Recent political developments not only confirm that democracy certainly is not ‘the only game in town’ – which is the simple test of consolidated democracy according to political scientists Alfred Stepan and Juan Linz – but also make one doubt whether there has been a completed democratic transition in the Maldives.
Two issues – the increasing inability of the government to generate new policies, and the de jure and de facto sharing and blurring of the powers of the executive with those of the legislature – put into question the transition to democracy.
‘Cash for votes’ in the parliament, the failures of the judiciary, reaction from government to predatory politics, the inaction of the civil society, the unreflective ‘political society’ polarized between two violent tribes, show that games from the authoritarian era can still be the favourites in town.
Failure of institutions VS human failure
Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, who is also trained in law, recently argued that the reasons for the current impasse lie in the institutional design of the 2008 constitution. President Nasheed agreed at a press conference on Wednesday. The unique features of presidentialism are also the institutional reasons for similar political deadlock as argued by others like Linz.
Yet institutionalism is not a sufficient reason – for either evil or good.
For, even perfect or just constitutions may not result in good outcomes or realisations.
As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen powerfully argues in his recent book The Idea of Justice the compliance of people’s behaviour with the demands of institutions is necessary for comprehensive good outcomes.
Wealthy parliamentarians can buy votes, minority parties can filibuster and disrupt parliament’s work, parliamentarians can block legislation and misuse constitutional provisions, authorities can arbitrarily arrest people and bypass due process, judges can be biased, executive can ignore court orders, and oversight bodies can be power-ridden.
To avoid, therefore, ‘justice in the world of fish’ where powerful predators devour the rest, both institutions and behavioral compliance, both processes and substance, are essential.
The persistence of predatory culture
Recent revelations show that predatory practices in the country are shockingly persistent. If what Larry Diamond, who has extensively written on political transitions, describes as ‘predatory society’ is an ideal type, the Maldives may not be far away from it. He describes, and I quote in length from Civic Communities and Predatory Societies:
In the predatory society, people do not get rich through productive activity and honest risk-taking. They get rich by manipulating power and privilege, by stealing from the state, exploiting the weak, and shirking the law.
Political actors in the predatory society will use any means and break any rules in the quest for power and wealth. Politicians in the predatory society bribe electoral officials, beat up opposition campaigners, and assassinate opposing candidates. Presidents silence criticism and eliminate their opponents by legal manipulation, arrest, or murder. Ministers worry first about the rents they can collect and only second about whether the equipment they are purchasing or the contract they are signing has any value for the public.
Legislators collect bribes to vote for bills.
Military officers order weapons on the basis of how large the kickback will be. Ordinary soldiers and policemen extort rather than defend the public. In the predatory society, the line between the police and the criminals is a thin one, and may not exist at all. In fact, in the predatory society, institutions are a façade. The police do not enforce the law.
Judges do not decide the law.
Customs officials do not inspect the goods. Manufacturers do not produce, bankers do not invest, borrowers do not repay, and contracts do not get enforced. Any actor with discretionary power is a rent-seeker. Every transaction is twisted to immediate advantage. Time horizons are extremely short because no one has any confidence in the collectivity and its future. This is pure opportunism: get what you can now. Government is not a public enterprise but a criminal conspiracy, and organized crime heavily penetrates politics and government.
Again, he says that “Corruption is the core phenomenon of the predatory state.”
The problem with such a society is that it cannot sustain democracy.
How to leave Las Vegas
President Nasheed’s government no doubt represents a victory against the forces of predation. However, some reasonable people have questioned whether his government’s recent reaction to predatory politics was legitimately conducted.
Of course, as value-pluralists like Isaiah Berlin remind us, we may take the risk of drastic action in desperate situations. So to give the government the benefit of the doubt, legitimacy aside, it is questionable if the government’s actions such as arrests and fomenting masses will lead to improvement.
Writing about political deadlocks, political scientist Scott Mainwaring has this to say:
“Common among populist presidents, such a pattern [i.e. mobilizing masses] easily leads to escalating mutual suspicions and hostilities between the president and the opposition.”
Moreover, by detaining otherwise predatory characters on questional grounds, we are giving them the benefit of victimhood and making them ever strong and popular. There is no greater tragedy to responsible opposition politics than having predatory characters as the most popular.
To my mind, therefore, there is no alternative to talks as an immediate measure, and strengthening institutions of horizontal accountability such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Audit Office, and the judiciary for long haul.
As a discursive yet instrumental tool, government must strengthen its public communication and pressure the parliament into compliance through public sphere.
As a permanent policy, it is time the government took for granted that it is a minority in the parliament, gave way for real negotiations rather than consultations, and got prepared for painful compromises.
Politics after all is the art of the possible.
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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Comment: The politics of arrogance
awesome stuff, I really found the line "Moreover, by detaining otherwise predatory characters on questional grounds, we are giving them the benefit of victimhood and making them ever strong and popular. There is no greater tragedy to responsible opposition politics than having predatory characters as the most popular" to be important. Out of desparation for justice, some of us are pushing for Yamin to be victimised, yet we are turning him into a hero...
good article
@Ben
Its really not enuf to just state the problem. What is the solution?
