Mohamed Nasheed
Former President of the Republic of Maldives
In 2006, in the Pacific island nation of Fiji, troops overran the
capital city, threatened the Prime Minister, forced his resignation,
placed him under house arrest, imposed censorship on the media, and the
coup leader, in the form of the head of the army, went on television to
declare himself the new ruler of the country.
In 2012, in my country, the Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives, mutinying police and soldiers overran the capital city, gave me, the President, an ultimatum to resign within the hour or face bloodshed, placed me under effective house arrest, raided the headquarters of the national broadcaster, and the coup leader, in the form of the Vice President, went on television to declare himself the new ruler of the country.
In the case of Fiji, the international community swiftly condemned
the coup, blackballed Fiji from the club of civilized nations and
suspended it from the Commonwealth. In the case of the Maldives, a
report drafted by a Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) which was
dominated by hand-picked appointees of the coup-installed government,
and endorsed by the Commonwealth, has just whitewashed the coup,
declaring it a perfectly legitimate and constitutional transfer of
power.
Fiji and the Maldives' contrasting experiences provide useful tips
for coup-plotters everywhere. When planning your coup, remember that
first impressions count -- so don't dress like an obvious coup leader.
The man who takes over from the democratically elected leader should not
wear military fatigues, as Commodore Frank Bainimarama did in Fiji;
instead wear a lounge suit, as former Vice President Waheed Hassan did
in the Maldives.
Secondly, get your messaging right: never, as in Fiji, publicly state
you are overthrowing an elected government; instead, as in the
Maldives, announce that the President's resignation is a run-of-the-mill
and Constitutional transfer of power.
Finally, have patience: if you follow steps 1 and 2, sooner or later
the international community will tire of political upheaval and accept
the new, coup-led political order, regardless of outward commitments to
democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
The CoNI report, which declared the Maldives' coup lawful, has been a
huge blow and a profound disservice to the Maldivian people, many of
whom watched February's illegal transfer of power unfold in front of
their eyes: in the streets, on television, and through the hundreds of
eye-witness video clips posted on YouTube and Facebook.
On the one hand, Maldivians should not have been surprised by the
CoNI's conclusions. The Committee was created by Waheed, the chief
beneficiary of the coup, who stacked it with his own allies, and placed
the defence minister of former dictator Gayoom at its helm. However, the
eleventh hour inclusion of a retired Singaporean judge, appointed with
the blessing of the Commonwealth, plus one single nominee, appointed by
me, was supposed to provide a modicum of balance to the final report.
Sadly, it did not.
My nominee, Ahmed Saeed, resigned from the Committee before its report was released, citing that crucial evidence, such as video footage of the police rampaging through Male,
was not included in the Committee's report. He further noted that the
testimony of key witnesses was not included, and that central figures
involved in the coup, such as opposition figure Umar Naseer who publicly admitted the existence of a coup "command center" from which events were directed, were not even interviewed.
A recent assessment of the CoNI report by
a legal team led by Sri Lanka's former Attorney General, states that
the report "amounts to a dangerous and severe erosion of the electoral
franchise and mandate of the people." In effect, the CoNI report says it
is perfectly legitimate for a mob of mutinying police and army to
topple an elected government from the streets. The legal team's
assessment further states: "there was in fact adequate evidence to
suggest that duress (or even 'coercion' and/ or illegal coercion as used
by CoNI) is attributable to the resignation of President Nasheed."
Despite these serious flaws, and in the interests of moving forward, I
have formally accepted the CoNI report - but only alongside Ahmed
Saeed's reservations.
A more useful analysis of the Maldives' sorry situation comes from a
recent report by Amnesty International, whose researchers conducted a
professional and truly independent on- the-ground investigation.
Amnesty's report strongly condemns the on-going abuses by the
coup-installed regime, stating that: "Without an end to - and
accountability for - these human rights violations, any attempt at
political reconciliation in the Maldives will be meaningless."
Many other international human rights bodies have joined Amnesty in
categorically condemning the Waheed regime's repeated human rights
violations, including Reporters without Borders and the UN Human Rights Committee.
Unfortunately, the CoNI report has gifted the regime with the
get-out-of-jail-free card and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group
may now decide on 11 September to remove the Maldives from its
watch-list of human rights violators. If they do, it will offer the
regime a green light to crack down even harder on civil society, the
media and the political opposition.
In an ironic twist of fate, the regime has also announced that they
will use the CoNI report as a pretext to place me on trial -- likely
barring me from standing as the MDP's elected nominee in the next
presidential election.
As the Arab Spring continues its inevitable march across the Islamic
world, the Maldives could have been an example of where the
international community stood up for Muslim democrats, by forcing a coup
regime to hold early elections and restore democracy. Sadly, the
Maldives' case is more likely to be used by aspiring coup plotters, as a
useful guide on how to pull it off. Commodore Bainimarama must feel he
instigated Fiji's coup too early - had he waited until February 2012, he
too could have learned how to usurp power and avoid the censure of the
watching world.
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