Regression, regression, regression
It has been almost four months since the first democratically elected government of the Maldives fell on 7 February 2012. Since then, the new regime has lowered the national discourse to a level that befits the fourth Century rather than the 21st.
What has been accorded top priority in the national agenda despite the social, political and economic turmoil in the country are not policies for economic survival, decreasing the rising criminality and gang violence, social welfare schemes and educational development but sorcery, anachronistic and cruel practices such as Female Genital Mutilation, length of men’s beards and coverage of women’s ‘modesty’. And alleged irreligiousness of Nasheed and his supporters.
The agenda for the All-Party talks, for all intents and purposes a ‘Roadmap’ for returning the country to some sort of normalcy is a case in point. It clearly demonstrates that the new regime has no intention of putting democracy on the agenda; it prefers to make a mockery of reformists’ demand to do so.