Governance gone wrong

On Saturday, Police arrested the Maldives Vice President in the latest instalment of a country trapped in political infighting. The Indian group of islands, which are a neighbour to Sri Lanka, has provided strong lessons in the chaos a nation can descend to when governance is replaced by authoritarianism.

For decades Maldives was under the veritable dictatorship of Mohammad Gayoom. Noted in history books as the longest-serving leader in South Asia his power seeped into every corner of the country including the Judiciary, Civil Service, Police and Military. Eventually the Maldives, known mostly for its pristine beaches and honeymooning couples, became an authoritarian state with strong levels of nepotism and religious conservatism.

In 2008 the country tried out democracy by electing Mohammad Nasheed, but it proved to an episode that ended in disaster when the former President was ousted in 2012. Nasheed’s exit essentially brought back the old order with presidential elections in 2013 controversially won by Gayoom’s half-brother Abdulla Yameen. 

President Yameen then began cracking down on political opponents and was severely criticised by the international community after his Government jailed Nasheed to 13 years in jail in March after a fast-tracked trial that was slammed by the United Nations for failing to follow due process. Yameen also jailed a former Defence Minister and is accused of rolling back media freedom and lifting the moratorium on the death penalty. He also impeached his former Vice President and changed laws to insert the current Vice President Ahmed Adeeb.

Prominent Human Rights Attorney Amal Clooney called for the release of Nasheed during a much publicised visit to the Maldives in September where she met her client and held talks with the rest of his legal team. She also flew to Sri Lanka during her tour. The Maldives Government in response has hired lobbyists and Cheri Blair’s law firm to defend itself against the international community. A move similar to Sri Lanka’s former Government paying out millions of dollars in a futile attempt to save face against strong criticism over human rights.

Maldives has also fallen foul of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). UN Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein in September called on Yameen’s Government to release Nasheed. He also called for a review of criminal cases against several hundred of Nasheed’s party supporters who have been arrested in protests since May in the Maldives.

On 28 September a blast aboard Yameen’s speedboat injured his wife and several staff members. Despite initially being seen as a mechanical issue, subsequent forensic reports including one from Sri Lankan experts have now tagged the explosion as an assassination attempt. Yameen responded by sacking his Defence Minister and Police Chief as well as transferring top brass and creating a separate security division for his family. Capital Male has remained under tight security for days.

The culture of control, fear, and intimidation in the Maldives is the clear result of decades of institutional deterioration that has eroded the independence of every arm of Government, creating a fiefdom for the ruling family. 

The ruthless power consolidation by President Yameen and his loyalists has thrown the country into a free-fall, making it loose preferential trade deals with the European Union on fish exports and hampered investment opportunities. It is a startling lesson of how badly things can go wrong for many countries that are struggling to implement rules of good governance.