamic Minister, and Dr Mohamed Muiz as Environment Minister.

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s daughter, Dhunya Maumoon, was also appointed State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Sheikh Shaheem was ranked one of the world’s top 500 most influential Muslims in 2010 by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISC) in the Kingdom of Jordan.

He resigned from his post as State Minister of Islamic Affairs under former President Mohamed Nasheed’s government, in December 2010.

His resignation followed the burning of the Israeli flag in Republic Square over opposition to a visiting delegation of Israeli eye surgeons, whom Islamic NGOs had accused of coming to the Maldivies to illegally harvest organs. Shaheem was one of the speakers at the event, along with current Vice President of Gayoom’s Progressive Party of he Maldives (PPM), Umar Naseer, voicing anger at the acceptance of aid from Israel.

Former Press Secretary for Nasheed, Mohamed Zuhair, told Minivan News at the time that in light of a recent number of protests against government policy allegedly involving Shaheem, “it was possible that the State Minister may have decided his position was untenable”.

Sheikh Shaheem was subsequently employed as a lecturer at Villa College, owned by Jumhoree Party (JP) MP and resort tycoon Gasim Ibrahim.

Shaheem has been an outspoken proponent of the study of comparative religion at higher secondary level, stating that “it is important for both Muslims and non-Muslims to compare their religions and cultures, and to compare philosophies.”

However he also warned against a move by the Education Ministry to make Islam and Dhivehi optional at higher secondary level.

Presenting himself as the face of moderate Islam in the Maldives, in early 2010 he became the first Islamic scholar from the Ministry to visit the UK with a government delegation.

He attended discussions on counter-terrorism with a range of relevant authorities, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Cabinet Office, Home Office and heads of counter-terrorism in the Justice Ministry, and met with Abbas Faiz of Amnesty International.

“The main objective was to discuss rapidly growing concerns around extremism and terrorism with relevant stakeholders in the UK,” Shaheem told Minivan News at the time: “There was a lot of discussion on ideas, such as how to fight ideologies and radical ideas. It was a very nice trip.”

More recently, he was accused of sexual misconduct in a video broadcast by Raajje TV, although the allegations were never clarified as Raajje TV claimed the station could not release further footage “in the interest of public decency”.

Shaheem responded at the time that he did “not wish to comment on matters regarding my private life while I am waiting for evidence. I will issue my comment when the time is appropriate.”

Cabinet appointments

All but a few of the cabinet ministers remain to be appointed by President Dr Waheed, and will need approval from parliament when it resumes on March 1.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has accused Dr Waheed of replacing the cabinet with mostly Gayoom supporters and senior opposition figures, particularly to the positions of Defence Minister (Mohamed Nazim), Police Commissioner (Abdulla Riyaz), Youth/Human Resources Ministry (Mohamed ‘Mundu’ Shareef, Gayoom’s spokesperson), Attorney General (Azima Shukoor, Gayoom’s lawyer), and Home Minister (DQP member Dr Mohamed Jameel).

Dr Waheed has dismissed the claims as misleading, saying that “Anything other than President Mohamed Nasheed’s government is now being painted as the old government, as a return to the old regime. In this country most of us grew up and got education during the last 33 years, and most of the well educated people in this country worked in government. The government was the biggest employer in the country and continues to be so.

“Therefore don’t be surprised that some people served in President Gayoom’s government. That doesn’t mean that anyone seen in the last 33 years has allegiance to a particular person. This is a very narrow way of looking at it. If you look at cabinet you can see I have been very careful in my selections.”

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Three injured, one dead in stabbing attacks

One person is dead and three were injured following a series of stabbings in the Maldives capital Male’ last night.

A 21 year-old man, identified as Abdul Muheeth of G. Veyru, was rushed to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) after he was stabbed at 1:45am near the Finance Ministry building. He later died during treatment.

A second victim, a 43 year-old man, was also attacked at 1:45am by two men on a motorcycle.

A 17 year-old man was also seriously injured after he was stabbed at 7:40pm, and is being treated in IGMH.

The fourth stabbing victim was a Sri Lankan man who was also attacked by two men on a motorcycle.

“Police are trying to find out how this happened,” said Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam.

“There have been no serious stabbings for a long time and all of a sudden this happened in one night. We are trying to determine the motive behind it.”

A spate of stabbings in early 2011 that resulted in the deaths of several young men were blamed by police on gang related activity. Following a police crackdown, relatively few violent attacks were reported for the remainder of the year.

Shiyam said it was too early for police to determine if last night’s stabbings were gang related, or connected to the ongoing political turmoil in the country.

No arrests have been made so far, although police have seized a motorcycle in connection with the investigation, reports local media.

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Comment: Operation Haram to Halal – the Islamist role in replacing Nasheed with Waheed

‘Since Mohamed Nasheed of Kenereege who held the post of the President of the Maldives is an anti-Islamic, corrupt, authoritarian, and violent individual who abused the Constitution; and given that Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik is the man to steer the country to a safe harbour, the Consultative Committee of Adhaalath Party has taken the unanimous decision to pledge allegiance to Dr Waheed and to support his government until 2013’. – Adhaalath Party, 7 February 2012

Maldivian Islamists played an instrumental role in the events of 7 February 2012, which forced the country’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Nasheed to ‘resign.’ Coup Deniers and followers of Islamists vehemently object to any such claim. The Islamists themselves, however, have been very public, and very publicly proud, of the ‘religious duty’ they performed by facilitating the removal from power of Nasheed – in their opinion an anti-Islamic heretic.

This is clear from the many proclamations and announcements they made in the lead up to and in the aftermath of Nasheed’s ‘resignation’. Having declared Nasheed a heretic on 7 February, Adhaalath Party put out a press release on 8 February, the worst day of violence since transition to democracy. It called on people to stand up against Nasheed, “with swords and guns” if needs be. Any Maldivian who failed to do so was a sinner, and had no right to live in the country. Fight Nasheed or emigrate; Jihad against him or be eternally damned, it said. The ‘truth’ of their words was bolstered by selective quotations from Islamic teachings. Accepting Waheed—”a just ruler”—was portrayed as a religious duty of Maldivian Muslims.

Replacing Nasheed with Waheed, the ‘haram’ president with the ‘halal’ president, appears to be what Adhaalath President Sheikh Imran Abdulla referred to on 31 January as ‘Phase Two’ of ‘the work we have been doing until today.’ What was the work Adhaalath and its allies had been doing until then?

Setting the stage: grooming the population

Out of necessity, Nasheed had to include Adhaalath Party in the coalition government he put together in 2008. To put it mildly, the liberal minded president and the ultra-conservative Adhaalath Party had nothing in common. Despite the frequent clashes over various issues—selling alcohol on inhabited islands, making Islam an optional rather than a compulsory subject in secondary school, introduction of ‘religious unity regulations’, provision of land for an Islamic College in Male’—Nasheed had no choice but to stick to his coalition agreement. The turbulent political marriage of convenience came to an end only in September 2011 when Adhaalath voted to sever the coalition agreement citing Nasheed’s lack of cooperation in its efforts to ‘strengthen’ Islam in the Maldives.

In the intervening period, driven by pragmatic reasons and by an oversimplified belief that freedom of expression is sacrosanct—no matter what the consequences—Nasheed failed to impose any restrictions on the increasingly extremist and hardline rhetoric of the Islamists. With Adhaalath’s Dr Abdul Majid Abdul Bari at the helm of the Islamic Ministry, radical preachers from abroad and from within the country were given free-reign, and funds from the public coffer, to address the Maldivian population. 2010 saw, for example, the Indian televangelist Dr Zakir Naik, as well as Jamaican Dr Bilal Philips and British Sheikh Abdurraheem Green address the Maldivian public. In addition to the foreign preachers, Maldivian missionaries trained at madhrasaas in Pakistan and ultra-conservative schools and universities in India, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere bombarded Maldivians with radical rhetoric from every available public platform.

Anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and intolerance of other religions became a part of daily discourse, broadcast on national television, played incessantly in public spaces from taxis and ferries to loudspeakers on the streets. Close to 90 percent of books stocked in most Maldivian bookshops during this period came to be those authored by the extremists whose words were designed to influence every little detail of a Maldivian’s life from toilet to conjugal relations. While extremist literature flourished and their voice took over the public sphere, the liberal voice floundered. When concerned liberals approached Nasheed asking for his help in countering the voices of extremism, his response was—more on less—to tell them ‘do it yourselves.’ The government, he said, could not impose restrictions on speech.

