Some of the fundamental aspects that are seen in a dictator, especially the characteristics which the opposition branded former President Maumoon Abdul Gayyoom as a dictator compared with the supposedly champion of democracy former President Mohamed Nasheed.
Nepotism - the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. Maumoon had family members in cabinet and so did Nasheed. Nasheed’s cousin Kerefa Naseem was Foreign Minister. Whilst his cousin by marriage Aslam Shakir was State Minister for Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, Health Minister Aminath Jameel is another family relative. Even Sabra Noorahdheen, Head of Police Intel was from Kerefa family. The list is endless. So, who had more family and friends in appointed political positions, Maumoon or Nasheed?
Corruption - dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) labelled Maumoon as one of the most corrupt Maldivian President. There were very highly publicized corruption scandals during Maumoon’s presidency. However, MDP faces a blind spot, when it comes to the fact that high level MDP founder members or people funding the party were involved in these corrupt deals. The first time Maldives was internationally ranked for corruption was in 2007 by Transparency International and Maldives got 84th position with a score of 33 from 100 (a perfect score of 100 meant very clean & 0 meant very corrupt). Opposition MDP was jubilant with the ranking and highly criticized Maumoon for being more corrupt than neighbouring India, which was in 72nd position. When MDP came to power, the ranking skyrocketed and in 2010 Nasheed beat Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe ranking of 134th with 143rd position. The most corrupt Maldivian regime’s score of 23 was also achieved by Nasheed in 2010. In 2016 Maldives was ranked at 95th position with the best anti-corruption score of 36 in Maldivian history.
8 Presidential Members Of Parliament - Maumoon had 8 appointed members in parliament representing him. MDP was against this and campaigned hard to remove this from the constitution. This was done when the new modern constitution was prepared but during the power struggle to democracy, it was basically agreed for the interim period to keep Maumoon’s MP’s, as a safety net for someone leaving from power after a long time. This was clearly written in the constitution for the interim period - Maumoon’s 8 Presidential MP’s were to remain in their seat until the new Parliament was elected in 2009. However, within 24 hours after Nasheed took the oath as president he went against the constitution and appointed his own 8 Presidential Members. After this the opposition claimed that in cohesion with the former Election Commissioner (who was a founder member of MDP), Nasheed delayed the Parliament vote for about 6 months to take advantage of the Parliament majority he had seized. Eventually Nasheed’s appointed Supreme Court bench ruled that Nasheed’s actions were unlawful and the illegally removed Maumoon’s 8 Presidential MP’s were to be given due compensation.
Non-Independent Judiciary - Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary needs to be kept away from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government, or from private or partisan interest. Maumoon was the head of the Judiciary under the old constitution. Under the new constitution the Judicial powers were separated from the Executive. Nasheed was maybe alien to this concept because in his short term, he locked up the Supreme Court, kidnapped the serving Chief Judge of the Criminal Court and didn’t heed to any of the court orders to release arbitrarily detained political prisoners.
Absence Of Freedom Of Speech - Freedom of speech is the concept of being able to speak freely without censorships. During Maumoon’s first four presidential terms this was not allowed. Nor were we an educated or developing country. As the times changed, Maldives transformed into a developing nation. Even though the lid on free speech was kept tightly squeezed, with an educated younger generation emerging and with mounting pressure for democracy, the last 5 years of Maumoon’s era saw some level of free speech. With Nasheed in power he extended free speech to new heights. Anti-Muslim bloggers were encouraged to mock Islam. Anti-Muslim/Islam Facebook pages were run by Nasheed loyalists who were hardcore MDP supporters. Maldives was getting overdosed with free speech but when it came to criticism of Nasheed over his Islamophobic rants and iron fist rule, he could not digest it. Nasheed even started a campaign “Thihineh Nukiyene” meaning “You can’t SAY that” to crack down on opposition.
