In an interview with TV Maldives on the night of the first multi-party contested election for the presidency, the Deputy President of Maldives Human Rights Commission, (MHRC) Mohamed Zahid has said the people have shown a remarkable example of democracy and change in Wednesday's presidential election. He said the peaceful and smooth manner in which the election was held and results were received by the people is also an excellent example of the respect of the people to the ideals of democracy.
All these years we had a system that is rigged to bring to power people who are already in power. Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) a likely future president has been imprisoned by this autocratic Government for being a reform activist and advocate for democracy. Now he has the freedom to contest and unseat the incumbent president who has held power for thirty years.
It appears Maldives is following the Middle East path to democracy. For decades there have been less than democratic elections in the Middle East, where ruling parties control candidates’ and voters’ access to the ballot and also control the vote counting.
Egypt's long serving President Husni Mubarak and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad have tried ruthless tactics to keep them in power through the referendum on a single candidate that Maldives followed up to now. The general feeling among democracy advocates in the Middle East is that elections have increasingly become a tool used by authoritarian leaders to claim legitimacy. Thus, elections are being used as a technique to mislead the people. What is missing in these countries are the independent institutions and democratic values that underpin the democratic process and good governance.
The democracy experiment by the Americans in Iraq has shown mixed results. The Americans invaded Iraq captured a brutal dictator and hanged him. They held elections and put in a puppet regime yet the country's problems remain unsolved. In fact, violence has increased between sectarian groups and Iraq has become a haven for terrorists to conduct their operations.
From this we know that democracy is not the answer to a society's all the problems. A country does need good elected leaders dedicated to public good and committed to solve a country's problems.
This is just the beginning of democracy and freedom in Maldives. Hence now is not the time to celebrate anything. The old leaders have failed our people and a new set of leaders will have to come and make their mark in history. Only time will tell their performance and the electorate should always remain ready to petition or strike with work stoppages as done by the teachers and tourist resort workers recently claiming higher compensation and demanding their rights.
Democracy is a messy and unpleasant business when leaders are corrupt and insincere.
The Maldivian people have lived in a state of depression for so long that they have lost trust in their elected leaders who up to now appeared at their doorstep once in five years to buy their vote and forgot about their promises once they turned their back. The new political leaders will have to walk their talk to regain the lost trust.
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2 comments:
Democracy is not an answer to all the problems a society faces. Everyone knows it and agrees, but we don't seem to have any other better solution. In my opinion problems of democracy can be reduced significantly when the electorate is educated. The more educated they are, the lesser the problems. Also, people in power tend to become corrupt as goes the adage "power corrupts". So the only way we can prevent or mitigate the corruption is to have an educated electorate who cannot be deceived by the larger than life presence and talks of the politicians.
Maldives especially needs to promote education as much as possible in every atoll and make sure that the individuals who are voting in the election know fully well what they are doing.
Sure, it is a long way to go but most definitely the surest way to create better lives to all in the islands.
Hi aditya
Agreed- the more educated and empowered an electorate is, the lesser the problems. But when an electorate comprises of very rich people and very poor people, the poor people can be bought out or influenced by corrupt rich people. This is what is happening in Maldives. Every one knows what the problems are, yet it is difficult to fight a sitting government that is corrupt and shameless.
India is the biggest democracy in the world. Inspite of regular elections to elect leaders through the democratic process, corrupt politicians get elected using corrupt practises.
This situation is improving by the work of reporters carrying out sting operations exposing corrupt officials on a slew of 24-hour television channels in India that fight to improve ratings.
Writing in the Hindustan Times on Dec 2005, editor Vir Sanghvi said: "The problem is that Indian politics is now largely about money. It costs money to get elected. It costs money to remain in office, to run schemes in your constituencies and to maintain a staff. And because the electorate is so unpredictable and because governments know that they can suddenly collapse at any time, there is an irresistible urge for politicians to make as much money as they can. And then, there's the naked greed factor."
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