Despite the strong civil society that flourished during Nasheed’s government, the extremist movement had become too strong by then for individuals—acting without any support from the State—to organise against it. The labels of apostasy, heresy and anti-Islamic agent’ had become too powerful as political tools by then for any anti-extremist group or movement to be able to get a foothold in the public sphere. Many individuals attempted to organise into groups, but were shutdown as anti-Islamic before they could become a coherent voice in society. Anyone who expressed doubt about their faith in Islam was branded an apostate and ostracised. The strength of these prevailing sentiments was seen in the suicide of Ismail Mohamed Didi, a 25-year-old man who hanged himself in July 2010 after being hounded by friends and family for expressing doubt over his belief in Islam. The extremists were determined that the myth of ‘Maldives is a hundred percent Muslim nation’ will be maintained, even if it meant the oppression and death of those who did not believe.

Phase One: Nasheed as heretic

The push to drive Nasheed out began in earnest at the end of 2011. Many incidents towards the end of the year proved fortuitous for the extremists. In November Maldives hosted the annual summit meeting of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). Among bilateral gifts exchanged were various monuments and statues depicting the culture and traditions of the gifting country. In the spirit of ‘building bridges’, the summit theme, Maldives displayed a welcome banner at the airport in which religious figures dear to all members of SAARC were included. An image of Jesus was on the banner. Alleging that the banner promoted Christianity and that several of the gifts—including one from Pakistan—were anti-Islamic idols of worship, religious organisation and parties galvanised the public into what can aptly be described as mass-hysteria. The banner was taken down, and the monuments were put under police protection until they were destroyed. All in the name of protecting Islam.

On 24 November 2011, visiting UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay addressed the Maldivian parliament and spoke out against the practice of flogging, which continues to this day. The public furore incited over the ‘idols’ had not yet died down down. Islamists saw another opportunity to keep the hysteria alive. They led about a hundred or so angry people to the doors of the UN building to protest against Pillay’s call for a humanitarian approach to punishment. Although Nasheed’s Islamic Ministry unequivocally condemned the speech, Nasheed himself spoke in favour of Pillay’s stance. For the ultra-conservatives in Parliament and in socio-political positions of power, it was a sure sign that Nasheed was an anti-Islamic ‘Western puppet.’

The next plum opportunity for the Islamists came on 10 December, the International Human Rights Day, when a handful of young Maldivians staged a minor ‘silent protest’ against the growing religious intolerance in the country. Despite the fact that Nasheed’s government imprisoned one of the protesters, the Maldives’ only openly gay activist, religious conservatives were furious with Nasheed for not meting out severe punishment against the protestors. It was deemed as further evidence of Nasheed’s heresy.

It is against this backdrop, and armed with these pretexts, that the campaign to depose Nasheed was launched. Its first major public display was on 23 December in the form of a protest under the banner: ‘Maldivians Defending Islam.’ Having been bombarded since November by messages that Nasheed is a threat to their faith, and convinced by the relentless extremist rhetoric of years, thousands of Maldivians spilled onto the streets of Male’ in ‘defence of Islam’. What a majority of the people had not had the time or space to understand is that the threat to Maldivians’ faith has come not from Nasheed but from the extremists.

For hundreds of years, insulated as the country had been from the rest of the world, Maldivians were largely ignorant of the various conflicts within and around the ‘Islamic world’. The Islam that Maldivians practised was personal—a deeply held faith that did not need mediation by ‘scholars’ or preachers. Public displays of piety, such as having women shrouded in black or men hiding behind waist-length beards, were never part of the Maldivian belief system. Suppression of women as second-class citizens, violence in the name of religion, disputes over which prayer to be said at what time, insistence on imposing the death sentence, child brides, sex slaves—these were not part of the fabric of ‘Maldivian Islam.’ The extremists introduced such ideology and practices into the Maldives, and spread it across the country using the very freedoms of democracy they rally against. The success of the extremists had been their ability to use its newfound freedom of expression as a tool for convincing an unsuspecting population that until the arrival of these missionaries, Maldives had been ignorant of the ‘right Islam’.

It was in the defence of this extremism, which Nasheed had failed to act against—and which he was now being accused of threatening—that thousands of Maldivians gathered in Male’ on 23 December.

Phase One, Stage Two: the unholy alliance between ‘democrats’ and Islamists

It would be a mistake to assume that the Islamists, as widespread and powerful as their influence among the general population has been, would have been able to successfully depose Nasheed on their own. Rather, this occurred when opposition parties, having proven time and again their penchant for regarding Islam—and democracy itself for that matter—as open to opportunistic appropriation, allied with the Islamists with this very goal in mind.

Eight opposition parties of the Maldives and allied NGOs put their organisational and rallying tools behind the 23 December protests. That this was an alliance, for the political parties at least, wholly devoid of any Islamic piety is clear from who appeared as its leading members. A core group of them were resort owners—rich tycoons who have no qualms being purveyors of alcohol, pork, and ‘hedonistic’ pleasures to ‘infidels’. What smacked of hypocrisy and opportunism even more was the involvement of figures who had previously spoken out against the rising extremism in the country. Present among them were, for example, Dr Hassan Saeed who co-authored the book ‘Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam’ which argues that Islam is a religion of tolerance. He is now the newly appointed President Waheed’s special advisor.

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom had a statement read out in favour of the protests despite his long career being rich with seminars and papers arguing the tolerance and liberalism of Islam. Without the easy manner in which these figures dismissed their own convictions for the sake of political power, the Islamists would not have been able to push their agenda onto the Maldivian people so easily. It was a case of political parasites feeding off each other.

The next step was the publication of a pamphlet by Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), or Maldivian National Party, that provided alleged details of a secret agenda pursued by Nasheed to undermine Maldivians’ Islamic faith. The 30-page pamphlet, ironically, can easily rival Dutch politician Geert Wilder’s hate-filled anti-Islamic film ‘Fitna’ in its use of the Qur’an to incite hatred. There was very little that matters to Muslims that was not exploited for political gain in the publication. Nasheed government’s decision to foster business with Israel was depicted as an ‘alliance with Jews’ at the expense of Palestinians and his bilateral ties with Western governments was portrayed as friendships with ‘enemies of Islam’. Blatant lies, such as Christian priests being appointed as Nasheed’s emissaries, were mixed in with facts that were twisted beyond recognition.

While using the democratic principle of freedom of expression, freely granted by Nasheed, it sought to convince Maldivians that modernity and Islam are diametrically opposed to each other. Equating the overthrow of Nasheed’s government with a religious duty, it called on all Maldivians to do what they can to unseat the immoral heretic from power. Dr Hassan Saeed, author of the book ‘Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam’, is the deputy leader of DQP. Its leader is Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed. He is now the Minister of Home Affairs in Dr Waheed’s newly formed cabinet. In 2007 Dr Jameel was Gayoom’s Justice Minister, and resigned seemingly in protest against Gayoom’s failure to reign in the increasing Islamic militancy in the country. Less than five years later, his supposedly staunch principles were nowhere in sight as he pushed Maldivians to protest against Nasheed’s liberal government and embrace Sharia.

Phase One, Stage Three

Nasheed’s orders to have Judge Abdulla Mohamed arrested on 16 January 2012 was like a manna from heaven for the politico-religious coalition which was now calling itself the December 23 Alliance. Here was an opportunity to marry Nasheed’s alleged anti-Islamic activities with his violation of the constitution. Not one member of the opposition, nor the self-proclaimed champion of the constitution, President Waheed, has ever spoken out against the unconstitutional acts that has allowed Judge Abdulla to remain on the bench. The very same leaders, who now bellowed and whipped the people into a frenzy over the Judge’s detention, had presided over—and evidence exists, orchestrated—the events which allowed convicted criminals and sex offenders to remain on the bench in violation of Article 285 of the Constitution.