Following the normal procedure surely does not work since the courts are surely biased.
Don't get me wrong - I am all for fairness. But when the crap hits the fan, you find the best possible protection the fastest way possible.
Thank you! Let us hope for better days ahead.
Countries other than Maldives can take lessons from this comment piece too 🙂
First, for some reason this article reminds me of Dr Shaheed's writing style! Sextus should have made it more accessible to laymen. As an article on a newspaper, this is a bit too academic for my liking. But, over all, I liked the ideas and I liked the article.
Now to the content of the article.
"President Nasheed’s government no doubt represents a victory against the forces of predation."
I thought I am the only one who is yet to see this victory. But reading into the article I realised that Sextus is also on the same boat.
"As a permanent policy, it is time the government took for granted that it is a minority in the parliament, gave way for real negotiations rather than consultations, and got prepared for painful compromises."
I cannot agree more.
This is probably the best sentence in this article. The real problem is the government does not believe that it is the minority. Nor does the government believe that it is a coalition.
The government is always projected as an MDP government and in my mind, this is where the change should begin. If the government can work as a coalition, and involve everyone in its running, it will probably face less antagonism. But this is not what we are seeing.
What we are seeing is the advice of MDP's parliamentary members to reduce the coalition. First they advised to cut off all links with Dr Waheed's party, then Jumhoory Party. God only knows what will be the next.
It appears as if MDP believes that this whole thing is an MDP affair and others are not wanted for the running of the government. But, I think, unless MDP learns to play as a team, things will continue to be rough.
No constitution is perfect. No system of government is perfect, even Koran the word of God changed to address the issues of Mohamed's generation ie abrogation. No man is perfect, but some are more intelligent, clever, brave, accommodating etc. The problem here in the Maldives is the present President and his MDP gang do not have the capacity, the intelligence, political know how to govern the Maldives. Mr. Nasheed has a preconceived set of revolutionary ideas which he feels will achieve his goals when he trigers a certain event. For instace Nasheed calculated that mass resignation of the cabinet and coming out on the road to demonstrate would attract crowds that would intimidate the parliment and the judiciary to fall in line with MDP's ideas. However, as usual it was a blunder so is the detention of Yamin. The only way forward for the Maldives is to dispose Mr. Nasheed and his crowd and bring in place government that is mature wise and accommodating.
We cannot just allow the wheel to go according to the possible. We have to fight for justice and what we deserve and let the public know that they are fighting for it. If the majority refuse then seek to negotiate. Politics is also a challenge and a fight to win the cause and the principles one believes in. We believe in true democracy and hate nepotism and corruption. So we should fight for our cause. Some of these business tycoons quest for power and wealth was known to many of us. They have got filthy rich on the expense of us the public and have ripped us off. We should fight to eliminate this culture and this attitude. Its time for them to payback.
Royal Class Syndrome,
I have thought about solutions also, I thought Sextus's solutions were very helpful where he said, "To my mind, therefore, there is no alternative to talks as an immediate measure, and strengthening institutions of horizontal accountability such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Audit Office, and the judiciary for long haul." (Sextus)
And Sextus said, "As a discursive yet instrumental tool, government must strengthen its public communication and pressure the parliament into compliance through public sphere. " (Sextus)
I also thought of more long term solutions related to the overall structure of the Maldivian society and its history.
In the seventies and eighties, the US Government supported right wing predators all over the world preparing these nations for “liberal democracy.” (Top down democratisation approach) The dictators main job was to secure the economic interests of the rich and control the poor with both religion and brutality until the poor were rich enough to be trusted with freedom.
It was believed that when the economy had reached a level of growth great enough so that most were in the middle class, and also educated, that they could be trusted to vote along more rational lines. Massive poverty implied that voting would encourage votes for either violent radicals (Communism was the main threat at that time but Islamic extremism is the Maldivian equivalent) or else by those who bribed the poor or threatened them, both characteristic of non-moral people Sextus's predators). It was believed that once ppl had wealth and education, they would vote for internal peace to secure their business or work interests and also, could not be bribed or moved by violent radicals. Also, keep in mind that this approach went hand in hand with a tricle down economic theory, big business would trickle down, in THEORY. With this approach, take Maldives example, the elite were given control over tourism and resorts and it was eventually meant to trickle down to the poor so that the poor could be rich enough eventually to be democratic and rational. According to the theory, the dictators were just supposed to step down and out of power peacefully and allow voting once the ppl were ready.
Two huge problems with this theory. The first was that wealth did not always trickle down, rich get richer poor get poorer. Second problem, was that dictators do not step down, and that once ppl felt ready, the dictators tried to become more oppressive to hold onto power. Democracies were won through struggle, resistance. We saw this in Maldives. But, becaue of the fact that the wealth did not trcile down and the poorest are not educated, the poor are still vulnerable to being bribed, intimidated into voting for predators (Yamin or whoever) so PERHAPS the problem with predators is that the society is not rich and educated enough outside of Male' itself, the wealth needs to be tricled down by taxxation measures which Yamin is rejecting because that would stop him from being a predator...
