Al Jazeera’s 101 East program has conducted an in-depth interview with new President of the Maldives, Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan. The original interview can be seen on Al Jazeera’s website. The transcript below was provided by Al Jazeera.
Fauziah Ibrahim: Let’s start with the events on Feb 7 when President Nasheed resigned. He says that it was under duress. Was it a coup?
Dr Mohamed Waheed: It wasn’t a coup. It’s been portrayed in the Western media as a coup d’etat. But the president resigned voluntarily. We have pictures of him having a Cabinet meeting following which he writes his own letter of resignation. And in front of the television camera, he announced he was resigning with his Cabinet standing behind him. He could have indicated even indirectly even if he was under duress. He didn’t. It took 24 hours before he changed his mind. I am convinced that he resigned voluntarily.
FI: Doesn’t it disturb you though that your presidency is being challenged and being undermined by these accusations?
DMW: Of course these are unfair accusations. We were totally unprepared, it took us by surprise. And therefore, we could not get our message across to the rest of the world, to tell them about our understanding, to tell what actually happened. He had the machinery already in place because all these people were appointed by him from his party only. And therefore all shifted with him to his house and began the media campaign to show to the rest of the world it was a coup d’etat. It wasn’t a coup d’etat, if you think it was do you think he would be out here talking to you and everybody else? You know there’s no restriction on his freedom and he is moving around. We have a democracy and we are respecting it. We welcome an independent investigation to find out exactly what happened. We will not be in the way of finding out the truth.
FI: We have seen footage of security forces out on the streets; we have seen people demanding for the resignation of the then president Nasheed. Mainly these people have been the security officers. That’s what we are seeing from the video. Also, we have video footage of your current defense minister entering the barracks and then coming out of the barracks demanding the President’s resignation. We see him also in the President’s office just before and just after the resignation. Now, at that point he was just a civilian. Why was a civilian given so much privilege access?
DMW: I have no idea because I was not part of what happened that day.
FI: Did you know this was going to happen?
DMW: No, absolutely not.
FI: But you met with opposition parties before this happened.
DMW: The opposition call for his resignation has been going on for a very long time. For almost three weeks we had serial demonstrations every night in Male, calling for the President’s resignation for various reasons. And when this thing happened, nobody expected this to happen. My understanding of the issue was that the president was issuing unlawful orders to the security forces and at some point, they decided that enough was enough and they were not going to listen to him. And that’s when he decides that he was going to submit his resignation. But he changed his mind afterwards.
FI: Why do you think he changed his mind? Why do you think he is now saying it was a coup?
DMW: I think he just lost it. He lost it and realised what a blunder he had made. Maybe this was a trick he was playing on the people; I don’t know. But he resigned voluntarily and in front of the camera. He could have said under the circumstances, I am being forced to resign, but he didn’t. He didn’t give any indication, any clue. He could have called me and said “Waheed, I am being forced to resign.”
FI: What would you have done?
DMW: I would not have taken the oath of office if he had said that. He should have called me, he didn’t. He called some of the ambassadors in this country asking for help, he called some of his party members, and he called the rest of the Cabinet in his office but he didn’t talk to me.
FI: Why do you think he didn’t call you, is because he didn’t trust you?
DMW: We haven’t been talking for a while except in the….
FI: Is it because he thought you were not part of his plans in the Maldives?
DMW: We all fought for democracy in the country. It was not a reversal. I was part of the democracy movement as well.
FI: It does seem like a reversal though now that you have appointed this particular civilian, a retired colonel as the defense minister, you have appointed Mohamed Jameel Ahmed Home Minister both of whom are known as supporters of ex-President Gayoom. You have also appointed Dunya Maumoon who is Gayoom’s daughter as the state minister of foreign affairs. Are we about to see Maldives slide back into dictatorship here?
DMW: I have also appointed to the Cabinet people from seven other parties. I am trying to form a national unity government. I want everyone to participate.
