The ouster of Mohammed
Nashed as the President of Maldives triggers ambivalent feelings in me.
In a way, the phenomena of Nashed come across as a
whiff of fresh air in the governance history of Maldives. There is no getting
away from the fact that he brought back democracy to Maldives. Nashed was
jailed in all for six years after being arrested 27 times while agitating for democracy.
He remains the country's first and only democratically elected President. He
additionally preserved the country's culture of liberal brand of Islam.
But governing Maldives was
not easy. Nasheed's predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who ruled as a dictator
for more than 30 years, may have been defeated at the polls, but his chosen
people continue to control all other institutions of the country whether the
judiciary, police; army etc who collectively continued to put hurdles to his
governance. This task was made worse when a small section of Islamist
fundamentalists made him the object of their ire because of his liberal
outlook. He played right into their hands when he took to undemocratic steps to
curb his opponents. The ouster of Nashed from this perspective remains a blot
to democracy. But make no mistake. Nashed will be back in the chair of
Presidency, maybe sooner than later.
Mohammed Nashed was built
up by global warmists as the poster boy of the so called sea level rise threat
posed by global warming to island states like Maldives and Tuvulu who emerged
as a small but significal pressure bloc within the UNFCC climate treaty
conferences. And Nashed was naturally, their leader and being as articulate as
he is; he became their spokesman too with rock star billing. So his fall also
evokes in me a sense of elation as a climate sceptic.
Being Oxford educated,
Nashed was the West's darling. Before winning the presidency of Maldives,
Nashed ran a human rights organization in the country, receiving liberal
foreign funding. If belonging to the NGO sector, you probably can't help but get carried away by
listening to him because he speaks your language. But he misused this advantage
to further the global warming scam. To be fair to Nashed, he did it all in the best
interests of Maldives. The country has little economy but tourism. Nashed used the global warming scare
to maximize its potential earnings. He was a marketer par excellence!
Immediately after taking
office, Mohammed Nashed announced that he is setting up a sovereign wealth fund
in order to purchase a new homeland for the inhabitants in the event of sea
level rise caused by man-made ‘global
warming’.
How will he financed this venture? He replied - this will come
from a tax on the billions of dollars of tourism that the country enjoys – a ‘climate change levy’ that tourists will
be glad to pay for, to atone for having contributed to ‘global warming’ by
flying to get there. Here was Nashed masterly engaging in spin and guilt
manipulation to get those succumbing to willingly part with their money!
The global warmist media
chipped in to give him a helping hand, among which the BBC, the vanguard of the
propaganda machine and guilt manipulation. These articles were penned as if
they were retainers from the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board, providing free
advertisements for Maldives Tourism. Here are some extracts from Nick Bryant,
BBC correspondent in the Maldives, Maldives: Paradise soon to be lost:
"To
visit the Maldives is to witness the slow death of a nation. For as well as
being blessed with sun-kissed paradise islands and pale, white sands, this
tourist haven is cursed with mounting evidence of an environmental catastrophe.
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