During the long period since the announcment of Democratic reforms in the
Maldives
one thing is clear. The plight for Democracy has become a fight between the privileged well experienced ruling elite
of last three decades and a deprived middle class movement otherwise known as Maldives Democratic Party.
This division has negative implications for the prospect of building a true democracy
in the Maldives. Following close observations
of the events that lead to the cancellation of MDP rally yesterday it is clear that to become profoundly legitimate
as a government committed for democratic reforms the current government should find a less shackled way of dealing with opposition
activities. Legitimacy of the president’s promise is only believable if it allows the avenues needed for public
dialogue, scrutiny, communication debates and accommodation of other activities in line with freedom of association and expression.
It is only through engagement that citizens will be able to become aware and gather
information and knowledge about choices. If systematic suppression is exercised even though it is over a minority; the government’s
true desire to pursue reforms is questionable. This leads to the question whether the government is capable of a
change of stance or formulate a turnover strategy. In other words lead the country to transition from the long history authoritarianism
since independence; to democracy. Because this is a profound change. It is questionable whether it is possible that
with a history and stigma of authoritarian attahced to it and the government continueing to being in power; can
establish democracy in the Maldives
without being a causality first.
I personally think that for democratic reforms to take place as apparently
seeing since 2004 an avenue for democratic engagement needs to be found independently. It needs to be orchestrated at
local, national and international level by an independent commission or harshly speaking by an interim government.
Once such an avenue or a commission for communication is established then the voice of both elite and commons can
be heard without brawls, time consuming arguments that never reach a conclusion. There will be no bias and it will created
a healthy environemnt where everyone is treated as equals.
People should never be made to feel that they are overpowered
in their idology of politics and democracy.At present the elite government which is the same government
that people wanted to be reformed create prevailance of such feeling either on purpose or not. To solve
the problem the entrenched self interest of the president’s government and domination exercised by
the officials of the government inorder to strenthen its position under the name of political party DRP need to be ceased.
Entitlement to
ones own ability to make choices and expression of opinion is a fundamental necessity. Without
any sytings attached alone is the key to public opinion. In other words the pre condition for Maldives
becoming a democratic country is; opening doors to every Maldivian individuals to make decision without fear
from reprecussions.It is critical that the government allow such venues otherwise sooner or later the internal dissatisfaction
expressed over the reform process will reverberate to the external environment. If this happen the government will
land in a situation where it will have to defend its legitamacy and capability of establishing a democracy in the Maldives
to the international community. Any attempt made by the government for the past few years to rectify its image as a legitimate
government willing to bring democracy will be of no avail