FI: But everyone is looking at the security forces and they are saying the people who head this security forces are Gayoom’s supporters.
DMW: That is not true. The Home Minister is not from Gayoom’s party. In fact, the current Home Minister was in Nasheed’s government. President Nasheed came to power in a coalition. He was unable to win by himself. We brought in other parties and we won the election. But soon after the elections, he decided to go back on his words. And get everybody out of the government. The Home minister was one of them and what we saw progressively after that was a gradual reversal of democracy. The head of state began doing things that were unconstitutional like locking up the supreme court, arbitrarily arresting political leaders and detaining them without charge, and finally we have this very bizarre situation where the president orders the military to arrest a serving judge.
FI: During these events, you served as vice-president. Did you object to his actions?
DMW: Yes, I objected and advised the president that it was not the way to go about it.
FI: Did he take your advice?
DMW: He does not take anyone’s advice. He is not somebody who takes people’s advice.
FI: Why didn’t you as vice-president then resign?
DMW: I spoke out; I said this is not the way to do things. I don’t particularly like these people or the judge, I don’t know him. This is not the way to go about it. There are constitutional ways where these things have to be done.
FI: Do you trust the judiciary in the Maldives?
DMW: I trust the judiciary but it has its problems.
FI: What sort of problems?
DMW: There are problems in the sense that it has to be strengthened like in the use of modern evidence; I would like to see that the judiciary becomes more independent; that they have more resources.
FI: It has been said that the judiciary in the Maldives cannot be trusted and it is corrupt and basically supports the Gayoom regime?
DMW: No, no, no. This is not rue. The Supreme Court was appointed by the president himself. He was the one who nominated the Supreme Court judges.
FI: When you took office, several high profile officials overseas resigned. Among them are the Maldivian ambassador to the UN who went live on Aljazeera, the High Commissioner to the UK also resigned, the Deputy High Commissioner who happens to be your own brother also resigned. He said he did not know why you were favouring Gayoom. He warned you not to join the people of the autocratic ruler Gayoom. How do you feel when you are being connected to the former dictatorial regime?
DMW: The High Commissioner and the deputy high commissioner who happens to be my brother were all appointed by Nasheed. Their loyalty is clearly with the former president. Most of the educated people in this country were educated in the last 30 to 35 years. And out of that, former President Gayoom ruled this country for about 30 years. So it is very difficult to find people here who have not served with President Gayoom or who have not been with this government. If you look at the closest people to former President Nasheed you will find that there were a lot of people with him were also with former President Gayoom and his government. So it is an unfair accusation that I am taking particularly side with Gayoom. That’s not true; of course I want all political parties to be involved in a political process. Therefore, it is also proper that we must bring people from his party in.
FI: Do you not think that the specter of Gayoom looms large over Maldives and this is why you have this political turmoil now?
DMW: Not entirely. Of course Gayoom is a factor because he got 40 percent of the votes in the last election. You know, he still has some support. The man has got to be given a little bit of respect.
FI: Do you want him to be here?
DMW: If he wants to that is his right. But there are other political leaders in the country now. There are other political parties here now. They all want to be part of the political process, not to be alienated. We need to have an inclusive process in which more political parties must be involved. We simply cannot swipe all the other parties off. This is the problem.
FI: It’s certainly very honorable that you want a unity government, that you want all the parties together in order to progress the Maldivian democracy. However it’s also been said there are larger powers than you who are the machinations behind what is happening in the Maldives. You are merely a puppet. Now what do you say to that.
DMW: No, this is not true. Because I have said, I have my terms on my coalition partners who are now coming into the government. What I am saying is that you guys nominate the people and I will put them into the Cabinet. It’s my choice where I put these people. And I also don’t want them to talk to me about the vice-president’s post because that has to be somebody who I choose and somebody who I think is not involved in politics and so on. I believe that is very important this time to build confidence in the government, in the political process. The best I can do at the moment is to facilitate the process that brings people together and create some healing. There are some deep rifts in politics in the Maldives at the moment and the way to go forward is not violence, or not coming out on to the streets. The only violence that has happened here is because of former President Nasheed. There is no other violence here.