Deleted from public discourse, and therefore missing from public understanding, was the sad truth that at the time of Judge Abdulla’s arrest there were no democratic institutions capable of reigning in his many unlawful acts on the bench. He had no scruples over letting dangerous criminals walk free, espousing political views, and displaying sexual depravity in the courtroom. And he bestowed on himself the authority to overrule the Judicial Service Commission, the independent institution established by the Constitution to oversee the ethical and professional standards of the judiciary. That the opposition’s use of the judge’s arrest for inciting public protests was nothing more than political opportunism becomes clear in the fact that following Judge Abdulla’s release—on the same day that Nasheed was deposed—there has been no move to investigate the charges against him. Nor has President Waheed, taken any steps to initiate an investigation into the failures of the JSC. It is as if Judge Abdulla has no pending complaints of judicial misconduct against him, nor a criminal background. Exhausted by the ‘ordeal’ in which he seems to have had no role to play, he is now on a month-long holiday.

Phase Two: in the name of God and country

The two hundred or so members of the public who came out to protest against Judge Abdulla’s arrest for 22 consecutive nights were a motley crew. Some were there to defend extremism, others were there to defend the Constitution and demand the freedom of a politically biased, criminally convicted judge who remained on the bench in violation of the Constitution. It was their honestly held belief that reinstating a judge found guilty of political bias was the way to give themselves an independent judiciary. The rest were people who would protest the opening of an envelope, social deviants, and hired thugs egged on by opposition MPs and party leaders who incited them to continued violence daily for three weeks.

On 31 January, a week before Nasheed was forced to resign, the 23 December Alliance met in the wee hours of the morning. Presiding over the meeting was the President of Adhaalath Party Sheikh Imran Abdulla. At his side, displaying proudly the alliance between the political opportunists and the Islamists, is the Vice President of former president Gayoom’s new Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Umar Naseer. They both announced that since Nasheed had stepped outside of the boundaries of the constitution, their alliance had made a unanimous decision to pledge their allegiance to the Vice President. Their decision was reached, they said, after meeting with Vice President Waheed earlier that night. Umar Naseer, who had repeatedly incited violence during the weeks of protests, calmly called upon the armed forces of the country to refuse to obey any orders by their Commander in Chief Nasheed as he had ‘violated the Constitution.’ Umar Naseer appeared not to know—or not to care—that calling on the nation’s security forces to disobey their leader did not figure anywhere in the constitution either. Giving credence and weight to this call to unlawful acts, at least for those who were convinced Nasheed was also a heretic, was Sheikh Imran and other religious ‘scholars’.

Would the mutinying police and military officers that joined them have helped overthrow Nasheed’s government were they not convinced they were acting, not just for the country, but for Allah too? It is possible—for reports suggest that Allah was not the only God worshiped on that day; Mammon, too, commanded much devotion. Yet, it is Allah that the men in uniform who took over the state broadcaster with such violence thanked loudly for their success. ‘Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar!’ is what a band of military men marching on the streets of Male’ on that day were calling out in unison. It is Allah’s name that 2013 presidential candidate and owner of the Villa Resorts chain took when announcing Nasheed’s resignation to the public before it happened. One of the first acts of violence carried out on 8 February was the destruction of Buddhist relics from the pre-Islamic history of the Maldives dating back to the eleventh century. It is not the first time that Madivian Islamists have emulated the Taliban in their actions, and it will not be the last for many are disciples of the same form of Islam practised by the Taliban and several are alumni of the same madhrassas and universities Taliban leaders attended.

It cannot be denied that a large number of those who celebrated the departure of Nasheed were glad to see him go ‘because he violated the constitution.’ But those who do genuinely believe in the constitution, and are convinced that following it is the way forward for the country, know that deposing a democratically elected president by a coup is hardly constitutional. They are the many hundreds who have taken to the streets in ‘colourless’ protests—they are not supporters of MDP, nor necessarily of Nasheed. They, however, disagree with how the democratically elected leader has been forced out.

Apart from the diehard supporters of former president Gayoom and his allies, paid-for supporters of Gasim, and other tycoons who have the country’s politics in a stranglehold, the only people who remain jubilant at the overthrow of Nasheed are those convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that he was an anti-Islamic heretic. In helping depose him, in celebrating his departure, they have performed a religious duty. Replacing the haram Nasheed with the halal Waheed may not be democratic but it has assured them of a place in heaven. Little do they understand that, in this life, the rewards of their toil will be reaped not by them or their children but by those who have so shamelessly exploited their belief in Allah.

Phase Three?

President Waheed denies any knowledge of a coup, and refutes all allegations that he was party to the plot that forced Nasheed from office. Even if he is given the benefit of the doubt, and under the unlikely circumstance that he is, indeed, ignorant of the machinations of the politico-religious alliance that facilitated his assumption of office, he should be aware that his position is precarious indeed. The only reason he has been given the seal of approval, Adhaalath has made clear, is because he has not openly sided with Nasheed in his many stand-offs with the extremists. Reading between the lines of President Waheed’s utterances since assuming office, this was not out of choice—Nasheed did not allow him to participate in any decisions that mattered. This is, in fact, President Waheed’s biggest gripes against Nasheed, seemingly on a par with the deposed president’s unconstitutional arrest of the judge.

President Waheed has close to him as his Special Advisor Dr Hassan Saeed and as his Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed. Two leaders of the party that authored the pamphlet of hate against Nasheed. One of the ‘sins’ the pamphlet alleges former president Gayoom committed as a leader was not forcing his wife to cover-up, and not bringing his children in line with hard-line Islamic principles. For this, the pamphlet condemns Gayoom. President Waheed’s wife is guilty of the same ‘sin’, and his children, Western-educated and brought up in the United Sates, are unlikely to heed any paternal demands to toe an ultra-conservative Islamist line. At least one of his children is a liberal and an outspoken supporter of democracy. Already, President Waheed is treading a thin line.

It is only a matter of time before the Islamists begin re-instating their position, and President Waheed becomes the focus of their ire. It makes little sense for them to have brought down ‘Nasheed the Heretic’ if not for a promised bounty that is not yet known. In their 8 February press release, it quotes from Islamic teachings as saying:

‘It is the duty of every Muslim to wage a Jihad against those who apply any law other than that of Islamic Sharia. And, until such time as they have accepted Sharia and begun applying Sharia among the people, it is your duty to wage war against them. ‘

Clearly, the Islamists’ work has only begun. Would President Waheed, who describes himself as committed to democracy, allow Islamic extremism to further takeover the country and destroy hundreds of years of peaceful, traditional Maldivian Islam? Would he stand up for his principles? Or would he allow them to be sacrificed at the altar of his political ambitions? It remains to be seen. As do details of the deal that was done between political opportunists and the Islamists to ensure Nasheed the haram president was replaced by Waheed the halal president.

Azra Naseem holds a doctorate in International Relations.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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MDP protesters gather in thousands against Dr Waheed’s government

Thousands of protesters gathered in the open area near the tsunami monument in Male’ this afternoon, demonstrating against what they contend is the illegitimate government of Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan.

Numbers were difficult to ascertain as demonstrators spilled out of the open area into side streets and along Boduthakurufaanu Magu in both directions, but may have approached 10,000 at the height of the demonstrations this afternoon.

The afternoon protest had a decidedly carnival atmosphere to it. Maldivians of all ages waved yellow flags and banners, the colour of Mohamed Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), while MDP supporters handed out biscuits and water to the crowd.

Many protesters had come from the islands. Fishing boats bedecked in yellow flags moored off shore, while the occupant of a canoe paddled out and waved a banner. A surfer could be seen wearing a yellow rash vest.

All the former ministers were at the front of the crowd near the stage, including Nasheed, who did not speak this afternoon but was wildly received by the crowd on raising his hand.

The visible police presence was minimal, with uniformed officers only stationed in side streets away from the square. Officers present were taunted by demonstrators yelling “Laari laari yes sir”, in reference to allegations that some officers accepted money to side with the opposition on February 7.

After prayers, the protests continued into the evening from 8:00pm, with the tone of the speakers rising in anger and frustration.

Nasheed’s MDP have refused to recognise a government with Dr Mohamed Waheed at the helm, and have called for an interim government under the Speaker of Parliament with elections to be held in two months.

