World Affairs
Male People to Solve Problems with no Foreign Intervention
Crisis continues in Maldives with no sign of its resolution in near future.
On Feb1 st, 2018, the Maldives Supreme Court nullified the govt’ s imprisonment of Male’ s Vice President and the arrest warrant against Mohammed Nasheed, the ex-President of Male. It ordered the release of other political leaders and reinstated 12 members of Majlis( Parliament), whom the govt. has disqualified last year. The Court also ordered the govt. to convene the Majlis.
But the Male President Abdul Yameen has refused to comply with the Court orders. The Govt. stormed the Supreme Court premises on Feb 5 th, 2018 and arrested the Chief Justice and another Judge. On the same night, the President has declared a state of emergency. A day later, the govt. has also arrested the Chief Justice and all the political leaders in the Opposition including Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who ruled Male for 30 years. All these out and out autocratic and suppressive moves have triggered off mass protests and plunged the country in turmoil. The crisis brought a vertical division among the Male’ s ruling classes.
Maldives is an archipelago of nearly 1200 small islands with a population of 4, 27,000. It is starved of economic resources and it excessively depends on revenues earned from tourism. As an island located near key shipping lanes, Male occupies a
10 strategic place in the Indian Ocean.
Male was under the dictatorial rule of Maumoon Gayoom for 30 years. Only in 2008, Mohammed Nasheed became a first elected President. He came into clash with the Chief Justice and had gone to the extent of arresting him. He was forced to resign in the face of police mutiny. He suffered defeat in 2013 elections and Abdulla Yameen became the President. Nasheed was jailed on the charge of terrorism. He is in exile since 2016 to evade the arrest.
Thus the ongoing crisis is a manifestation of an intensified contradiction and power struggle between the two sections of ruling classes, one led by Yameen, who heads the govt. now in Male and another led by Nasheed who leads the opposition in Male from exile.
In terms of international relations, the present Male govt. is closer to China. It preferred China to India in developing economic, political and strategic relations. On the other side, Nasheed is appealing for India’ s intervention in Male’ s crisis. He even called for a military intervention. He is trying to impress upon the Indian rulers that an end of present Yameen’ s regime in Male will be in India’ s interests too as it helps to end China’ s growing influence in Male and turn the situation more favourable for India.
So, Male’ s crisis is essentially an internal problem. How to protect the interests of the country, lives and rights of people is the main concern of the people and democratic forces in Male. The sections of ruling classes who are locked in a dog fight for power are only complicating the problem and diverting the people’ s attention from the real issues.
Here another question is: Cannot a small and weak country like Male survive and live in peace and tranquillity without subordinating itself to one or other big or powerful Country in the present world situation? Is looking for or relying on a foreign intervention advisable or unavoidable for a small and weak country when it is faced with an internal crisis like Male? Is the male’ s Opposition leader Nasheed is representing the sovereignty, interests of his Country and people when he is seeking India’ s intervention in Male’ s affairs in return for his tacit commitment to take care of the interests of Indian rulers?
In the context of present crisis in Male, the Indian govt. has strongly criticised the autocratic moves of Yameen govt. It did not stop here. It provided all avenues for Male’ s opposition leader Nasheed to campaign and mobilise support against the Male govt. It paid a favourable hearing to his appeals for India’ s intervention in crisis.
Two factors are a matter of concern here: I) The Indian rulers had established enough record of interventions – political as well as military into the affairs of other countries in the South Asian region. In 1971, the Indian rulers
Class Struggle