A visitor to Australian shores, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, might best have exemplified what’s wrong with local politics, reports the Herald Sun in Australia.
Perhaps both politicians and the public take the nation’s democratic tradition for granted.
Mr Nasheed, from an island nation that stands to suffer immeasurable damage from climate change, launched a staunch defence of Mr Rudd and his decision to delay the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
The first democratically-elected leader of the Maldives, Mr Nasheed, who spent much of his life a political prisoner, made it clear to journalists he wasn’t just trying to curry favour with the Prime Minister.
“I’ve spent half my adult life in jail, and I’m not a person to say things that I don’t believe in,” he said.
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