FI: Much of the current political turmoil started in September last year (2011) when the Islamist group Adhaalath left Nasheed’s coalition saying that he was not doing enough to strengthen Islam in the Maldives. Do you think Islam needs to be strengthened in this country?
DMW: This is a Muslim country. Of course there will be some political parties that will promote Islamic values. This is also true in other countries. Even in Western countries there are political parties which espouse religious values. So as a Muslim country, you shouldn’t be surprised that there are one or two parties that will talk about this. You must understand in the Islamic world there is a whole range of views on what an Islamic society should look like. And in this country and in my Cabinet, we have a range of views. Most of the people in this country are educated. We have a 96 percent literacy rate and most of our young people have gone abroad and studied in Western universities. We have emulated liberal democratic values in our country.
FI: And yet there is a rising growing Islamic fundamentalist movement in this country as well. Do you think Shariah law will work in the Maldives as some are calling for?
DMW: You see, even now our legal system is based on the Shariah and the civil law.
FI: Do you think full shariah law should be or can be implemented in the country?
DMW: Well, it is for our parliament to decide. That’s what a democracy is all about.
FI: I put it to you that perhaps democracy does not work in the Maldives. We have seen Gayoom’s dictatorship end after 30 years. Then we have seen Nasheed come in and try o implement democracy. You are alleging that he was dictatorial in some of his ways. Perhaps democracy does not work in the Maldives because this is a country that bases itself on personalities rather than policies. Is this right?
DMW: This is what we are trying to change. We started a journey of a democracy and we want this to be on the path. These are some of the challenges that we face. But we are increasingly moving towards a society where first of all we uphold our constitution, we respect the rule of law and then we don’t have people who practice dictatorial methods. We have independent institutions, we have the human rights commission, the anti-corruption commission and an independent auditor general and so on. They have to be empowered to make sure there are enough checks and balances so that people don’t go in on autocratic directions.
This is a struggle, and this struggle did not start only in 2008. It started a long time ago and we all have suffered in the process and therefore we have a stake in succeeding in democracy. And democracy will continue, there is no doubt about it. I have no doubt that democracy is for all of us. It is not only a Western concept. We have grown up with these values and we want to live with these values. We want to live ion a democratic free society and I think it can be done in Maldives. But people have to give in a little bit, you every time you don’t like something that happens you can’t go out on the streets and start pledging and burning places. This is a more advanced country; we have more educated people here. It’s a peaceful place and we cannot give this kind of shock to the people in this country. It’s not fair.
FI: Mr President, thank you for speaking with us.
DMW: Thank you.
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What a complete liar Traitor Waheed is!
The woman calls herself an Islamic name, works for an Islamic news agency run by Muslims, and yet, doesn't wear the veil ordered upon her in the quran by her creator and lord, Allah SWT.
Mr.Ibrahim, I am disappointed with your Islamic parenting skills.
Waheed is a puppet! Puppets cannot answer properly; whether you repeat the question repeatedly thousand times. He himself doesn't actually know what is happening. Poor creature; so in love with the presidency, he is using his atheist children to promote him in the international world. How low can you get Waheed? Or should I say David? The name you are known within USA? You are a hypocrite! Go and hide behind the iron-fist lady Ilham! Waheed come and Waheed go, Waheed come and Waheed go!!!