There were mixed reports about whether calls for early elections had been accepted on Thursday, following mediation. Rumours trickled out of the MDP all day that elections had been agreed during mediation sessions conducted by India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

Mathai claimed that the MDP had “reconsidered” its need to rally on Friday after suggestions that elections would be held, and put forward Dr Waheed’s ‘roadmap’ requesting the MDP’s cooperation in a National Unity Government, which would “work towards the conditions that will permit such elections to take place including the necessary constitutional amendments.”

Dr Waheed appeared less committal towards early elections in a press conference held yesterday for foreign media: “I believe the conditions have to be right. We have to have a calm atmoshpere, we have to address some of the deep rifts that we have in the political situation in the country, and then move towards free and fair election,” he claimed.

Halting street clashes, he said, was “not the only factor”.

“There is an economic factor here – our financial situation is not great and it hasn’t been for the last couple of years. We need to have guarantees that we are going to respect the rule of law, that we are going to uphold the Constitution and our judiciary is going to be independent – that it is going to be in such a way that anyone who fears justice deserves justice. If you don’t have justice, how can you go ahead?” Dr Waheed said.

Nasheed resigned on Tuesday February 7 under what he later claimed was duress. Earlier that morning, opposition protesters, aided by elements of the police and military, assaulted the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) headquarters and took over the state broadcaster.

Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rallied its supporters the following afternoon. A police crackdown on the protesters followed, leading to other protests across the country, and subsequent retaliations for the destruction of police property.

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Q&A: President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan

The following is a transcript of a press conference given by President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan to foreign media at 4:30pm on 16/2/2012. Also present besides the media was the President’s Political Advisor Dr Hassan Saeed and two unidentified men, one of whom identified himself as from Malaysia – “a friend passing through”.

Addendum: The individual was subsequently identified as Dr Ananda Kumarasiri, a 30 year career ambassador with the Malaysian Foreign Service.

SBS TV Australia (SBS): Can you comment on the decision of your brother, Naushad Waheed Hassan, to resign as Deputy of the UK High Commission?

Dr Mohamed Waheed (DMW): I didn’t appoint my brother to the high commission, he was appointed by the former president. I know where his loyalty is. He decided to quit and I respect his decision.

SBS: But he was very close to you?

DMW: This a very small country so you will find in any house there are people who belong to different political parties. It doesn’t surprise me.

SBS: But what he said must have been very painful – he wasn’t just resigning, he was saying you lacked character and you had been fooled into taking the role you are taking. It was very personal.

DMW: I have no comment.

Journalist: Is there a possibility of holding early elections or will you wait until 2013?

DMW: No. I really believe in elections. I have been through elections and I have fought for elections. I have been taken into custody for these reasons. I ran in a public election and was elected as a member of parliament for Male’ – the biggest constituency.

I ran the first modern political campaign in the country, ever. And then I ran with President Nasheed as his running mate. I really believe in free and fair elections. If I believe that was the time to hold elections then we would have free and fair elections – I would be the first. But I believe the conditions have to be right. We have to have a calm atmosphere, we have to address some of the deep rifts that we have in the political situation in the country, and then move towards free and fair election.

I know there are calls for an early election, and I am ready to engage in discussions with all the parties on this, but there has to be also commitments from everyone for a peaceful situation and engagement in peaceful dialogue.

SBS: I know of your reputation, you have a fine reputation – but I can’t understand why a man like you would be involved in a military takeover. I can’t understand that. What reasons do you have for that given your personal background?

DMW: I deny that it was a military takeover. I think the records have to be put straight. I have said I am open to an independent inquiry, and I am in the process of identifying people for such an inquiry position. I have sent some names already to MDP to see if they are acceptable to all the parties. As soon as we have a team acceptable to the parties we start an inquiry into this.

We have gone through the constitutional process. If a President resigns, if he is unable to serve, or has submitted his resignation, then the serving vice president has to step in. I was invited to do so by the speaker of the parliament.

SBS: [Nasheed’s resignation] was under duress. You are an educated man who has been deeply involved in the United Nations, you know that that when a General puts a gun to your head, even metaphorically, that is not a resignation. Do you not accept that?

DMW: I do not accept that.

Dr Ananda Kumarasiri: If I may inject, from the video tapes, I do not see how my colleague has got this impression that there was a coup. If there was a coup then [it would show] from the tapes… from the evidence.

DMW: I would not have associated myself with any coup. There was no irregular or unlawful takeover of power. This was not the case. I was watching what was going on on televsion like everybody else, and if you watch the tapes you wonder what really happened that day. I don’t really know what happened. There shall have to be an inquiry into it. As far as I know, what happened was the President resigned – we have videos of it, there was evidence of it, and his cabinet members were there – I was not asked to be there – he publicly announced his resignation in front of television. He could have said something, indicated that he was under duress – but he didn’t. And then I get a call from the Speaker telling me that he is expecting to receive resignation from the President. And as soon as he received that resignation he told me to come and I was sworn in by the Chief Justice.

As far as I’m concerned the whole process was legal, and I maintain the legitimacy of this government.

SBS: So you intend to continue the term? Don’t you think it would be appropriate for an interim government at the very least and move to an election? At the moment we’ve having tear gas and batons decide. We haven’t heard the people. Isn’t it your responsibility to ask the people what they want?

DMW: Absolutely. I know the constitution has provisions for an election in the next year and I can tell you that I will not be party to delaying that election in any way. I am committed to holding elections, as per the constitution, and if early elections have to be held, there are provisions for that too. You have to have a constitutional amendment.

SBS: Does it concern you that people in this country are terrified of you and the people around you? Does it concern you that dozens of people, whom you were colleagues with, were brutally beaten?

DMW: People are terrified because some people are propagating violence. We have seen so many police buildings burned down.

SBS: Those were buildings, not people.

DMW: The people have been affected by this. When people come out on the street and burn down buildings, and provoke violence, the police have to take action. Law and order has to be maintained. I do not condone violence. I have repeatedly told police they have to restrain themselves, and I will not tolerate police violence. I have been told MDP is planning violence activities [on February 18]. I can assue you police will maintain professional standards. I call on all our police forces to restrain themselves and abide by principles of human rights and the guidelines they have been given.

JJ Robinson: Is it true the MDP has been given a three day ultimatum to participate in a national unity government?

DMW: No ultimatum has been given to anyone. I can assure you. We will continue to remain open to discussion and dialogue, forever.

Journalist: You have informed that the MDP should join a national government by February 20.

DMW: No we haven’t, I deny that. I am not aware of it. If somebody has, then somebody else is doing this.

Journalist: On the President’s website there is a statement that says ‘inform us by Feb 20 if you want to join the national unity government’.

DMW: No, that is not true. I have certainly not signed anything to that effect, and until now I have not even heard about it.

Journalist: But it is on the website.

DMW: Anything can be on the website. I am categorically denying that there is an ultimatum to MDP. There is no ultimatum. I continue to remain wanting to engage with them, and I will continue to the last day.

JJ: Dr Waheed, how much control do you believe you have over the police and the military?

DMW: I have full control over them. I am not shy to take responsibility. Including for the law enforcement agencies.

Journalist: If the MDP continues not to join the government, what are the next steps?

DMW: We will continue to seek ways of working with them. I cannot force them – but there is no other choice. This country cannot afford a confrontational and violent approach.

Journalist: Nasheed, talking to the media, has said that India is losing its leverage [in the Maldives], and that China may get into the Maldives. He had not signed a defence agreement with China which the Maldives defence forces were to sign. What do you have to say about increasing Chinese influence in the Maldives?

DMW: Ultimately we have not signed any agreement since I became President. Whatever agreement we have is an agreement signed by the previous President and his ministers. So I categorically deny that. We have a very close relationship with India, and we will respect all the strategic and commercial agreements we have signed with India. This is not to be questioned.

Journalist: There are no defence deals with China?

DMW: We haven’t had any agreements with any country since I took over.

Journalist: What is the relationship between China and the Maldives and what will you do to promote the relationship between the two countries?

DMW: As you know while President Nasheed was in power, we established a Chinese mission in the Maldives. So we have a mission in the Maldives now, we have good relations with China, and like everyone else in the world we are trying to promote our trade with China. China emerging as one of the most powerful countries in the world and we will continue to work with China, for more trade and cultural relations.