I am wondering, if Anni usurps absolute power in the name of eradicating un-democratic elements, would he then just be able to give that power up once Yamin was gone and the constitution was fixed...
It is a catch 22, if Anni does not clamp down on undemocratic elements, they will continue to bully the nation, yet if he does, Anni may get addicted to power and may begin to bully the nation himself IF the ppl are not free from dependance on the centralised Male' Government.
Also, keep in mind, Anni may never get these taxation measures, they may be blocked forever, so lets look at a third solution, bottom up democratisation.
Bottom up democratisation depends on developing businesses on the islands or even on Male’ through a bottom up approach, so that, they do not depend on the Kathib (island chief) who takes his orders from the central Government. This way, they can get cash and education and not depend on wealth to trickle down for that to happen, and not have to depend on favours from some rich power hungry demigod like figure (predators) for any survival (free from Yamin or Gasim or…whoever)
I am talking about Sen’s other idea, bottom up democratisation. So, for example, you ask the Islanders, what sort of business would they like to do, lets say they say, cultural tourism. Instead of depending on the central Government for support for this(which gives power to the leader and encourages the leader to be more dictatorial) they can be given the resources and skills from outside aid programmes who have no dependancy on your Government. That way they could be free to develop to the point of not voting for radicals, not being bribed and be able to afford education to vote rationally. They would not vote for men like Yamin then, so this is the solution to taking men like Yamin out of the picture if taxation policies are blocked by parliament.
At the same time, centrally, the struggle to readjust the constitution etc.. in the Majlis must go on.
This way, Anni does not have to be a dictator and usurp absolute power, but eventually the rich would not be able to intimidate or bribe the poor into voting for them eventually anyway…
As a matter of fact, you could even do it in Male with your Paartey’s,
What do you think? Please give me your feedback on that one…
What this article misses is a fundamental, and very important, aspect of Anni's political DNA which has led to the current situation. Anni is obsessed with validation from foreign powers - if you count the number of trips he was abroad during the last 20 months, no wonder he is in a pickle now. The Maldivian government has been infiltrated by white, colonial powers some of whom have a Christian agenda.
Good quotes from various intellectuals but the analysis and conclusions are rubbish.
A beautiful article and precise references. A few would really grasp the actual points, but overall, its beautiful simple straight forward observations.
It's not a matter of black or white, Christian or Muslim as indicated in some comments. Everyone one must realize we are in deep shit blamed on both ruling and opposition. We cannot mediate between ourselves, and we should not depend on super powers who least understand our core issues.
Why not pick respectable clean names like Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, or someone from a muslim country....we have seen it work. In Northen Island, in Koreas, in Africa. Negotiation to allow a smooth running of the political system is urgently needed before we end up in a financial crunch!
RULE OF THE JUNGLE OR RULE OF LAW?
Predator? Predation? Are you all so conveniently talking about this? .. 😉 I knew that it will come to a point everyone will agree on it and pretend that it is a normal thing.
That's the worst thing you can do right now. The "predators" shouldn't be allowed to feast on rights of the people. If you allow them to do whatever they want, that would be the law of the Jungle. We can't implement it on humans. Humanity has to act otherwise.
"The solution is simple?" Then why is it that we find ourselves in this deadlock? Because we have allowed the "predators" to run loose for too long.
No! The solution is not just to talk with them. Sure we have to try and do all that is possible to find solutions through dialog, but not without consequences for so called "predators". They have to give in for the sake of the good of this nation and humanity. The talks should not end up with a victory to the "predators".
That's where the President has to stick to his real job. That is to be a real leader of all people of this nation (not just MDP) and do whatever necessary to uphold the constitution of the Country. If he doesn't do that and try to compromise with the "predators" that would be in reality "unconstitutional" and "failing the whole nation". The results will be chaotic.
I believe the article is beautiful and it talks about the problems and solutions but the reality is confused here. Predators shouldn't be allowed to succeed over the rule of law at any cost. No compromises should be made to jeopardize the rights of people of this nation. No example should be set to the people to accept any sorts of evils. That has gone for too long and it had spoiled this nation from top to bottom. Now its time for the leadership to clean this nation from all evils.
WHAT DO YOU WANT? RULE OF THE JUNGLE OR RULE OF LAW?
A HUMBLE MESSAGE TO MR.PRESIDENT
Kindly, Sir, Do not give in to the evils of this society. That would be the worst thing that a leader can do and that would be the footsteps of all previous leaders (corrupted and gone astray) that had actually resulted this nation to loose its social,ethical and spiritual fabric.
History will not judge you, Sir, on the temporary solutions, but on the permanent solutions. And that would be your legacy.
IT'S A CHOICE BETWEEN RULE OF THE JUNGLE OR RULE OF LAW.
Sextus, are you involved in advisory role, maybe look into it?
http://dopreview.blogspot.com/2010/07/corruption-in-open.html
please check this article, and yes these guys have been involved in such corruption for a long time...
\acc should have a look at this.