When people think about democracy immediately the mind flies to voting, elections, free speaking and parliament discussions.
Is that all it takes to be a democracy? Honestly?
Democracy, in its essence is much more than that and the main principle lies on a balance between duties and rights of both the citizens and their elected government. What I often see in countries with little experience in the subject, is that the image of democracy is being biased by media reporting on other countries bad practice and surely heavily influenced by showing shouting, criticism and disagreement between different political parties. Democracy, I’m certain, goes beyond what we might see in news and films.
Democracy is a very old social practical concept and way of ruling, born in Greece, Athens, following a popular uprising in 508 BC, a country that ironically is on the verge of collapsing and filing for bankruptcy due to the mismanagement of their elected governments over the last 40 years, which underlines the responsibility not only of the Government but the people who elected the team in power.
Coming from the Greek words “dêmo” (people) and “kratos” (power), the concept is one of the most respectable and practical social structures man created to avoid repression, misery, starving, abuse, and give equal opportunities to man and women, thus allowing society to develop by helping their citizens to grow and achieve a better standard of life. Although the word has two elements in it, I have frequently the feeling that the word “dêmo” is forgotten and only “katros” (power) is retained in daily political practice.
So what takes a government to install a democracy in a country? Moving from an era of dictatorship, a one voice ruling system, to an open and free social structure is not an easy task and it’s not free from obstacles. A society based on legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement, being those the fundamental normative rules, needs time to learn, time to practice and time to adapt.
I believe the Dhivehi people are very much today in such position and honestly any government in power (dêmo-katros) will not have an easy task. I am not praising nor defending your government here, surely there will be big mistakes like the airport handling to GMR, a fatal and nonsense approach to liberalism that Maldives will pay sooner or later, but experience shows that moving a country from a harsh past to a bright future will never be a popular task.
Maybe one of the best symbols of a consolidated democracy is when people stops saying “us and them” and just say “we” when talking about the elected team. I’m afraid Maldives is not yet there by the look of things.
Democracy brings along rules, duties and responsibilities that will neither be accepted easily nor quickly. Spain and Portugal first democratic governments know about that as both needed several decades to recover from 50 years of fascism and “throat slashing”, somehow thus being still today far away from other European countries.
As humans tend to resist changes, as it is somehow natural that people tend to go back to their comfort zone, thus the Maldives might see and suffer attempts to go back to the old ruling system (it happened in Spain the 23 February 1981 – six years after democracy was installed, a coup d’État took place by some generals of the army and a military assault of the parliament took place).
Obstacles will be several before the real democracy will be in place.
One thing certainly helps often a lot to speed up the process: the love the citizens and government have for their own country. Is this the case of Maldives? I really do not know. How deep and far do Maldivian love their country? I certainly I am not the one to answer the question.
Democracy at its beginning is risky if not closely surveyed due to the mentioned old behaviors insisting in coming back and ruling everybody’s life once more.
People think all is possible under a democracy including destroying the new system. In those situations the government has to be strong and not fall into the trap of patronising people, neither fearing their reactions, or the snake enchantments that the past will re-install.
An example of what I’m saying are the following historical facts: in 1981 Juan Carlos I, the King of Spain, solemnly declared in a clear and energetic way, during the coup d’État, that Spain would never go back to a fascist structure. The king’s firm position, was the most clear landmark the country could have in its path to democracy. Maldives might need a bit of the same, these days.
In today’s world, going back is not an option to be considered. So, does it means that the present government has to stay in power for ever? For another 30 years like the one before? I’m not the one to answer the question but the Maldivian people have something to say on the subject, I’m sure.
Democracy brings along respect for the law. A law based only in facts and equal rights and opportunities, being such mechanism a vital one to make people feel it is worth the change. Such a mandate, “one law for all”, has to be the first change to be made visible, thus fighting the old regime where law was equal to the interests of the ruler, often based on bribery and a system of favoring friends. Avoiding this will not be easily done but is crucial for the survival of democracy. If a government fails in this chapter, the failure will be massive.
Democracy means as well obedience. Armed forces are no longer the arm of persecution but the arm of law. That makes a big difference for a country. The same applies for judges.
The greatest difference, nevertheless, is that men and women are no longer just a labor force to serve a few, but are a vital resource in the country’s development and thus need to be treated as such.
That is the meaning of the word citizen, the soul of democracy. Universities, schools, opportunities and wellbeing for all, including the creation of jobs, are now THE priority, whereas in the past the priority was to fill the belly (if not the bank account) of the boss and his friends.
A real democracy never looks at the gender of its citizens, all deserve the same opportunities. In this sense, women have always had an important role in the family and community. In the early history of the Maldives, it was not uncommon to have a woman as a Sultana or ruler and it has been suggested that the society was once a matriarchy.