JJ: One of the Maldives’ top diplomats – the Maldives Ambassador to the UN, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, stepped down live on Al Jazeera – not questioning the legitimacy of your presidency, but that he had ethical and moral concerns in particular the people with the people who had negotiated Nasheed’s surrender on February 7 then becoming police commissioner and defence minister in the new government – both of whom have strong links to the former government under Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Do you share those concerns?

DMW: Mr Ghafoor is very far away from Male’. I respect his moral judgement and so on, but it is not for me to say whether it right or worng. He is entitled to his moral position, but he was very far away when things were happening. We were right here.

JJ: For the international community many of the faces in the cabinet are new to them. But for a lot of Maldivian people they see people who have been in the former government, people who served under Gayoom. To what extent does the current composition of the cabinet suggest an old government, rather than a new government?

DMW: OK. Anything other than President Mohamed Nasheed’s government is now being painted as the old government, as a return to the old regime. Which is a really misleading way of looking at it. In this country most of us grew up and got education during the last 33 years, and most of the well educated people in this country worked in government. The government was the biggest employer in the country and continues to be so.

Therefore don’t be surprised that some people served in President Gayoom’s government. That doesn’t mean that anyone seen in the last 33 years has allegiance to a particular person. This is a very narrow way of looking at it. If you look at cabinet you can see I have been very careful in my selections. Most of them are very young and dynamic and well educated.

I have tried not to put many political leaders in it – it is mostly a technocratic government because we need to move forward in the next two years to an election, and get as much done as possible – including many good things that have been started in the last couple of years. We will implement the programs and it is necessary to have well educated people.

Journalist: Talking of the cabinet, there is a fear of growing religious hardliners and at the same time – your Home Minister [Dr Mohamed Jameel, former Justice Minister under Gayoom] has in the past made statements against India and certain communities and companies. How do you respond?

DMW: This is a Muslim country and there will be some traditional Islamic values. In that case we will have a representative from the Adhaalath Party in the government – we had one even under President Nasheed. That doesn’t mean I am encouraging people in a certain direction.

As for the Home Minister, he one of the best qualified people in criminal justice. He is a graduate from England with a PhD, and his views in a political rally or any other context should not be transferred to what he asked to do now. I am confident that members of cabinet will toe the line that we step in terms of policy, and any previous remarks will not affect the future direction of this government.

SBS: Very simple question – why did Nasheed have to go?

DMW: I’m not the only person who should answer that question, but since you ask me, my understanding is that he has lost support of a large segment of the population, and also the armed forces and law enforcement agencies.

A series of unlawful and unconstitutional things have built up over the years and people are genuinely concerned that we are moving away from the democratic principles we started with in the first place.

SBS: He may have been, but certainly now you are not moving towards an election? You had a police and army mutiny in which you were involved.

DMW: I think Preisdent Nasheed is responsible for creating that situation. He was a very powerful President able to issue orders. He was the head of the armed forces.

SBS: He didn’t keep that close?

DMW: No he didn’t keep it close with me. Even when events transpired on the 7th, I was not part of that. He did not inform me once. When he called other people to tell them he was resigning, he didn’t call me once. If he had asked me to help I would have gone there.

So I think he should take some responsiblity for what happened to him. He had a very good chance to continue, but I think he made some mistakes. History will judge.

SBS: Is there division within the cabinet about calling an election? The rumour is that you are very keen to move to an election, but other members of cabinet aren’t keen to do that.

DMW: Everyone in the cabinet has one interest in mind. Peaceful resolution of this conflict, and moving towards a free and fair election. That is the main interest. People are not convinced at the moment that we could hold an election today. Partly because there are so many deep divisions.

SBS: You have worked in Afghanistan, India and the United Nations. Whatever its faults, you know that the best resolution of political division is an election.

DMW: The conditions are not right for an election just now. If all the parties told me tomorrow that we should have an election, and that they would cease violence, I would have no problem.

Journalist: You met the parties today, what was their response?

DMW: They are all ready to engage with MDP. To work on a roadmap and move forward, including discussions about elections.

Journalist: Are you able to complete your cabinet if the MDP continues on its current stand?

DMW: The sooner we can get the cabinet together the better. The government has to function properly. We want to move forward and we are ready to talk, but we have to have some buy-in. We have been extending my hands all along, but what have we gotten so far? I had discussions with the head of MDP and the next day they came out on the street and we had confrontations in front of the media.

There is no violence in the country – people are going about their normal lives. It is calm. But the political divisions have to be resolved. We can’t live under the threat of violence and conflict. We are ready to engage and move forward.

This country is too small for violence and confrontation.

SBS: All the violence on the streets of the capital has been by police and their supporters – now your allies. They were the violent ones.

DMW: That is a matter of opinion.

SBS: No it’s not. Would you dispute that?

DMW: You know there was one instance where you saw police violence on camera. But there have been demostrations in this country for one month.

SBS: From the opposition.

DMW: There was violence there also. This is not the first time people have been sprayed with pepper spray or charged with batons. It has happened before. If you talk to members of parliament – of all parties – they will tell you personal stories of violent attacks.

So you cannot generalise just from one instance and say it is this party or that party. There is an endemic problem of violence and political rhetoric. We cannot have irresponsible political leaders continuing to do that. There is no alternative to peaceful dialogue. Some give and take is needed to move forward. That is what give and take is about.

JJ – You have maintained that the events of the 7th were not planned. However on the early morning of January 31 you met opposition leaders in this house, who subsequently gave a press conference in which they pledged allegience to you, called on you to take over the government from Mohamed Nasheed, and called on the police and military to follow your orders. Based on that press conference, which was widely reported in local media at the time, do you still maintain that the events of the 7th were spontaneous?

DMW: I said it was a spontaneous change as nobody really expected that events would turn out that way. You’re right, I met them, and they asked me whether in the eventuality that there was a change, would I be ready. Because I have very much been in the background here – not involved in most of the policy making and so on. But it is my constitutional responsibility to step in. All I said was ‘this is purpose I was sworn in for’, and that as Vice President I was ready for such a situation. That was it – nobody expected things to turn out this way. Who expected police to come out and demonstrate? It was totally bizarre.

Journalist: That means certain political parties had anticipated a possible change that might come.

DMW: I don’t know that it was so much anticipation as their wish that there would be a change of government.

LeMonde: You say that since you took over your government has not signed any agreements with other governments. But to put it another way, do you intend to review agreements signed? Particularly the understanding Mr Nasheed had with India. Will you review that?

DMW: We will not. I spoke to the Prime Minister of India. Every dignitary from India that has come here I have assured we will continue to respect all the agreements we have signed with them. I can only be accountable for the time I am in government.

During my tim in government there will be no turning back and we will respect all the agreements, all the commercial agreements we have signed.

LeMonde: One agreement was that China not increase its influence in the Maldives. Will you respect these agreements?

DMW: We have a special relationship with India and special agreements on our security and defence. Those will continue to remain the same. I cannot comment on a particular country.

JJ: Umar Naseer, the Vice President of Gayoom’s political party the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), said at a rally several nights ago in front of at least a thousand people that he had personlly warned Nasheed that there would be bloodshed unless he stepped down. Given comments such as this coming from other former opposition parties do you still maintain that there was no intimidation in the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed?

DMW: Umar Naseer should explain himself. I cannot explain for him. He is not known to be someone who is particularly careful with what he says. You know him better. Whatever he said in the political rally – and I have heard people have said that he said these things – you should really ask him. He is around in Male’.

Journalist: The Maldives has had strong relations with Sri Lanka and currently Nasheed’s wife and children are in Sri Lanka. Will this affect the current government’s relationship with Sri Lanka?

DMW: No, Sri Lanka again is very close to us. We are like brothers and sisters. We share our language, history and culture. This question doesn’t have to be raised at all. President Nasheed’s family are free to be whereever they want to be. I can assure you we have the best relationship with Sri Lanka. I have spoken to President Rajapaksa more than once and I don’t think we have to worry about it. All nationals – from India, Sri Lanka – are free to stay here and we will do our best to protect them.

JJ: What is a the status of the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed, around whom many of these events have centred? Is he back on the bench? Has he been reinstated?

DMW: [Consults with Dr Hassan Saeed] Well, you see my advisor tells me that the guy has already taken leave.

Dr Hassan Saeed (DHS): He has taken one month’s leave for his personal issues.

