In February, a cabal backed by an ousted dictator and a group of extremist Islamists dealt a severe blow to nascent democracy in a country many people consider an island paradise: the Maldives.
In the past few weeks, the forces behind the new rulers have driven the knife deeper into the country’s wounded democracy. Without serious international pressure, people who struggled for freedom against dictatorship for so many years — and briefly tasted liberty — will be plunged into authoritarian rule coupled with a rapidly growing extremist Islamist agenda.
Three Danish legal experts published a report this month on their independent investigation into the events surrounding the resignation five months ago of the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed. They concluded that, according to international law, his ouster amounted to a coup d’état. The international community needs to take this report seriously.
Nasheed was charged this month with illegally arresting a judge while he served as president. It is clear that the charges are politically motivated, designed to eliminate him from contesting any future elections — if any are held. There is no chance he can expect a fair trial. If convicted, he could serve three years in jail.
The former president is not the only opposition activist being harassed by the new regime. The leader of the youth wing of his party, the Maldivian Democratic Party, Shauna Aminath, was arrested and detained, and other people who have taken part in pro-democracy protests have been severely beaten by the police. Demonstrators were released on condition that they did not participate in another protest for 30 days, in violation of the Constitution. Exiled democracy advocates have received death threats.
The Maldives’ journey to democracy was long and arduous. For 30 years, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ruled the archipelago with an iron fist. Opponents were jailed, torture was rampant, freedom of speech nonexistent. Toward the end of his rule, however, he developed a thirst for legitimacy and respectability, and appointed several reformist ministers in the hope that they could give him a better image in the international community.
In 2006, I visited the Maldives on behalf of Britain’s Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. I met Nasheed, who spent some 18 years in confinement or exile and at the time was under house arrest. I also visited others in detention and had discussions with leading reformers in the regime. I published a report calling for Nasheed’s release and a dialogue between the reformers and the opposition. To my surprise, events happened more rapidly — and seemingly more positively — than I had imagined. Within months Nasheed was freed, talks took place and two years later, in 2008, he became the country’s first democratically elected president.
Gayoom took up the mantle of opposition leader and vowed to return to power. Today, he is clearly pulling strings behind the scenes. His old people are back at his side, including his former police chief, Adam Zahir. Gayoom’s daughter is now the state minister of foreign affairs. Moreover, the economic mismanagement that marked Gayoom’s years in power has returned. When Gayoom retired, there was a budget deficit of 32 percent, which President Nasheed reduced to 10 percent by the end of 2011. This year, there will be at least a 27 percent deficit, in part because the new regime has waived billions in taxes from resort owners and wealthy individuals.
The rising influence of the Islamists is equally troubling. There is growing intolerance of non-Muslims, anti-Western sentiment is being whipped up and there is talk of fully implementing Shariah law. A prominent blogger, Ismail Rasheed, who dared to speak for religious freedom, was nearly killed in a knife attack, and later fled the country.
The new president, Mohamed Waheed Hassan, who had been Nasheed’s vice president, is clearly a puppet of both Gayoom and the Islamists, but he is unlikely to last. Already Gayoom has declared that Waheed cannot govern properly. When he has served his purpose, Waheed will be forced to make way for Gayoom’s return.
It cannot be in the interests of the Maldivian people or the international community to allow this state of affairs to continue. The charges against Nasheed must be dropped. Free and fair elections under the supervision of international monitors must be held before the end of the year, and Nasheed must be allowed to contest those elections. Police brutality must end.
If those steps are not taken, the country’s new leaders must face serious international sanctions: a targeted boycott of tourist resorts linked to the regime; a freeze on assets, particularly property owned by members of the regime in Britain or other parts of Europe; a travel ban on current government ministers, security forces, or others associated with the coup. The Maldives should also be expelled from the Commonwealth.
Despite expressions of concern by some Western officials, the response from the international community so far has been tepid at best. If we believe in democracy, if we oppose Islamism and if we recognize the threat to our own interests, we must stand up for Maldivian democrats and take action to restore the democracy for which the people have struggled for so long and have tasted for only a little more than three years.
Benedict Rogers is deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission in Britain.