Absence OF Press Freedom – Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through various mediums, such as electronic media and published materials. During Maumoon’s terms this was nonexistent. Under the new modern constitution these rights were given almost without any limits. Nasheed was also a writer/reporter but when in power he did everything in power to stop free press. Most printed media were run through advertisement money received by government to print notices for jobs and bids. One of the first thing Nasheed did was to stop this indirect funding in the name of cutting government costs. It was not a bad move but the purpose was suspiciously doubtful and opposition rightfully claimed a move to stifle free press. Incidents of press who covered opposition demonstration being attacked by police increased dramatically. Opposition TV stations were attacked and burned by Nasheed’s loyalists. The attacks against media were so brutal and frequent during Nasheed’s regime, the media even carried out demonstrations against the oppression of press freedom.
Control Of State Media - State-controlled media is media which is owned, dictated, and managed by a government. State-controlled media uses propaganda- information, which is usually biased or misleading, to promote a political cause or point of view to control its people. Maumoon controlled the state media with a tight grip until his last term, which saw encouraging levels of freedom and opposition coverage. Nasheed inherited the state media while it was moving in this positive direction. With Nasheed in power, the state media did not take an immediate U-turn from this reformation but slowly the breaks were placed down and subtly the direction diverted to full government control again. First it was a yellow banner on the state TV channels, which is the official colour of MDP. By the time Nasheed resigned it was strictly 100% government controlled media or just another MDP channel. Even if an opposition member is given an opportunity to go on a state TV or radio program, Nasheed loyalists made sure that it was under police protection that he has to go in and out of the station, after taking part in any political program. The audiences chosen supposedly from the general public in all the state media programs, were handpicked from Nasheed’s campaign office adjacent to state TV station. After this fake general public audience finished their participation and questionings in programs, tea and other special benefits were made available from MDP campaign office / Haruge next to TV Maldives.
Absence Of Freedom Of Expression – Freedom of expression is the right of every individual to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This was not allowed during Maumoons presidency. Nasheed campaigned hard to grant freedom of expression but when in power and when the people protested against Nasheed’s unconstitutional acts, it turned out to be difficult for him to digest. His regime has the worst record for the highest number of tear gas used against protesters and the first and only president in Maldivian history to use Water Canon and rubber bullets against protesters. Not surprisingly Nasheed won a place in top ten, in the biggest crackdowns of the decade listed by The Washington Post.
Absence Of Free & Fair Elections – An election is considered “free” and “fair” when you can decide whether to vote or not to vote, vote freely for the candidate or party of your choice without fear or intimidation and all registered political parties have an equal right to contest the elections, campaign for voter support, hold meetings and rallies. The old constitution only allowed for referendums which asked whether the population wanted Maumoon in power or not. Opposition was harshly critical of this, calling it a “Bodu Kaafu Kuda Kaafu” vote. “Kaafu” is a Dhivehi letter. The above saying literally translates into capital “Kaafu” and simple “Kaafu” vote. The Divehi letter “Kaafu” looked like a “correct” tick. Even though Dhivehi does not have capital and simple letters, the joke is that the public was asked to vote for a simple “kaafu” if “No” and a capital “kaafu” if “Yes”, leading to a yes vote for Maumoon, whichever way the public voted. In the first multi-party 2008 elections, Maumoon won most votes but not enough to win the election. Under a coalition Nasheed won the election but Maumoon accused that Nasheed had rigged the election using Election Commissioner Fuad Thaufeeg’s influence, who was a former MDP founder member and a harsh critic of Maumoon and members in the elections commission like Saabe who was Nasheed’s cousin MP Eva’s husband. When Nasheed came to power he publicly said that he will directly influence the votes. There is even a leaked audio of allegedly Fuad and Nasheed discussing election fraud.
Arbitrary Detention & Arrests – is the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that he or she committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law. During Maumoon’s era literary the constitution allowed this. Maumoon was famous for arbitrary detention and arrests. When Nasheed came to power the constitution protected against such arrests but he did it anyway. All the well-known leading political figures were arbitrarily arrested and detained during Nasheed’s regime. Some of the more prominent figures include the current President Yameen, whilst he was a MP and leader of People's Alliance. Another was leader of Jumhooree Party and also an MP, Qasim Ibrahim. Nasheed even used military tanks to arrest the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, MP Ahmed Nazim. Former VP Jameel was arbitrarily arrested 6 time in a week before Nasheed’s most famous act of the extrajudicial arbitrary detention / kidnapping of Criminal Court, Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed.