DMW: It is for the judiciary to decide what to do with him, not for me. I don’t want to interfere in the judiciary. I want our constitution to be respected, and work with everybody to make our constitution work. This is a new constitution, and it is the first time we are trying it out. And so there are difficulties in it. We need to find ways of solving it. It is time for us to work together, and if there are problems with the judicary we need to work together to solve them – they are intelligent good people in the judiciary and the Judicial Services Commission (JSC). We welcome assistance from the Commonwealth and United Nations to develop programs and build the capacity of the judiciary.

This is true also for the executive and the legislature. We need to work togather to build our democracy and consolidate our democracy.

JJ: If I could address this to Dr Hassan Saeed: as I understand it you in 2005 as Attorney General under former President Gayoom were the first person to raise concerns about the conduct of Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed, in a letter to Gayoom. Your concerns – among others – included that he has instructed underage victims of child sexual assault to reenact their attack in a courtroom in front of the perpetrator. Are you satisfied with the investigation against the judge, and if this something you believe still needs to be looked into?

DHS: As chief legal advisor to the government at that time, I had raised issues with the in-charge of the judiciary at that time. In that constitution the President was the head of the judiciary. So it was my legal and moral obligation to raised that issue with him, which I did.

I did not know if it was followed up. Obviously if there are issues it has to be resolved in accordance with the established laws and institutions.

Journalist: The tourism industry has been particularly affected by this. What measures have been taken to help the economy?

DMW: You are right. The tourism sector is the most important sector of our economy and we cannot afford violence on the streets of Male’. This is why it is so important for us to move forward in an agreed roadmap towards elections. The tourism sector so far has not been severely affected. There have been some cancellations. But lots of people are coming and having a good time in the Maldives, and going back. I hope the situation will stabilise further and tourism increase.

We have had a steady increase in tourism over the last couple of years now. It can [continue] only if we take violence out of the equation. I hope nobody is going to call for street violence or burning down public buildings and damaging private offices.

SBS: You know that when a vote is taken away from people that is a likely resault, and that governments which come to power under hails of tear gas and police, normally exit power under hails of tear gas. Are you waiting for that?

DMW: There is a constitutional mechanism for that. I did not take power by force – I was sworn into office according to the consitution.

SBS: Because your superior was forced out.

DMW: I was already elected, on the same ticket as President Nasheed. I got the same vote as President Nasheed, and we came in together. The reason why I am here is that in any country, if something happens to the President, the Vice President takes over. We have the same mandate.

It is not for you or me to decide if it is a coup. Why didn’t he say it in front of the television when everybody was there? He was not alone, his cabinet members were there, it was not like people were going to crack down on him.

SBS: He had mutinious police in the square, he had the army turning against him, he had former police and army chiefs entering the cabinet room giving orders…

DMW: All this was caused by himself.

SBS: I agree perhaps he was indelicate or lacked political skill, but he was still the elected representative of a country – the first elected representative of this country in 30 years.

DMW: If he was under duress, if he had had the guts to say in front of the camera, “Dear citizens, I am being asked to resign under duress”, we all would have been out on the street. I would have been out on the street. I have been out on the street with him before, and I would have been out on the street with him again. But it was a matter of undermining our constitution.

Let us have an inquiry, and come out with the facts.

Journalist: If there is an election, are you going to contest against Mr Nasheed?

DMW: I don’t know. At the moment my preoccuptation is to work with everybody, be a facilitator. I have said I won’t have any of my prty in the cabinet. I am fully committed to being a facilitator. If everybody agrees and says “Waheed, you shouldn’t stand”, I would accept it.

LeMonde: You say that MDP is planning a violent demonstration [Friday] night?

DWH: These are the reports I have received?.

LeMonde: You have reports convincing you that they plan to be violent?

DMW: This is the information I have received, but I hope it is not the case.

Journalist: In your opinion, how is this going to end?

DMW: I think with a little bit of time. The last time we had violence was on the 8th, and since then it has been calm. I hope people have the time to think a little bit, and reflect. I am optimistic. we will be able to work out a peaceful way of moving forward.

Journalist: There are allegations that police have accepted money and corruption is rampant within the police. Are investigations being conducted into this?

DMW: I am not aware of this, and no cases have come to me since I took over. If there was I’m sure the former President would have done something about it.

Journalist: If the street violence stops, will you have early elections?

DMW: As I said, let us talk. Violence is not the only factor. There is an economic factor here – our financial situation is not great and it hasn’t been for the last couple of years. We need to have guarantees that we are going to respect the rule of law, that we are going to uphold the consitution and our judiciary is going to be independent – that it is going to be in such a way that anyone who fears justice deserves justice. If you don’t have justice, how can you go ahead?

Journalist: Do you have any specific economic strategies?

We will continue the economic policies of the former government, and I have already announced the forming of an economic council. I will appointment distinguished economists in the country who will review the economy to put it on a good footing.

I have appointed an economic development minister who is young and competent, and a tourism minister, and I am looking for a finance minister at the moment.

I can assure you that you will have the best minds in the country working to take the economy forward. I don’t claim to be an expert, and I will not tell people how to run this country. My job – the job of any top executive – is to find the right people and help them do their work well. I have learned this in my many years of international experience.

LeMonde: Mr Nasheed introduced a new fiscal system, in particular income and corporate taxes. Will you change this system?

DMW: So far we have not decided to change anything, but we will ask the economic council. If there is something that does not work we will correct it. But there is no massive overhaul of policies. There is no deadline. It is not hard and fast deadline.

SBS: He was already president – why would Nasheed want to join your national unity government?

DMW: He should join a coalition, because he came to power in a coalition. And he decided to rescind. He couldn’t find somebody to work with him. We only had 25 percent of the vote – we had to go and ask other political parties to join, like Dr Hassan Saeed. and then we won. We had a coalition. We couldn’t work as a coalition – why not? This is a small country. You cannot rule by yourself. It is too small for one particular party to rule everybody.

SBS: So you would have him in your cabinet?

DMW: Absolutely.

SBS: As Vice President?

DMW: I have currently named a Vice President. But there are other people I would work with in the same cabinet.

JJ: The MDP has floated the idea of elections in two months – you’ve said this is too short a time. The rumour flying around today was that Nasheed may have been negotiated up to six months. Is there any truth in that, following the meetings held today?

DMW: No, there is no such timeline. The timeline is to be worked out in open discussion with regard to elections.

Journalist: So you are willing to sit down with Nasheed and decide on a date to hold elections?

DMW: We are ready to discuss.

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Commonwealth ministers arriving Friday to investigate “facts surrounding transfer of power”

A delegation of Commonwealth ministers will arrive in the Maldives on Friday February 17 to “ascertain the facts surrounding the transfer of power last week in the South Asian state.”

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) decided to send the mission “as soon as possible” following an extraordinary meeting held on February 12 concerning the spiralling political tension in the Maldives.

“This is an important ministerial mission that is to be seen as part of the Commonwealth’s continuing engagement with Maldives,” said Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma. “It should also be viewed in the context of the Commonwealth’s abiding commitment to its fundamental political values.”

The Commonwealth has an increased mandate to involve itself in the internal affairs of its member nations since the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, in October 2011.

According to a statement from the group, the delegation will hold discussions with key interlocutors on circumstances surrounding the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed on 7 February 2012.

Before it commences its work, it will be briefed by the Commonwealth Secretariat team that has been in the country since February 6, the statement read.

The CMAG statement issued after the February 12 teleconference stressed the importance of adherence by member countries to the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values, “including constitutional democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights; and in particular, the principle of separation of powers.”

The CMAG ministerial mission will be supported by a Commonwealth Secretariat team led by Amitav Banerji, Director of Political Affairs.

The group will be led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Communications of Trinidad and Tobago, the Surujrattan Rambachan.

He will be accompanied by Dr Dipu Moni, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, and Dennis Richardson AO, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia.

President Dr Mohamed Waheed has previously said he would be open to an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the rapid change of government, which former President Mohamed Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has alleged was a coup d’état.

Germany was the first country to call for an inquiry last week, urging Dr Waheed’s government to “consolidate its legitimacy”, swiftly followed by the UK.

“I have heard calls for an independent inquiry into the events that preceded my assumption of the presidency. I am open to those suggestions – there is no problem with it. I will be completely impartial in any independent investigation,” Dr Waheed said.