The Maldives is today writing a new social order, the step outline of its future. Once it will be written it will be the next generations that will judge. May Maldives become a very respectful country in the world.
Antonio V is a former teacher of the PF-IDEC University in Barcelona. He works as an adviser of management teams and is the coach of the High Management of the Catalan Police among other organisations. Antonio is a psychotherapist in the executive management area and former share holder of a business in the Maldives.
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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@ Antonio
some points
1. advice: cut the crap short! short and sweet, that's why twitter succeeded. Let us write long comments, you write a short article and we the spiders will take it from there...
2. you are right about being firm and stopping patronizing people. but implying that a sultana will solve our problems is wrong! In our situation a sultana never set a good example of leadership in history. Anni wrote a book in history and he frequently mentions dhon bulhaa faashanaa and rehendhi khadheejaa, none of these sultanas set good standards themselves.
Democracy is irrelevant.
For an optimal society to emerge, all that is necessary is honest men, modest women, the garroting of undesirables and most importantly - obedience to God.
In any case, let me remind you Mr. Antonio, that "democratic" Athens did not fare well against the more despotic Sparta during the Pelopponesian wars, which in fact turned out to be the death knell of Athenian hegemony in the Greek speaking world, in large part because the factionalization of Athenian society, following the demise of Pericles, was a barrier to effective decision making, hence, effective governance.
Now while we may not be at war, we do have important decisions to make as a nation and the disunity and factionalization of our country - which is salient to even the least observant of spectators - is to the detriment of good governance.
Is our democracy the original cause of this? Perhaps not, but it has at the very least exacerbated underlying tensions.
And unlike Aathenian democracy, which at least contained within it the admirable quality of prohibiting the participation of women, democracy in its modern manifestation will only serve to emaciate us men, by forcing us to indulge the conceited and vain desires of a delicate gender, that are often well meaning, but not necessarily suited to involvement in politics.
Is this:
(http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-26/world/turkey.gay.pride_1_head-scarf-rainbow-flags-homosexuality?_s=PM:WORLD)
What we want?
Really?
Now while I do not want to speculate on the 'true origins' or whatnot behind the ideology of democracy - I would keep in mind that the denizens of the Classical Greek world had sufficiently easy Naval access to the south east mediterranean, and thus, to the Semitic communities contained therein...
As a Spaniard, you may also be aware, that the rise of the Spanish Hapsburgs as a European hegemon occured after the expulsion of a certain group of people - who feld en masse to the Ottoman Empire.
Following those events, who became the sick man of Europe, and who became a colonial superpower?
Things to consider...
Good points Antonio. Spain is a good example of a very complex society that has gone through many transformations over the centuries. A Spaniard will, perhaps, understand these issues better than most other Europeans. However, I have to point out that, even Spaniards love to forget certain parts of their history.
Unless you make a concerted effort to study it, it's very difficult to find an objective history of the colourful history of Spain. I'm talking from personal experience.
Let's leave Spain for now and talk about the Maldives. What we see today is a result of some shortsightedness on the part of our campaigners for a democratic Maldives. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. We left the old vultures in place, and just covered the country with a nice democratic dress!
The result is that we've been constantly trying to mend that dress which the vultures have been trying to shred to pieces! A bit of plaster here and a stitch there won't do the job. We need some major surgery. We need to cure the inner disease first; easier said than done, of course.
As you've said, firm action needs to be taken before it's too late. It's already way too late. I prefer what's happening now than what's gone for the last 3 years. The government and the opposition both ought to realise how much damage they can do to each other if they try a fist fight (which is on now).
Someone will blink first. Whoever walks out weaker in this latest episode will leave reverberations in our infantile democracy for years to come. They could be for the better or for worse.
Spain is not a complicated country at all.
1. Iberian Peninsular taken over by the Romans.
2. After the Western Empire fell, it was left to the Visigoths.
3. The Visigoths were conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate - and that dynasty remained in place, after the Abbasids took over the Middle-East+African territories.
4. There was a Golden age centred around Cordoba.
5. Eventually Christian Princes succeeded in their Reconquista; with Ferdinand and Isabella defeating the the last "Moorish" stronghold of Granada in 1492.
6. The Muslims were forced to convert or be expelled.
7. Hapsburg Dynasty comes to power under Charles V in 1521, who becomes holy Roman Empire in that same year - and this dynasty would rule Spain until the war of the Spanish succession brought a Bourbon to the throne in the early eighteenth century.
8. The Jews were expelled, which greatly facilitated their rise to become a great power.
9. Yada yada -. 19th century nationalism, 1884 revolutions don't effect them much, Simon Bolivar - Latin American independence movements, yada yada.
10. Yada yada, civil war - General Franco wins; Spain becomes fascist, and stays fascist until the 1970's - yada yada, they become a constitional Monarchy.
Simple stuff. Even my young daughter can recite these things by heart, and she is an idiot.
