[The Maldives is a country of about 1,200 islands
in the Indian Ocean whose economy is mostly dependent on tourism and whose
faltering transition to democracy, begun in 2008, appears increasingly at risk.
The United States, Canada, India, Britain and a host of international
governmental and human rights organizations have issued statements in recent
weeks expressing concerns after what many see as the politically motivated
imprisonment of the still-popular former president.]
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The Maldivian police
scuffled with Mohamed Nasheed, the former president,
in February after he
arrived at a courthouse in the capital, Male, for a bail hearing
on terrorism charges. Adam
Sireii/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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MALE, Maldives —
The thugs came just as the protest here in the capital was about to start.
Nearly a dozen men on motorcycles drove into the crowd, forcing some people to
jump to safety.
Later, the attackers sprayed gasoline on the marchers who had
come out on a recent evening to demand that the former president be freed from
prison. Nearby police officers did nothing because, according to independent
analysts, diplomats and opposition politicians, the gang members —
responsible for a growing number of murders and knife attacks —
are in the pay of the Maldivian government.
Even Home Minister Umar Naseer said the growing role of criminal
gangs in politics was deeply worrisome.
“I will not say conclusively that the government is involved,”
said Mr. Naseer, who was expelled from the governing party after publicly
linking it with gangs and drug lords. “But I think the government can take and
must take action.”
The Maldives is a country of about 1,200 islands
in the Indian Ocean whose economy is mostly dependent on tourism and whose
faltering transition to democracy, begun in 2008, appears increasingly at risk.
The United States, Canada, India, Britain and a host of international
governmental and human rights organizations have issued statements in recent
weeks expressing concerns after what many see as the politically motivated
imprisonment of the still-popular former president.
“The United States is extremely concerned about the recent
events in the Maldives,” Michael Honigstein, political affairs section chief
for the United States Embassy in Sri Lanka, which conducts diplomatic relations
with the Maldives, said in a recent interview.
With about 310,000 residents, the Maldives would hardly seem
like an international priority. But, for a time, the nation was an
internationally recognized democratic success story, and diplomats here say its
strategic position astride crucial shipping lanes keeps it high on diplomatic
agendas.
Government officials say the growing alarm among foreign
diplomats and analysts is overblown.
“This government admits freely that our institutions need to be
strengthened, that the work of consolidating democracy is not done, but the
only way to do that is to strengthen institutions, not tear them down,” wrote
Jeffrey Salim Waheed, deputy permanent representative of the Maldives to the
United Nations, in an emailed response to questions.
Five families control most of the country’s economy through
ownership of high-end resorts, and the islands’ tiny group of elite is deeply
intertwined through kinship networks that stretch back centuries. Political
allegiances among these clans seem to shift as often as the tides, giving a
soap opera quality to the nation’s politics.
The central character in this spectacle is the former president,
Mohamed Nasheed, whose political activism and resulting years in prison
catalyzed a democracy movement that eventually allowed him in 2008 to defeat
the longtime autocrat Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to become the Maldives’ first
democratically elected president.
Mr. Nasheed became internationally famous in 2009 when he held
an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the dangers of climate change and
was celebrated in a popular documentary, “The Island President.” But his
popularity at home suffered when he ordered the military to arrest a judge he
accused of acting on behalf of Mr. Gayoom. Mr. Nasheed resigned amid the
controversy his action caused.
Mr. Nasheed soon claimed his resignation was coerced and labeled
the transfer of power to his vice president a coup, but foreign governments and
much of the country’s populace — exhausted by a series of controversies during
his administration — accepted the change. In 2013, he appeared poised for a
possible comeback, but the Supreme Court repeatedly ruled to cancel results or
delay voting in ways that favored Abdulla Yameen, half brother of Mr. Gayoom,
who eventually won.
Mr. Nasheed might have faded into history if not for the recent
prosecution of him on terrorism charges that concluded in a 13-year prison
sentence last month, a proceeding that was described by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as “a rushed process
that appears to contravene the Maldives’ own laws and practices and
international fair trial standards in a number of respects.” Government
officials said the terrorism charges were related to the judge’s detention.
Another widely decried case, this one of Mohamed Nazim, the
former defense minister, which led to an 11-year sentence on weapons charges
later in the month, has convinced many in the Maldives that Mr. Yameen is
behind the prosecutions.
“The president is going after each one of his popular rivals,”
said Ahmed Mahloof, a member of Parliament who recently left the governing
party in protest.
The man widely seen as conceiving and executing the president’s
alleged targeting of opponents through the courts and gangs is Tourism Minister
Ahmed Adeeb, a 32-year-old who cheerfully agreed in an hourlong interview that
he has been accused by many of vast corruption, violent intimidation and the
murder of a journalist.
Mr. Adeeb denied all of the myriad charges leveled at him,
saying, for instance, that the embezzlement charges stemmed from a
misunderstanding.
“But they can never get me angry,” Mr. Adeeb said, chuckling, of
his accusers. “Whatever they say, I will answer with a smile.”
He has led political rallies dominated by well-known criminal
gangs during which he warned the opposition to stop its protests
because “if these young men get angry, it would not be good.” He called the
presence of gang members at his rallies part of his youth outreach.
He has also been accused of concocting charges against Mr. Nazim, the
former defense minister, by Mr. Nazim’s lawyer. And after Auditor General
Ibrahim Niyaz accused Mr. Adeeb of embezzling $6 million,
Mr. Niyaz was sacked.
“That the tourism minister controls all the gangs is an open
secret,” said Eva Abdulla, an opposition member of Parliament. “And it’s not
just the money he pays, it’s also that if they go in prison, the tourism
minister with one phone call will get them out.”
Mr. Naseer, the government’s home minister, said of Mr. Adeeb,
“I don’t endorse some of his actions.” A local newspaper reported that the
president took control of the police away from Mr. Naseer
after he instructed the police to investigate Mr. Adeeb.
But diplomats who watch the situation closely say that President
Yameen and his top officials are becoming increasingly autocratic and
unpredictable.
“The
government’s game plan is to intimidate its opponents, send them to jail and
tire them out,” said one top Indian official who insisted on anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Will that work? Will people become
restive? Can they also do development? Things are precarious.”