“I don’t know the details, or how it can or should be done. I will consult legal advice as soon as we have an attorney general in place. I am sure we will be able to satisfy the call from Britain and Germany.”

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“You are my brother and I will always love you”: Dr Waheed’s brother resigns from UK post, calls for President to follow

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan’s brother, the Deputy High Commissioner of the Maldives to the UK, has announced his resignation and called for his brother to follow suit.

“I have resigned from my post of Deputy High Commissioner as of now. I have resigned because I cannot serve a regime that has brought down the democratically elected government of my country in a coup d’état,” said Naushad Waheed Hassan to media assembled on the steps of the High Commission in London.

“Some of you may question why I have not resigned before. When the coup was unfolding in the early hours of February 7, my initial reaction was to resign immediately. However, as you all know, the leader of the current regime, Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan, is my own brother. So I decided to take time to make my own enquiries before I came to a conclusion. And it is with a heavy heart that I have to say that this is indeed an illegitimate government and I cannot be party to it.”

Minivan News spoke to Naushad this evening, seeking to confirm the report.

“This is not something I have discussed with my brother,” Naushad told Minivan News. “This is my own personal decision. I stood by him. But I after I saw the videos of the torturing, the police brutality, and saw what happened in the atolls, I decided it was not good for me to stay [in the government].”

Naushad said he did not know why his brother had taken the actions that he had.

“From our childhood days, I know he is a nice person. I still believe this. I don’t know why he is favouring Maumoon [Abdul Gayoom]. At this moment I don’t have the details. But I will find out why he took this step. He is someone who has been loved by people for so many years,” he said.

“And I say this to my brother – you are my brother and I will always love you. Do not rob our people of our right to choose our government. Do not be party to this police brutality that is ongoing in the country. Do not join with the people of the autocratic ruler (former) President Gayoom. Do the right thing – resign and hold fresh elections. Let the people of the Maldives decide.”

A staff member in the High Commission described Naushad as “quietly spoken and very friendly. His artwork was up in the commission until this morning so we should have seen it coming. I always noticed that he was happy to talk about his past incarceration [under Gayoom], but he never came across as too bitter.”

The staff member noted that the atmosphere in the High Commission had been a “little terse”, with “differences of opinion between staff that have stronger political, MDP affiliations than others, who see their role in a more purely diplomatic, apolitical sense.”

Maldives Ambassador to UN resigns live on Al Jazeera

Maldives Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, has meanwhile resigned live on Al Jazeera, reading a statement in which he said he was unable to continue his duties due to “certain moral and ethical concerns I had that surrounded the departure of the former President [Nasheed].”

“I listened with much sadness and great pride to the resignation of [President Nasheed] and his decision to step down in the greater interest of the Maldives, bringing to a premature end the maiden term of the first democratically elected leader of the Maldives,” said Ghafoor, one of the Maldives top career diplomats who has also served as defacto non-resident Ambassador to the US.

“The Maldives had yet again shown the world it was able to handle peaceful transfers of power smoothly. I was proud of my President and my country. However the subsequent allegations by the former president – that he was forced to resign – have cast a shadow of doubt on events preceding his announcement,” he stated.

Ghafoor said he accepted Dr Waheed’s government as a legal and legitimate constitutional authority, but said he found himself “in a position that makes it difficult to execute my responsibilities without equivocation based on certain moral and ethical concerns I had that surrounded the departure of the former president.”

“I believe the new president should have the opportunity to have his views and policies served by representatives without reservations or equivocation,” Ghafoor said. “I have therefore conveyed my intention to step down from all my diplomatic postings so that the new president may be better served.”

Ghafoor said that Dr Waheed had accepted his resignation, and had agreed to stay on until a replacement arrived.

“He has also given me leave to speak my conscience in the meantime, and I thank him for that,” Ghafoor said.

Asked by Al Jazeera as to the nature of his “moral and ethical concerns”, Ghafoor reiterated that he had “no reservations about the legitimacy of the current administration.”

“But what has made my conscience troubled is the allegations made by the former President and subsequent events. One concern was the appointment of the current defense minister and police commissioner , who I believe were involved in the negotiations [surrounding Nasheed’s resignation]. This was a troubling event for me.”

Maldives High Commissioner to the UK resigns

Maldives High Commissioner to the UK Dr Farahanaz Faizal also announced her resignation earlier this week.

“They robbed the people of the vote and when I saw the brutality of the police last week, that was the final straw,” she said.

In a letter to the Foreign Minister, Dr Faizal resigned as High Commissioner of the Maldives to the UK and as Ambassador of the Maldives to France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Palestine.

“I regret to let you know that I cannot serve in a government that has toppled the
democratically elected government of Maldives, in a coup d’etat,” she said.

Honorary Consul to the Maldives, David Hardingham, also announced his resignation.

Minivan News sought to contact both Dr Waheed but he had not responded at time of press. Dr Waheed’s acting spokesperson Musood Imad said the President would be holding a press conference on Thursday at 4:30pm.

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Comment: International community’s inaction may lead to carnage

The Maldives is beautiful. It is an archipelago of 1200 islands with pristine beaches, blue lagoons and thousands of coconut palms. It is one of the world’s most exclusive tourist destinations. It is a honeymooners’ haven and diver’s paradise. It is a hideaway for over-exposed celebrities and a sanctuary for the stressed. A string of islands nature intended as a playground for the rich and famous. Somewhere where Western billionaires come to have spa treatments underwater and the famous can relax without being photographed. A picture postcard.

Well, here’s a news flash. The Maldives is home to 300,000 people. They may not appear in the photographs, they may not be serving you your cocktails, they may not be cleaning your $4500 a night room, they may not be serving you the $1000 dinner on your golden plate under the full-moon, and the hands massaging your body in the spa under the palm tree may not be theirs, but they exist. They live, they talk, they walk, they feel, and they have the same silly notions about human rights, justice, equality and the rule of law as any other people in the world.

Last week, the Maldivian government was overthrown; its first democratically elected president held at gunpoint and forced to write a letter of resignation. It has been reported that ‘tourists barely put down their cocktails’ on the beaches of their exclusive holiday resorts just a few waves of the ocean away, so far removed is the tourism industry from the reality that Maldives is for Maldivian people.

Despite the tourists, and the rest of the world, being kept in deliberate ignorance, video evidence exists of the coup right from the planning stages to its successful execution. The only missing footage, so far, is that of the deposed president sitting down to write the letter. Everything else, from the violent take over of the state broadcaster by armed ‘policemen’, the beleagured president trying to control military and police personnel who were involved in the coup, coup leaders commanding the defecting officers, extreme brutality by the police against the public in the aftermath of the coup – it is all there, if you want to see it. ‘Want’ being the keyword here.

The ‘international community’ has not wanted to do so. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had only months before described the deposed Maldivian President Nasheed as his ‘new best friend’, refused to lend him any support.

India, the supposed leader of democracy in South Asia, was the first to congratulate the new government and pledge its allegiance to its leader Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik.

Sri Lanka, despite Nasheed’s ill-judged support of President Mahinda Rajapaksa while the intenational community condemned him for alleged human rights abuses, followed suit.

It would come as no surprise for any observer of China’s recent foreign policy decisins that Beijing had no qualms over the legitimacy of the new government in declaring its willingness to carry on with business as usual.

Australia, home to many Maldivians and supposedly a close friend, found the Maldivian situation to be fodder for political jokes; the violence that its people endured in the aftermath of the coup nothing but material for double-entendres to be lobbed between parliamentarians on opposite sides.

And, of course, given the manner in which the United States has sought to spread democracy in the world in the last decade, it should come as no surprise that it finds no room to exercise its soft power in assisting Maldivians establish the truth about how their democracy was derailed last week.

The international community is making a huge mistake in ignoring the current crisis in the Maldives. The foremost reason being that the Maldives is incapable of conducting its own independent investigation into the events of the day as the international community is recommending. Like a small community in which twelve impartial people cannot be found for a jury in a trial where everybody has a stake in the verdict, there can be no tribunal of truth held in the Maldives where the majority is not biased one way or another.

