Maldives a tiny island with massive problems
Citizens watch helplessly as president snuffs out dissent, writes Sanjay Kapoor
A WEEK before the internal emergency was lifted in Maldives on March 22, the tiny capital of Malé saw one of the biggest protests in recent years against President Yameen Abdul Gayoom for imposing the regulations and curtailing the rights of its citizens.
Thousands of protesters were subjected to pepper spray and tear gas. More than 141 were arrested.
Democracy activists from Malé and Colombo claim the lifting of the emergency has not lessened state repression. While the top leaders were imprisoned some time ago, the government has now “detained” hundreds of lower level party workers.
What has contributed to the helplessness of those who oppose Yameen is that India has not done much after giving the impression it did not like what was happening in the Maldives when it issued statements against the imposition of the emergency, or demanded the implementation of the Supreme Court order that asked for the release of political prisoners.
Expectations that India will intervene stemmed from the fact that it is Maldives’ closest big neighbour and has interwoven itself with its society.
The Maldivians, who had slowly got used to their fledgling democracy, expected India to protect it. That is not happening.
For one of the world’s tiniest capitals built on a small island of 5km2 with a population of about
2.5 lakhs (Indian system used to describe number of people – 1 equals 100 000), neither the protests nor the excessive police action is normal.
For a city of narrow lanes that has one of the highest population densities, the impact of state violence is felt all over the country.
While skirmishes between opponents of the government and the police were routine, confrontation between the government of Yameen and its opponents were exacerbated after the Supreme Court passed a ruling on February 3 ordering the government to release nine political prisoners, including exiled former president Muhammad Nasheed, and giving them an opportunity to contest the forthcoming presidential elections. Yameen refused to listen.
He sent the police to the court and arrested the judge and overturned the earlier ruling. He also got his half-brother and former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom arrested.
Thereafter, he imposed an internal emergency in his effort to snuff out dissent.
The government of Yameen is rather cleverly trying to show that the court ruling was precipitated through bribes and had nothing to do with people’s desire for change.
Initially, there was a strong reaction to Yameen’s aggression from the EU, the US and even India – which normally stays out of the internal affairs of other countries – but it seems to have subsided.
Yameen, who has been in power since 2013, has been emboldened by the support that he enjoys from China and has been showering praises on President Xi Jinping and sees great wisdom in the manner in which the Chinese constitution has been amended to extend his term for life.
His opponents have interpreted his comments as an attempt to replicate a similar model for the Maldives where Yameen would like to carry on forever.
Besides, his recent utterances against democratic dissent and independent media also stem from this realisation that there is nothing that India or any of the countries critical of his decisions can do to him.
It is evident Yameen has a better understanding of the waves of the Indian Ocean that gently caress the white beaches of its archipelago than many of his opponents.
In 2013, when Yameen became president, the Chinese already had an embassy in Malé and were keen to enlarge its footprint in the Maldives to protect the sea-lanes which carry their fuel and other cargo.
Its anxiety was deepened by US attempts to create a strategic counterpoint to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through a Quad that included Australia, Japan and India.
Their presence has since grown exponentially. Chinese tourists come in big numbers – more than a quarter of a million visit this high-end resort every year. India, by comparison, sent only 83 000 tourists last year.
The Chinese are building the $1.2billion airport project that was earlier given to Indian company GMR for $500 million.
Then there is a bridge that connects Malé with the island where the airport is located. Opposition leaders claim that without really divulging the details of the agreement, the Yameen government has given out islands on lease for as little as $50 000.
Nasheed had alleged that the Chinese controlled 17-18 islands. There were also allegations that China was creating observation posts and naval assets on some.
The Chinese ambassador denied this and said their presence was only on seven islands and they were the fifth largest investor.
The ambassador of Maldives displayed fewer inhibitions in owning up to growing ties with China asserting that the world should get used to growing investment in their archipelago.
Opposition parties disagree with this assertion and claim the country was being sold cheap and, due to opacity in decision-making, there is no way to know what has been sold and for how much.
They have also alleged that projects are being padded beyond their cost. A diplomatic source gave an example of the airport that China is constructing in the Maldives. According to him, an Indian company was willing to build it for $500m and the Chinese are constructing it for $1.2bn.
There is evidence of pay-offs, too, that was captured on camera.
An Al Jazeera sting in the documentary, Stealing Paradise, showed money being carried to the president’s house. Last year, Yameen acknowledged that the money was paid, but he did not know then that it was ill-gotten.
He promised to return the money to the treasury. No one really knows if he did. Why does Yameen not like India? This is a question that has been raised again and again in cafés and restaurants of the capital city Malé. Many attribute it to the failure of India and its companies to pay commissions.
“India can’t pay the kind of money that China is able to. Yameen does not want democratic scrutiny at home or in India of all the deals he has signed.”
His opponents also claim that his deals have landed the Maldives in a debt trap and its sovereignty would be compromised, hurting its ties with its neighbours.
India’s opposition to the BRI stems from how countries that are engaging with China could lose their sovereignty.
“It is a lopsided relationship between an $11.2 trillion economy and an economy that has an annual budget of $1.2bn. Does the Maldives stand a chance of defending its interests?”
India has failed to convince the Maldives, or any other South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation country, to think about sovereignty issues before they sign deals with China.
In Nepal, as well as in Sri Lanka, both leaders who came to grief for supporting China are back. KP Sharma Oli has been re-elected as prime minister in Nepal, and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party has won important elections in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan watchers claim Rajapaksa is not far away from capturing power.
All these developments have dark forebodings for India’s neighbourhood policy.
It has not been able to craft a policy where its influence does not get eroded by Chinese enlargement. Recent attempts by New Delhi to reset its ties with China by lowering its hostility stems from this realisation that it cannot stand alone against its mighty neighbour – it has to engage.