He's so reeking o f the coup that he can't even answer straight. It's not President Nasheed who has lost it. It's this mad man who is so power hungry tha he snatched the seat of an elected president by siding with the hypocrites of the then opposition!. Why can't you answer the following questions straight?? How was Nazim there in mndf that day when he was a civilian?? You don't know, yet you saw him on tv announcing that he has given an ultimatum to the president to resign! Then, how did you appoint him the defense minister??you claimed president nasheed never called you on that day. Ass, you were sitting at the comfort of your home, and watching tv, watching the drama unfold, seeing your boss pleading with the forces and who's duty does it become to call and offer assistance?? You failed to be a good team player even!!! How can you make dr.jameel the home minister when he had unconstitutionally published material tantamount to spreading hadred and violence? Calling nasheed non-Islamic and a Zionist and every other blasphemous accusations possible. So you guys got rid of the non-Islamic president. Are you Islamic?? Don't you consume alcohol? Don't you have children who have Christian names, who celebrate Christmas?? Frankly I don't care about all these. But when you side with such people who wanted nasheed's government to fall calling it non-Islamic, then you being THE president today is very ironic right? You say nasheed did something so bizarre as to arrest the judge and he should have done it constitutionally by going to the parliament. Well, you douch bag, who was the then VP of nasheed's government, were you sleeping?? Do you know that the case raised by velezinee was sent to the parliament during september 2010 and is still pending since the then opposition ( the current ruling) had majority then and refused to look into it?? Do you know that judges were appointed against the law?? Do you know that the high and mighty judge who you are too protecting now had abolished Article 285?? And do you know that he sought to quash his own arrest, by sitting in the court?? And after all this, president nasheed was definitely right in getting the military to arrest him! You have partnered with those who called to close the spas, stop selling alcohol and pork, and to pack up GMR. Who ere theses?? These AR the money launders of this country who run these lavish spas, resorts that's sell all these! And these things still exist, 25days into your government! Hello ass, a least practice what you preach! Or don't preach! No matter what, the people of Maldives will never call you president! president Nasheed will remain our truly elected president!
WHAT A LIAR! WHAT A FOUL-MOUTH! GET READY TO CONFISCATE/FREEZE ALL THESE CONSPIRATORS' WORLDLY WEALTH! AND THAT WILL BE THE JUSTICE, THE MALDIVIANS DESERVE! PEOPLE OF MALDIVES, MAY JUSTICE AND FAIR-NESS PREVAIL! GET THESE CRIMNALS' WEALTH/ASSETS AND USE THEM FOR MALDIVIAN PEOPLE'S ADVANTAGE! PUT THESE GAYOUM /WAHEED & CO IN ABSOLUTE JAIL WITH JUST BRICK WALLS! DO NOT EVER LET THEM OUT! THEY HAVE NO DECENCY!
WAHEEDO IS NOT THINKING OF THE MALDIVIAN PEOPLE.; HE IS ONLY THINKING OF HIS BUT! IT DID COME AS A SURPRISE; THE PEOPLE's PROTESTS; I GUESS THAT WAS WHAT HE/WAHEEDO & PARTNERS TO CRIME/TREASON NEVER EXPECTED. FIRST THEY CREATED COMMOTIONS TO FOOL-PROOF MALDIVIAN PEOPLE; AND THEN USED TACTICS UN-ASHAMEDLY TO OUT A DECENT-DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESINDENT! THEY MUST HAVE THOUGHT THE CRIMINAL DEED COULD BE HIDDEN FROM THE TRUTH; BUT NOT SO.... WAHEED IS CLUTCHING THE LION TAIL; HE CANNOT LET GO! AND WHEN HE DOES LOSEN THE LION TAIL!!! WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENS! HIS ENERGY IS DRIVING FAST DOWN-HILL. HE:-THE WAHEEDO NEED TO BRING-IN MILITARY RULE TO SAVE-HIS -BUT; AND THAT IS WHAT HE HAS DONE! HE IS A MAN WHO HAS NO PEACE!!!! WAHEEDO THE DOG HAS NO REST-FUL NIGHTS! HE HAS NIGHMARES OF NOOSE ROUND HIS NECK;... FOR SURE. OU wIH THIS CRIMINALITY! OUT WITH CORRUPTION AND BIASED POLITICS IN MALDIVES; IN WITH DEMOCRACY AND PEOPLE POWER. LET THE BROTHERHOOD OF PEOPLE BE RE-ESTABLISHED!