The United States and others have rejected the deposed president and his supporters’ calls for new elections on the basis that there are no institutions capable of holding a fair and free one. What makes it, and the rest of the international community, then think that there can be an independent institution capable of conducting an impartial enquiry into the facts of 7 February? If any of the international teams that have been so active in the Maldives in the last week have done any homework at all, they know the biggest impediment to consolidation of democracy in the Maldives has been failure of the so-called independent institutions have been unable to free themselves from political influence.

It is not just the Maldivian people that the international community is betraying by leaving them to their own fate. It is also the ideals of democracy they have espoused so stridently, not to mention violently, for the last decade. By refusing to help the Maldivian people establish the truth of how its first democratically elected president was deposed, it is allowing the burial without ceremony of the role that anti-democratic forces – including radical Islamists – have played in bringing the fledgling Maldivian democracy to its knees.

It is also turning its back on a valuable opportunity to increase its own knowledge of how Islamists can radicalise not just a small Muslim community, but an entire population. Available evidence shows that without a clear pact made with Islamists, the coup could not have been successfully planned or executed. By refusing to help join Maldivians’ efforts to establish the truth of the events of 7 February and the conspiracies that led up to it, the international community is doing what it does best: ignore a threat until it escalates to the point where there is carnage on the streets and thousands of lives are lost.

The most significant characteristic of the days that have followed 7 February in the Maldives is the deafening silence of the Islamists. They helped incite hatred and anger towards Nasheed when he was the legitimate president; they were the loudest and the most vocal of his critics. In the week that has followed his ousting, they have been ominously silent. And, judging from how they have conducted their operations in the Maldives for the last decade, the silence is not due to pious reflection and quiet contemplation of God’s greatness. It is a silence of anticipation, the calm before the storm. The conspirators who financed the coup have done a deal with them, and they are waiting in silence because they are sure their grand chance is about to come. That is, the chance to impose Sharia rule in the country, the chance to crackdown on the women and turn them into inferior human beings and citizens, the chance to bring the Maldives back to the early days of ‘pure’ Islam and turn it into the newest region of the Islamic Caliphate that bin Laden envisioned.

Unfortunately, we live in a world of realist international politics where until a state’s own ‘national interest’ is threatened or one’s own self-interest is at risk, there is no ‘legitimate’ reason to act. As long as the anti-democratic activities in the Maldives pose no geostrategic threat to the ‘international community’, as long as foreign investment in the Maldives is safe, as long as tourists can keep sipping their cocktails under the palm trees, and as long as Maldivian blood does not spill on the pristine white beaches that the rich and famous lounge about on, paradise is not lost. Until then what prevails will be accepted as what passes as ‘democracy’ these days – government for the rich by the rich.

Azra Naseem holds a doctorate in International Relations.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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HRCM condemns attacks against demonstrators as Male’ gears up for “huge” rally

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has condemned police for carrying out acts of violence against civilians participating in a demonstration organised by Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on February 8. HRCM has also condemned acts carried out against police property in the southern islands of Addu City Gan, Fuvahmulah, Raa atoll Dhuvaafaru, and Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll Thinadhoo, among others.

“We highlight the fact that a lot of civilians and police officers have inflicted injuries of varying degrees during the demonstrations organised by the MDP, which became a confrontation between police and protesters,” a statement read. “With regard to the demonstration, this commission is in the process of investigating the matters under its mandate.”

Regarding the destruction in the Maldives’ south, the commission has requested the public “not to repeat such actions in the future.” The commission’s statement did not address allegations that residents on those islands have been beaten and arrested without charges following the events of February 8.

Addressing police forces and the public, the commission requested both parties to safely support the rights beholden in Article 32 of the constitution, which provides for the freedom of assembly.

“We also advise the police to maintain their actions to standards that would not lose the public trust on the police service and we call the public to support and assist the police in executing their duties,” reads the statement.

The European Union Heads of Mission (HoMs) to the Maldives, based in Colombo, have further warned that provocation of or use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies in the Maldives during the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally scheduled for Friday, February 17 “would be completely unacceptable at this point.”

Former president Mohamed Nasheed resigned on February 7 under conditions his government has called a “coup d’état.” Video footage of events that day indicate that he left office under military pressure while a rogue faction of the police service turned against the military and MDP supporters in the streets of capital Male’.

In the days following the change of power, security officials have allegedly beaten and detained MDP members and supporters in various parts of the archipelago.

“There must be an end to violence and no political retribution,” the HoMs stated today.

In January the MDP’s National Committee selected February 17 for a political rally to address judicial reform. Previously, rumors maintained that islanders would be coming to Male’ for the event. Rather than deter the public, last week’s dramatic change of power appears to have further motivated the Maldivian population.

“It’s going to be huge, the biggest ever on Male’,” said MDP MP Imthiyaz Fahmy. “People are in fear to some extent because of the police, but they are still willing to come out,” he added.

Addu resident Mohamed Yooshau pointed out that half of the Maldives 350,000 citizens do not live on Male’. “We elected [Nasheed], and when we woke up the next day it was like Male’ had brought down our president,” he said, adding that “the concept of a democracy is having a say.”

Although the political situation has changed, Fahmy said Friday’s rally “will stay on track” with its calls for judicial reform.

Squeezed by growing public and international pressure, and adjusting to the new leadership of commissioner Abdulla Riyaz who has been criticised for his lack of experience, the police are attempting to maintain a strict order.

“Police will take necessary actions, responding according to intelligence and our understanding of the motives behind public actions,” said police media official Ahmed Shiyam.

He did not specify if security forces are taking unique measures to secure Male’ during the upcoming demonstrations.

The face of public security has however been tainted by recent aggressive behavior towards members of the public.

One individual who requested anonymity reports being verbally harassed by police officers while walking on the street the day after Nasheed’s resignation.

“One of my friends was wearing a yellow tee shirt [MDP party color] by chance, not for any political reason, and these cops say, ‘Miaathun nah eves kameh nuvaane,’ or ‘these people can’t do anything’, but in a rude way,” said the source.

Within an hour of that incident, police attacked a non-violent MDP demonstration outside of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), sending over 50 individuals to the hospital and MDP party chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik to Sri Lanka for medical treatment.

This week, demonstrators have begun mocking police as the paid servants of Maamigili MP and Jumhoree Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim, who also owns the Villa Hotels chain. Prior to the official re-opening of MDP’s camp (haruge) yesterday, gathering party members taunted two police officers driving by at separate times with cries of “Villa police! Lari lari lari!” A lari is a fraction of the Maldivian currency rufiya, akin to a US cent.

While some police officers have told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that they regret the negative impact the actions of a reported few has had on their image, police Media Official Ahmed Shiyam today stated that “police are well-trained for anything that comes along and will act professionally.”

When asked whether the public should be more mindful, Shiyam said, “there’s no need for that. We know who is doing this, and it’s not all of the MDP nor is it always MDP who are harassing the police.”

Meanwhile, Friday’s rally will be preceded by a Silent White Movement on Thursday afternoon, calling for peace during protests and for justice for those security officials who have committed violations in the line of duty.

“Our concern is the current injustice that we are facing today as Maldivians, for not having the right to gather in peace and to raise our voice for freedom of speech,” reads the movement’s statement on its Facebook page.

“We demand the government to do a thorough investigation with the help of the international community, and seek the root cause of violence created among the civilians of this country. We believe this is a civil movement that supports justice and non- violation of human rights in the norms of international standards.”

Participants are requested to wear white or change their Facebook profile pictures to white color blocks in support. Approximately 2,000 people have confirmed their attendance.

A spokesperson from the movement emphasised that all members of the public of any party or organisation are welcome to join the event.

A separate demonstration calling for prompt elections has teamed up with the movement. To avoid any confrontation with the Gaumee Itthihaad party, which is today protesting against violent acts carried out by MDP members last week, the elections group is coordinating its efforts with the Silent White Movement’s event tomorrow.

The party of President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, Gaumee Itthihaad currently has approximately 2,600 members- 400 short of the 3,000 members required for registration and only 0.007 percent of the Maldives population.

Silent White Movement observed that demonstrations in the Maldives have a rocky track record, due in part to still-young democracy. Noting that protesting first began after prison guards killed Evan Naseem in 2003, the source said “it began as violent but after the new government came to power in 2008 protest became peaceful. But around 2010 protests became violent again with the opposition, probably because they had a political motive.”

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