The recent BBC report about the plot to overthrow Maldivian President Yameen Abdul Gayoom; and the Al-Jazeera documentary that exposed the corruption engineered by the President and many of his aides, including members of the judiciary and police, has revealed the actual state of affairs in this island country.
The pressure on President Yameen to resign is mounting. Meanwhile, Mohammad Nasheed, the first democratically elected President, who was ousted in a bloodless coup in 2012 and who has now taken asylum in the UK, hopes to bolster the opposition to the corrupt government in power and make a comeback. Selected articles from our archives over 20 years reveal the contours of the troubled history that haunts the Maldives and makes it vulnerable to corruption at the highest level of office.
From our Archives:
Michael O’Shea and Fareesha Abdulla on the state of censorship in media during the autocratic rule of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. (November 2003)
Dilrukshi Handunnetti profiles the first democratically elected president Mohamed Nasheed. (December 2008)
Sumon K Chakrabarti on Mohamed Nasheed kick-starting the investigation that looked at the involvement of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the three-decade satrap of the Maldives, in corruption (April 2011). It is believed that Nasheed’s this move irked the political elite resulting in his ouster in 2012.
Azra Naseem‘s analysis of the situation leading to Nasheed’s forceful resignation. (February 2012)
Azra Naseem on how the 2013 presidential polls were rigged to keep Mohamed Nasheed out. (October 2013)
Azra Naseem on how the Yameen government silenced the opposition. The article also tracks the rise of Ahmed Adeeb as the Vice President and closest confidante of the President (July 2015).
Eventually, the two men parted ways and Adeeb was incarcerated in 2015. Daniel Bosley chronicles the fall of Adeeb and also how the politics of vengeance was destroying the nascent foundations of a democratic state. (November 2015)
Azra Naseem on the vengeful persecution of political rivals including former President Mohamed Nasheed. (April 2015)
Yameen Rasheed on rising Islamic radicalism in Maldives, which played a key role in the ouster of the government of Mohamed Nasheed (June 2012)
Also this, Himal Southasian report by a ‘Maldivian’ that looked at the growing Islamisation under the then President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and hinted at the widespread corruption in selling the atolls. (October 2003)