I am so sorry Waheed. I shouldn't have treated you like that. I alienated you and tried to rule Maldives just like Qayyoom. I deserved what I got in return for my autocratic behaviour. Now I have realised that. 🙁
Great Interview Dr Waheed. You are a true leader who is sincere for the people of this country. Nasheed was selfish and thought of only himself. May god bless you President Waheed, we the people of Maldives are with you.
This guy is such a lair... how can he say alll that???? he might not have been involved in the coup.. but definitely He iz supporting the act because he seems to refuse and election and he is involving azimaa shukoor as the atorny general who is clearly maumoon abdhul gayooms AG. im very suprise because he his so blind after maumoon torturing his own family for long, hes having a coalition with people who dont want a democrasy but a dictatorship in maldives. its a shame. and yes nasheed wasnt the best of president but, he wasnt a dictator.. he loves the people and he did so much for the people. and jails were free of torture and police cudnt brutally beat any of its civilianz unlike the brutal regime.
What is Anni trying to do? First he resigns. 24 hours later he realises what an idiotic thing he has done, and tries to get back into the game. But lo and behold, Waheed has now become the president and Waheed seems determined not to give up his presidency! Anni asks Waheed nicely to resign and give Anni back the post of Presidency. But Waheed refuses! Then Anni starts to pout and becomes furious. He starts singing songs bout waheed being a Baagee Waheed (which doesnt make sense, because Waheed became Maldives president as per the constitution, but Anni has to spin some yarn and make up some tall tales so as to discredit waheed).
Anni takes to the streets and orders his protestors to torch places and engulf the whole of Maldives into chaos so that Waheed will realise the damage that MDP can do to this country and thus resign and give Anni back his presidency.
A silly story it may seem, but today, because of one mans (Anni's) stupidity, his greed and his lust for power, the whole of Maldives has become engulfed in chaos.
Good interview, Waheed, the Puppet, sounds very distressed and very eager to make the world believe that it wasn't a coup. Too bad, he was unable to answer questions with enough confidence to make people believe otherwise. Even saying that he didn't know what was going on, on the 7th, says it all! Resign Waheed, resign NOW before it really is too late for you!
he is a puppet. he only have 4 supporters in Maldives. please get him out of this country. Baagee(coup).Waheed
Shame that the mad thuggery party supporters of the mentally ill Nashids can not even understand how this interview went sad for ere intelligence , Welldone Dr waheed soon the votes will show you have done the best and the only thing MDP and there clowns who have posted here will know only to cry fox of Gayoom and not know anything beyond this sad bunch of fool who live in there world of drugs and alcohol so we can understand how they can infer and make sence of a situation just like there leader did and now crying foul of a coup, the stupid fellow did not have the guts to call it a coup when he gave the address to the nation and what more better place to call it a coup than that. Sad stupidity has no limits and o e is free to be unlimited stupidity ,guess this is also a right in democracies ...LOOOOL bunch of clowns
Hey clowns by the way this Goverment is been recognized by the world so please come to your sense and stop acting like stupid bunch of fools just like the most undemocratic leader of the Maldives Diaster Party
Get this Baboon out!Confiscate his assets. Neutralize! Let decency come back ino madive Society!Waheed! RESIGN!
Hey Giggly, looks like you are the clown here, not even realizing what the real issue here is. Maybe you are too drunk to know?! And guess nobody bothered to tell you that the international community is calling for early elections this year, and not in 2013? lol!
When the people who forced Nasheed to resign forcefully with the threat of not protecting him from the mutinying police and army are right behind him how does he say that he is being forced to resign. They made sure they took him back to his official residence and then placed the mutinying crowd outside that residence just to make sure he was under duress until Waheed took oath. Waheed is lying. Everyone who knows anything about Nasheed would know he would not resign unless he knew his life was in danger.
@Seyku Imran Abdullah
The man calls himself an Islamic name, works for an Islamic agency(BAQAAVATH PARTY) run by traitors, and yet, doesn’t give a damn about quran or the creator lord, Allah SWT.
