It all came to an end on February 7 when Nasheed was forced to resign, effectively at gunpoint, writes political and digital strategist Samuel Coates for Conservativehome.
“Only one side had the luxury of making advance preparations for handling the aftermath, so inevitably the true nature of his resignation was lost in the fog of war. For the critical first 48hrs, history was written by the victor — almost everyone fell for the initial spin that Nasheed had taken it upon himself to resign due to public pressure and a police revolt.
That anyone had an inkling of what was really going on at that time was in large part down to Nasheed’s British international press adviser, Paul Roberts — who managed to blow the whistle about the coup to a few journalists whilst hiding in a President’s Office toilet cubicle, before fleeing the country. William Hague was the first major figure to condemn the situation and an article for ConHome by MPs John Glen and Karen Lumley was one of the first to tell it how it was. But overall international reaction was muted and mixed — the US and India recognised the new government immediately.
Since then, the world has kept turning and few seem to remember or care what happened in what is a strategically insignificant nation. Shortly afterwards, President Waheed had the pleasure of joining other Commonwealth leaders for dinner with the Queen to mark her Diamond Jubilee. As they politely tucked into brie and avocado terrine, wild sea bass and apple crumble soufflé, one wonders if Her Majesty was aware that Waheed’s allies had been publicly trashing her days before.
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Agree Nasheed was forced to resign from his post . This pressure was extorted by majority of Maldivian due to his continuous threat to Judiciary and his continuos breaching of the constitution.
If he had been decent enough to abide by the law and had threaten the public to be part of his gangs then he could have rule the country for next 10 years.
Sorry the guy was arrogant and was implanted by the some influential people to eradicate the Islam from this country.
I am truly ashamed of my country (USA) for condoning the coup by recognizing the traitor Waheed's illegitimate "government". Perhaps the Clinton's planned to holiday in the Maldives or something.
The Commonwealth certainly has taken the high road by calling the coup a coup and demanding restoration of the democratically elected President.
Anni the American people are with you and we will try to get our government to make amends by imposing crippling sanctions on the Gayoom/Waheed regime.
How can it be at gun point when Nasheed himself has told publicly that he did not say gun point?
He himself claimed that this gun point was made up by the media.
Was this a coup? Most probably since he was forced to resign. Was it a military coup?Most certainly not.
this was a coup but circumstances around Anni the dictator had forced him to resign.
Maldivian majority wanted him to resigned and i respect for him that but he is doing after resignation is not something which is good for the country.
What ever said and done he is only after the money and power and not for basic rights of people.