The recent political crisis of Maldives is mounting each day which has seen as the anti-democratic steps taken by a sovereign nation, where President Abdullah Yameen has declared the state of political emergency in the country.
Climate Change experts have projected that the Maldives will be the first nations to be collapsed under the water as an impact of it. Maldives economy stands on tourism. The beauty made of the collection of the island is the things people like to see and share. The declaration of the emergency will surely hamper the Maldivian economy badly.
There are several reasons behind that move taken by the president; among that political insecurity is vital. After the election of 2013, President Yameen has been, gradually, removing the opposition leaders one by one by accusing them of being anti-state actors. For an instant, former President of Maldives, Mohamad Nasheed has been accused of supporting terrorism and has been sentenced for 13 years; similarly, defense minister of Nasheed’s tenure in Government is also in self-exile in Britain. The political crises have risen when the Supreme Court of Maldives order to release all the conviction of Yameen’s rival. So that the situation led to the removal of Supreme Court judge and appointing the new judged to declare a political emergency.
Yameen’s unpopular decision has signaled that he will lose the scheduled upcoming election by a huge margin. So overruling the court decision and willing to keep opposition leader out of the game is the incident created by the political insecurity. But the aftermath of this internal political decision taken by President Yameen has opened so many discourses among stakeholders who have an interest in Maldives. Among that stakeholder China and India are, once again seems to clash their interest over another South Asian nations. Scholars have argued over the Maldive’s soft corner toward China when they have declined 500 million dollars project in India in the year 2012. After that in 2014 when Xi Jing Ping visited Maldive, President Yameen handover the projects to the state-led company of China, which somehow has hurt the interest and the influence of India. As a regional power, India’s manipulation and influence in the Maldives have been confined to very low level recently. Aggressive presence of China in South Asia is the main reason behind that.
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An opposition leader from Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has requested Delhi to have a military intervention to end the crisis of Maldives. In the year 1988 India has sent a small troop to avert the attempt of a coup but this is the year 2018, where there is strong support of China toward the party in the government. The policy of China then and now has been changed drastically too. From nations first toward an influencer, China already has a strong presence in the whole region these days. In this situation, India can’t lead their intervention with the emotions and the ego. According to the source, Indian government ruled out the military option for now and keep partnering with the west and the Middle East to pressurize Maldivian government through sanctions. But as a responsible regional brother, Indian should be led the concern parties for the possible mitigation. The presence of the China and interfering in the internal political disaster of a sovereign neighboring country will project India as a big brother and an irresponsible regional power instead India should find a best possible way to mitigate the state of emergency in the Maldives through dialogues.
writer
Mr Saroj Kumar Aryal
Vice President
Citizens Foundation
M.A, International Relations from University of Warsaw