Mr.SEYKU IMRAN, I am disappointed with your Islamic parenting skills. Tell ya mum n dad they have raised a lunatic with a beard. Always pointing out flaws in others. luk at ya self you hypocrite
@Giggly
mind giving us a list of the countries that recognized this government? im sure you wont list 5.
Waheed is part of this coup, he met with the coup leaders somewhere mid january 2012 and gave alliance to topple Nasneeds Government, it on media record. The coup leaders are hiding behind their puppet Waheed to create a charade of legitimacy for foreigners about this coup led dictatorship.
What a shame. You are bringing this country back to LLDC status.
All of you who are supporting Anni or Waheed,lets call for an independent inquiry now instead of an election.
That would remove all the doubts whicher way and if it goes Anni's way then Waheed would be thrown out and Anni would be re-instated instead of an election.
If it goes Waheed's way then Anni does not have a leg to stand on.
How can anyone say it is a military coup or not when different people say different things and no one knows the truth unless there is an inquiry?
This is being ridiculous or being just pathetically blind to reason.
waheed is a big liar, we all youth maldivians are aware this coup and if you tell to these media, the reality will not change we all beleive your a big papette of gayooms regime. you better get lost again from maldives.there is none of maldivian are within this brutual government.
if Dr Waheed deson't believe it was a coup then why has he set up a committee to investigate the coup?
@Maldivian
A man who went through torture and imprisonment for more than 6 years, 18 months of that in solitary confibement, went into exile away from his family, and led the movement for our country to become a democracy and became the first democratically elected President will not resign voluntary. No matter what spin anyone wants to put out, we cannot believe it. No reasonable man or woman will believe Dr Waheeds story.
Al Jazeera is from Qatar, right ??
Qatar is a hereditary monarchy; it has been ruled by the same family since the nineteenth century.
There is no independent legislature and political parties are forbidden; civil society groups outside the state are virtually nonexistent.
They even supported Saudi Arabia who sent troops to squash protesters (who were asking for democracy) in Barhein...
What are they talking about, then ??
Democracy is nothing but a vague theoretical concept for those camel riddin' desert dwellers !!
What a joke !!
Dr. Waheed when you couldn't convince your own brother of your innocence and legitamacy good luck with proving it to the 300,000 Maldivians and the rest of the world. You are the best definition of the word. "puppet"
Aljazeera is good in bashing third world poor east and south asian leaders. They never dare to take similar interviews from all those rich undemocratic dictatorial leaders in arab world and middle east or the colonizinizing imperialistic war loving leaders in america, europe and israel. So f***ing hypocrytic. Aljazeera is a very biased and bigotted channel.
We are so proud of you, President Waheed. After 3 years of foul language, and sweaty MDP activists taking the country in their hands, we are finally seeing a true leader. Once again we are proud of our nation.
@ Adora.. So you like the way this Waheed man behaved in the rally with his gagsters behind him swearing ... is that what you are proud of... You are a disgrace to this country .. Waheed must stop acting like an ibilees and let the Maldivians choose their president
I guess this is when I go and never come back. Pls forgive me for being a power hungry puppet and such a hypocrite. The masters showed me such a grand Kula Huvafen.
Hope you'll all remember the Come n Go song and dance though.
I guess it's time for me to Go n never come back. Sorry for being a power hungry puppet. They showed me a grand Kula Huvafen.
Pls try to remember my fitful Come n Go song and dance though!
"It wasn’t a coup. It’s been portrayed in the Western media as a coup d’etat. But the president resigned voluntarily. We have pictures of him having a Cabinet meeting following which he writes his own letter of resignation. And in front of the television camera, he announced he was resigning with his Cabinet standing behind him. He could have indicated even indirectly even if he was under duress. He didn’t. It took 24 hours before he changed his mind. I am convinced that he resigned voluntarily."
What a sad opening to pour out his guilt!