7th February of 2012, that Tuesday morning when I woke up to see high traffic live feed on my Twitter and on Facebook statuses. I did not have the slightest clue that today was the day of ending the presidency of Mohamed Nasheed, since protests have been ongoing for more than a fortnight.
I, personally am not a fan of Mohamed Nasheed. However, I’ve wanted things to change and for things to work in a different manner. And on that thought, hoping for the change, we did change.
For all those reasons, for better or worse, what Mohamed Nasheed has done within his time as president must have gotten its reasons. He, as being elected as the president must have had a vision, and means to accomplish those visions.
But it all comes down to what happened today. Question lies if what happened today really brought justice? Our concerns remain as we saw the incidents and the outburst of today’s incidents. Mohamed Nasheed was not perfect, nor were any other former presidents.
As a citizen of the nation, one is to abide by the rules and the laws stated as of the constitution, as no one is above the rule of law. Taking the Chief Justice into custody outraged the public and declared that the President had acted unconstitutionally. Although word tells us that the Chief Justice is one of those corrupt judges who brought shame, the fact that the President acted unconstitutional was what mattered. There could have been ways to handle the issue than act unconstitutional and act over the judiciary.
The separation of powers enables the right to uphold the law and maintain peace and justice; However, the parliament being is a cheap market for the MP’s, we saw good examples of sided MP’s changing sides now and then. At this point we question ourselves why we chose those MP’s. I refuse to accept the fact that we cannot find 77 loyal candidates for all 77 constituencies, who would not hold on to ‘gifts’.
What in the eyes of children today were pepper spray in their schools, and the police and the MNDF protesting. The so called peaceful paradise was fuming with rage; with rubber bullets and guns.
Our thoughts go back to what the police and MNDF did today. Did they act within the constitution? They were acting regardless of what they were told. Did they uphold the law? What we saw today was that the Special Forces had acted within their political opinion and not within their duties and their obligations.
The right to democracy never meant heading out for protests every night as a pass time activity. Half of the protesters join the crowd not knowing what they were protesting for. We question ourselves what democracy means. Do we even deserve a democracy?
We blame the systemic failure of the parliament to hold the judiciary and the executive accountable. With the resignation of Mohamed Nasheed, question that floats in our mind is of what happened today. Was it a step backwards? The change yet to come towards the administration lies within the people and their respective representatives within their constituencies; not within the Special Forces. We now question ourselves to where we are heading. What we saw today was what we have long feared. Tyranny is not what the small nation; known as the peaceful paradise on Earth is to become.