Mr Anotnio, perhaps you should leave Dhivehin to figure for themselves what democracy means to them.. Unlike Europe and US they may not need a holocaust and 2 world wars killing millions to understand what they can achieve through democracy, You got the point?
This is an excellent article, but people competent enough to understand it would already know about what you talked. Nevertheless a reminder much needed.
@Antonio
as a student of history, I would like to state that Maldives was never a Matriarchy, but it did follow a social system even now practices by the upper cast's in the Malabari coast, called the Marumakahthayam, a social system of matrimonial inheritance (This helped the warrior casts to retain their property and stay relevant, even after devastating loss)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marumakkathayam
Also Democracy the word came from Greece indeed but it is said that the social system which today known as Democracy was practised within the City states of the Indus valley. That would at least pre-date it to 2000 years from ancient Greece, but this is the less contentious dating.
@Dhivehi Hanguraama
You seem to be in favour of the despotic military dictatorship which practices strict eugenics laws, nonetheless gross violation of rights, enabled them to gain a excellent military.
talking in favour of eugenic Sparta, you are treading on think ice.
While the gist of what Anotonio might be trying to say maybe true, I am not at all impressed with the delivery.
Cronyism
"In many countries Malik and Awadalla point out, it is the state that provides the best jobs, and these jobs are garnered through a system of political connections typically. For many in the Middle East, success is a nice civil service job. The Magreb and Arabia are not couldrens of entreprurship. Enreprenurship needs economic freedom. The establishment prefers not to unleash economic freedom because they fear (rightly) that their power as Masters of the Desert will be challenged."
http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2012/01/cronyism-the-reason-for-the-arab-spring/
Maldives jumped more or less leapfrogged into industrial age transitioned from a monarchy into a despotic republic, and so to keep it all within the state ie: the ruling elite, cronyism was what was in truth practices here. We are slowly moving away from that path, but it looks as if some still are in fear of letting the crony reins go. Unluckly this process would be slower now because the state of the world economy is in decline.
Kangaroo courts set up the dictatorial Nasheed government is definitely a democracy!
The Maldivian have been under oppression for all the known history, people have been seen as some kind of garbage by those who thought they are rulers. The so called self empowered rulers regarded common man to be unprivileged who had no right to voice against these kingpins. In a way this kind of mentality was justifiable, because the people and government was not an organized entity. Government was a personal business and people’s affairs were not any part of the government. There was no tax system neither forced labor system to work for these kingpins. Under this feudal system, the self proclaimed kings or chieftain who resided in Male’ did not like the so called unprivileged mainly islanders to talk about them or criticize them and within this culture some kind of written laws were surfaced and slowly evolved without any progress with the people integration to governmental system. Without any real education on what people’s power is all about, the so called limited democracy is now introduced. People now believe that they elect governments to feed them, and almost babysit for them without realizing that they are the one who should feed the government for creating and organizing an environment for the people to work and earn to organize their life the way the individual see fit for him. Unless this misconception is cleared we will not see reconciliation with people and their elected governments. The misconception is not with the people only, even the ruling people have same old mentality that whatever they do has to be appreciated by the people, because they are the privileged people. This rift now divided between party lines. The government became the partner of those who support them; the unprivileged are those who do not support the government.
@ duke
Typical comment of frog in the pond Maldivians. Why do you feel no body outsdie the Maldives has the right to say anything about us? We can comment about everyone else ? When did we get this arrogant?
Oh,Antonio,Antonio.
Thou attempeth to re- brand and re-invent democracy.
Et Tu, Antonio
Dear! We are entering into the new world order!! When the people reject the gay's, alchole sales..etc, mostly the new world order cannot digest that! We are entering to a very dangerious phase! President Nasheed and Zaki are master minds!! this country is already sold to zionist!!
Publish my comments Minivannews, so that all may learn from my wisdom!
@Ahmed Bin Addu bin Suvadheeb
Spain is not a complicated country at all.
1. Iberian Peninsular taken over by the Romans.
2. After the Western Empire fell, it was left to the Visigoths.
3. The Visigoths were conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate – and that dynasty remained in place, after the Abbasids took over the Middle-East+African territories.
4. There was a Golden age centred around Cordoba.
5. Eventually Christian Princes succeeded in their Reconquista; with Ferdinand and Isabella defeating the the last “Moorish” stronghold of Granada in 1492.
6. The Muslims were forced to convert or be expelled.
7. Hapsburg Dynasty comes to power under Charles V in 1521, who becomes holy Roman Empire in that same year – and this dynasty would rule Spain until the war of the Spanish succession brought a Bourbon to the throne in the early eighteenth century.
8. The Jews were expelled, which greatly facilitated their rise to become a great power.
9. Yada yada -. 19th century nationalism, 1884 revolutions don’t effect them much, Simon Bolivar – Latin American independence movements, yada yada.