Island Chiefs / Councilors – Maumoon had a political appointee in charge of every inhabited island, called an Island Chief. The new constitution allowed only an elected local council system. However, when Nasheed came to power he appointed the councilors to the islands just like the appointed Island Chiefs. Hardcore Nasheed loyalist were appointed and most of them were not educationally or in any other way fit for the job. Even people with criminal record for drugs offences were appointed. Nasheed’s suspiciously close relationship with former Election Commissioner Fuad, is accused as a factor which delayed having local council elections as per the constitution mandated dates, thus providing an outrageous excuse for Nasheed to appoint councilors.
Multi religious freedom – Maldives constitution did not allow multi-religious freedom. However, Nasheed employed consultants like Benedict Rogers who was Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s East Asia Team Leader and David Hardingham – a previously blacklisted and deported missionary worker from Maldives. Nasheed loyalists ran blogs and Facebook pages to promote multi-religious freedom and LGBT rights.
Torture in prisons – According to recent Maldivian history, one of the most famous Maldivian president for torture in prisons is president Nasir. This system was passed on and inherited by the next president Maumoon. Supporters of Maumoon claim that compared to the Asian region, Maldivian prisons were much better. However, the killing of an inmate, Evan Naseem by prison police led to one of the worst riots in Maldivian history. The riots started in the prison after Evan Naseem was beaten to death and due to the riots in prison, police were forced to use live ammunition which led to more deaths. Thus, eventually the riots escalating into the streets of the capital city, Male’. During Nasheed’s era there were a few cases of prison deaths but no proof that it was due to torture but probably just natural deaths. In Nasheed’s regime the prison was torched about 3 times, costing millions of Rufiyaa in damages to tax paying Maldivians. His critics claimed that during his regime the prisoners had more power than the prison guards. Adding weight to this claim is the fact that in election votes Nasheed and his party always wins the majority votes from jailed convicts.
Gangs/militia force – During Maumoon’s era there was gang violence (not well-organized criminal groups but just friends from the same neighbourhood). However, this was non-existent in the political arena. Nasheed came to power with the promise of change and mainly with the support of the younger generation. This also included the gangs. Nasheed used this gang force to intimidate and terrorize his political opponents. For the first time in Maldivian history opposition MP’s like MP Ilham, MP Mahloof, MP Thasmeen, Senior politicians and political leaders like leader of Islamic Democratic Party Umar had to employ personal body guards. It seemed like the use of gangs was not enough and Nasheed created a program called “Dhevanafurusathu” (Second Chance) to facilitate the release of hardcore criminals without proper probation assessments. During the last days of Nasheed’s regime, in addition to gangs, these released criminals were used to attack opposition protesting against the kidnapping of Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdullah Mohamed.
Long Rule – Maumoon ruled for 30 years. One of the characteristics that Nasheed opposed before coming to power. When in power the political rhetoric from MDP changed. They were calling to change the constitution and make way to elect Nasheed for 3 terms or more. On the extreme side in their political podiums they were calls to elect Nasheed for 500 years.
Economic problems – The Maumoon presidency was considered days of prosperity and peace. With the democracy illusion came violence and instability. Nasheed regime saw the worst inflation in Maldives history. Corruption became common place. Purchasing of MP’s was fashionable. The Maldivian currency saw more than 20% devaluation. Dollar rate soared to MVR15.42, while in the black market it went as high as MVR20.00. The construction industry collapsed. Debt was at worrisome level. Budget deficit reached a record level. The country faced an economic meltdown during the short 3 years of Nasheed’s regime.
So, is the characteristics of a dictator an almost perfect fit for Nasheed?
