Grasping affairs of Maldives in larger perspective

வெள்ளி, 20 மார்ச், 2015

Grasping affairs of Maldives in larger perspective

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 March 2015, 00:06 GMT]
Rather than taking sides with the imprisoned former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed or with the current President Abdulla Yameen, the people of the Maldives and the peoples of entire southern South Asia should carefully understand the larger anti-people designs of New Delhi, Washington and Beijing, and vigilantly act in unison against the larger security threat that is being caused by the powers to the peoples of the region, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics. Nasheed, who is often highlighted in the Western and Indian media as the first democratically elected president of the archipelago, was also the first in involving the country in genocide in the neighbourhood, the activists cited.

Under Nasheed, Maldives for the first time was militarily tagged behind Washington, New Delhi and Rajapaksa’s Colombo, when they committed the first ever genocide in southern South Asia in the case of Eezham Tamils. Of course, Beijing was equally behind the genocide, operating outside of the bandwagon.

Defence Advisors/Attaches of 7 countries visit Sri Lankan SF HQ in Vanni

Maldivian military representative of former president Mohamed Nasheed in Vanni in December 2008, along with the military representatives of the USA and India during the genocidal war, supporting it as war against ‘international terrorism’. Ironically, Nasheed is now sentenced on charges of ‘terrorism’ showing the directions in which the US talk of ‘terrorism’ is now being interpreted. [Photo courtesy

After Nasheed, his successors Mohammed Waheed and Abdulla Yameen continued to support Rajapaksa’s Colombo, taking the side of New Delhi and Beijing in the international forums.

All of them were against Eezham Tamils getting international justice. Nasheed started with that. The new political elite of Maldives educated in the West, supporting Nasheed and was always seeking ‘international community’ interference in saving democracy in the country failed to course-correct Nasheed. No regional spirit for justice was forthcoming, even though individuals in Maldives might have felt the injustice.

Maldivian Defence Minister visits occupying SLA in Jaffna

The former Maldivian Defence Minister of Mohamed Nasheed in the company of genocidal Sinhala military in Jaffna in October 2011.

With the regime change in Colombo, jointly engineered by New Delhi and Washington (not to bring in any justice but to keep the skeletons in the cupboard, bailout the ultimate culprits and to confirm and continue with their military-corporate-genocide agenda), they expected the Maldives to fall in line as the country was traditionally tagged behind Colombo.

But Yameen acted differently in arresting Nasheed, who is considered as a stooge of West and New Delhi, and in thwarting the overall success of New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit of Indian Ocean countries, which was a rally against Beijing.

Originally planning the visit to the island of Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Seychelles and Maldives, with confidence in the regime change effected in Colombo, Modi had to later cancel the visit to Maldives following the arrest of Nasheed.

India, USA, UK and the EU have made statements against the trial of Nasheed conducted by Yameen regime last week, in which the former was found guilty of terrorism and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Yameen is backed by Beijing in his boldness to challenge India and the West, accuse media writers voicing for the ‘democratic’ cause of Nasheed, describing the unfolding scenario as a ‘regional security threat’.

But the real security threat to the region, from the point of view of the peoples of the region, had already set in when the genocide was demonstrated in the island of Sri Lanka, with the designs of New Delhi, Washington and Beijing, with Nasheed, Waheed and Yameen joining the bandwagon and with the silence of the vast majority of the peoples of South Asia and Indian Ocean, including the people of Maldives. What follows now is only a logical outcome operating against all small nations with or without State in the region.

There is no excuse or defence for Yameen, if in his sheer quest for power he is turning to military or dictatorship backed by People’s Republic of China that has no moral values even as lip service in operating through regimes and not caring peoples.

But it is misleading to project the issue entirely through the prism of preserving a fledgling democracy in a 100 per cent Sunni Muslim country or through the prism of ‘veil versus no veil,’ support to Islamic extremism etc., for cheap opinion building in India and the West.

The real issues are competing international powers, rats’ race for petty local power by the so-called leaders depending on the imperialists and the lack of larger-perspective or regional- perspective mobilisation among the peoples of the region concerned.

Writing in the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald last week, on “Maldives headed for turbulent dictatorship,” Mr. Ravi Joshi, former Indian diplomat, who earlier served in the Maldives and currently advises the GMR Group, asked: “Is it too much to acknowledge some leaders in the neighbourhood as our friends and stand by them? Of course, Prime Minister Modi has struck off Maldives from his scheduled trip, next week, to the island nations of the Indian Ocean region. Will that be a strong enough signal to President Yameen, who is basking in the new- found friendship with China, remains to be seen.”

Mr. Joshi is partly right in questioning New Delhi acknowledging and standing by some leaders as friends in the neighbourhood. He was referring to Maldives. Yet, it is also applicable to New Delhi’s former relationship with Rajapaksa and its current relationship with the players of the same genocidal State in Colombo.

But the unsaid part is the question whether it is too much for the peoples in the neighbourhood to acknowledge India as a friend and stand by it, even after seeing the plight of the nation of Eezham Tamils, considered a natural ally of India.

Genocide of Eezham Tamils and the current instability in Maldives being no two different issues has to be understood by both the people of Maldives and others in southern South Asia and Indian Ocean, in preparing for the times to come.

The key to the edification of powers in the entire Indian Ocean region of small nations lies in achieving international justice for the nation of Eezham Tamils, in whose case the paradigm of materialising a new order through genocide was set for the first time in the region by all the powers.

If peoples of the region are not vigilant enough in grasping the affairs in larger perspectives and reach out to one another, then they will be isolated and localised by issues designed by the interests of powers and would become the ultimate victims.

Mohamed Nasheed and Mahinda Rajapaksa at the SAARC Summit held in Maldives in November 2011. Rajapaksa called Nasheed as his brother.

Forbes Asia:		Kafka In Paradise: Maldives Court Sentences Former President For Terrorism
Deccan Herald:		Maldives headed for turbulent dictatorship

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வெள்ளி, 20 மார்ச், 2015

Grasping affairs of Maldives in larger perspective

Grasping affairs of Maldives in larger perspective

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