10. Yada yada, civil war – General Franco wins; Spain becomes fascist, and stays fascist until the 1970′s – yada yada, they become a constitional Monarchy.
Simple stuff. Even my young daughter can recite these things by heart, and she is an idiot.
Dear Antonio,
Enlighteneing read, thankyou Professor,
Yes, I also am a faranji who loves Maldives. I am beginning to doubt whether it is even possible for a Judge or a politician to do the 'right thing' according to what constitues right and wrong in a liberal democracy, even if you had the most honest intentions and were the most disciplined person.
Yet we must always keep the good ideals in our heart, as long as we do not lose hope that oneday the ideals most want to realize can be realized, the struggle will be worth it.
Dear all. Thank you for reading my comment and opinion and writing comments about the subject. It is clear that Maldives has a bright future, just needs some pushing.
Thank you Mr. Plewright.
Indeed we are a few that love Maldives, but like In any love relation, will we be corresponded? I was not in the airport affair ...
I would like to say a few words to the Gentleman writing on behalf of The Dhivehi Hanguraama: I am sorry to ear that about your young daughter. Really sorry.
As per your list of facts concerning the history of Spain, please allow me to say that your knowledge needs to undergo some revision, particularly in the first steps mentioned by you. Sometimes wiki is wrong.
I wish you all dear Maldivians readers and foreigners a good weekend.
Mr. Antonio
My daughter, like her mother, is a happy imbecile, and well taken care of; do not worry about her. I certainly don't.
I was not relying on Wikipedia in fact; admittedly, my knowledge of European history is far stronger from the 1500's onwards, it is a fact that the Romans took over the Iberian peninsular following their punic wars with Carthage (as New Carthage was located there I beleive) - and that the Visigoths were the dominant group that inhabited Spain before the Umayyad conquest.
And the rest of the facts were not meant to be comprehensive. I could go into detail about what the Spaniards did to the Nahuatl speaking peoples of New Spain - their relatively efficient encomienda system; how their empire brought them great wealth, but also inflation by dint of an influx of large quantities of Mexican silver and Gold into their economy.
I could talk about the plagues Spanish settlers inflicted on the denizens of what were the Mexica, Mayan and Olmeca peoples - (and incidentally, how cruelly Spanish administrators treated the Native "Indians" to the extent that even the Crown shared les Casas disgust) - and how you needed to import large quantities of slaves from North Africa to replace the concomitant loss of labor, which was needed to maintain the encomienda system.
I could even talk about the war of the Spanish succession and Louis XIV and his efforts to force his own dynasty upon your country through his grandson, and thus replace the prevailing, largely inbred Hapsburgs - who, by the way, had squandered most of Spains wealth trying to uphold Orthodox Catholicism throughout the entirety of their vast empire (exactly how many times did the crown default on its debt again? I honestly do not know).
By goodness, I could even write at length about the anarchists linked to the Spanish civil war . Ditto for Franco, the mad Catholic fascist dictator.
So what is it about my understanding of Spain and its history that is lacking and innaccurate?
And how is the experience of Spain at all illustrative, when speaking of the Maldives?
Whoops, forgot to mention the attempts to crush the Dutch Revolt - another quixotic* Hapsburg adventure that hugely contributed to the drain on Spanish finances.
*And yes, I have read Don Quixote.
Spain is not a particularly complicated country; a Catholic superpower that largely became irrelevant after 1659 (and its relative power within the European balance had been excessively prolonged anyhow, by dint of France being plunged into a religious civil war - followed by the Frondes, before the Sun King took over.)
Its experience, while making for interesting reading, is far too different to the Malives - to make any comparisons viable.
well played faeed you have given Minivan news all three of my emails 🙂
save the trouble of handing that too
any more hacking from people will not end well I assure you not to mention cutting of my internet and having the auditors play in the most opportune moment of of my grand aunts demise while my father was away...
it was apparent that some one wanted me to say something but wanted me to lash out at the same time 🙂
and yes I do like my Horrocops in the mail along with my pagan mail that comes monthly and from California and Texas as far as my personal studies are concerned that's the chapter I am on now
so happy that security is breeched now I dont moderate my out let ...
Hi Antonio glad to see you are helping us shape our future
you can have this too its the flag Gundam (read Up) used choronolize everything also the replacement for the msn email used to tell the story of 25yrs of oppression from using only song titles and link clipping from sites like Mininews MSN back in the day had that feature prior JULY 2005 it was then used later to prove it was me by the software called adium IN UK in 2008 with the help of the fB page it is linked to date
why am I making all this public its served its purpose and I dont have anything to hide your more than welcome go through them the passed is lased in the fb choronicals somewhere linked to a you tube link coded covt angel
as for me I will remain undecided in the current political arena till the very near end