CNI report leaves Maldives with “awkward”, “comical” precedent: Nasheed

Additional reporting by Mariyath Mohamed

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said he accepts the report produced by the Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) subject to the reservations of his member on the Commonwealth-backed commission, Ahmed ‘Gahaa’ Saeed.

The CNI found that there was no coup on February 7, that Nasheed did not resign under duress, and that police and military officers did not mutiny.

Saeed resigned from the commission the evening prior to report’s publication, expressing concern that the CNI had experienced the withholding of evidence, non-cooperation from crucial witnesses, non-examination of witnesses, witnesses being intimidated or obstructed, testimonies and evidence that was not reviewed.  Concern was also expressed over the organisation by the CNI secretariat.

“I believe the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) will consider the reservations about the CNI’s work that Saeed has noted, and that these issues will also be included in the CMAG report,” Nasheed said, at a press conference this afternoon.

The former President observed that the CNI’s report had effectively set a legal precedent under Maldivian law for the overthrow of an elected government through police or mob action.

This, he said, left the Maldives “in a very awkward, and in many ways, very comical” situation, “where toppling the government by brute force is taken to be a reasonable course of action. All you have to do find is a narrative for that course of action.”

“The pronouncement on the transfer of power was a political announcement – not based on findings or facts. This political pronouncement is based in my view on what would be best for the country from now on, not on exactly what happened that day,” Nasheed said.

“I see the report as a document that tries to map a way forward. The commission was of the view that reinstating my 2008 government would be so messy that it would be best to move forward with another election. So the report has tried so hard to come out with this view through a proper narrative. You will have read the narrative and will understand that at times it is comical, but still, it is a narrative.

“I still am of the view that the commission report has established a precedent which in many ways is not very alien to our past practices. Usually if a mob comes to the palace and stands there for a lengthy amount of time, and if other locals are connected to the mob, the king has very little room to maneuver,” Nasheed said.

“We seem to have been unable to get away from this very feudal system of governance. We were hoping the new constitution would be enlightened enough to give us a system whereby governments would change simply through the ballot box, but it now looks like it was not so simple. I think it will take time before we are able to settle down to more democratic forms.

“My message to the international community is when you recommend issues, situations, solutions programmes and projects to other societies and people, it is so very important to understand the detailed intricacies of the local conditions.

“We still hope elections will be held early, and we will go to elections with a programme, as we always have, and we believe that we will win that election in the first round very handsomely. We have no doubt about that.”

Nasheed noted that all major coalition-aligned parties had signalled their acceptance of the report and its recommendations, including former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) Leader Thasmeen Ali, “and my former vice president Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik”, and emphasised that one of the major recommendations in the report that they had agreed to was for action taken against unlawful acts committed by the security forces.

“We call for a criminal investigation, and they must then be tried in court and be sentenced as due,” he said.

“We are not surprised, this was one outcome the MDP had predicted. If the report suggested there was no duress [in the resignation] but that there were wrongdoings by the police and military, then all these wrongdoings must be addressed immediately within a period of one month, with the international community’s support in doing so,” Nasheed added.

During his speech at the report’s release on Thursday, President Mohamed Waheed did not reveal the CNI’s fourth finding – that there were “acts of police brutality on February 6, 7 and 8 that must be investigated and pursued further by relevant authorities”.

Referring to the CNI report’s conclusion that the controversial February 7 change of power was “constitutional”, Nasheed said that if this were the case, then he believed that parties who were not included in the victorious 2008 coalition had no right to participate in the current unity government, specifically Gayoom’s Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) and the DRP.

Nasheed called for his impending trial at Hulhumale Court – a move recently upheld by the High Court – to be expedited, and also expressed concern at the arbitrary arrest of his supporters for calling police and public officials ‘baghees’ (traitors).

“It is always their hard work that brings things to realisation, that impresses upon everyone the gravity of issues, and if you have a look at who was arrested last night, you can see that the core of them are the intelligentsia of this country,” Nasheed said.

“They are young, highly qualified and they have an opinion. If you want to keep arresting people with an opinion, that says very little about your democratic credentials.”


30 thoughts on “CNI report leaves Maldives with “awkward”, “comical” precedent: Nasheed”

  1. "...Nasheed said that if this were the case, then he believed that parties who were not included in the victorious 2008 coalition had no right to participate in the current unity government, ..."

    LOL - The very 'victorious 2008 coalition' that Nasheed himself spat on and sidelined, right after he came into power.

  2. I agree with Nasheed that this was a comical situation. He himself was the instigator of this comical situation. He may be able to pull wool over some Maldivian's eyes but when faced with legal experts from the UN and Commonwealth, then he got found out.

    In hindsight it would have better for him, if he did not insist on internationalising this Commission. If it was Shafeeu and the other two, then he can either say that they were biased and probably they would have been incompetent too and may have messed the whole thing up.

    But now by bringing in Commonwealth and UN experts, the jig is up. In the end they found out that most of the stuff he kept accusing were just heresay. Then there was the comedy part of someone carrying a gun and Zulfa stating that it was a gun because his pocket was bulging.

    Sure he is also right that there was Police brutality on the 8th and these people must be investigated and prosecuted. The government would most probably do that and that eliminates the last excuse he has.
    Nasheed himself seems to have no clue about the way a Presidential system works. Maldives does not have a Prime Minister and the President can appoint anyone he wants to the cabinet provided he gets the approval from the Majlis.
    What was constitutional was the succession of the VPresident after the resignation of the President. The sitting President has every right to appoint anyone he wants to the cabinet provided Majlis approval is given.

    It would have been better from the inset, that he stopped all this rioting and concentrated on the next election while he had the majority support. Now he does not have it at all.

  3. Highly regrettable that Nasheed continues to behave so.

    MDP must try to dissociate itself from this character. He feels no shame in accepting a report which he had attacked and defamed only 24 hours ago while making backhanded comments towards all his critics.

    Nasheed has also displayed no remorse for several shortcomings with this regime and style of rule that led to his demise.

    The man has also made a joke out of himself by suddenly putting on a mask of self-righteousness in condemning CoNIs report as a document which endorses violent street action. This from Nasheed! The father of mob violence and intimidation.

    I just don't know what to say about this man any longer. I feel pity for him. He is a thing of the past but still refuses to accept it.

    We really must try to move away from such characters and continue walking down the path of reform and national development.

  4. Maldives is now a comedy, thanks to Nasheed himself.

    Maldives is now famous for the following
    - underwater cabinet
    - Sinking land due to sea level raise
    - environment refugees seeking land abroad
    - mass resignation of cabinet
    - first Islamic democracy
    - drugs
    - President resignation alleging a coup

    Dear Mr. Nasheed. It is you who have made this country comical.

  5. Actually Anni has given the only dignified response that could be given to this undeserving report.Admirable and informed. In plainspeak the feedback to the report would sound more like: Whitewash of the highest order, maybe this rogue regime is beginning to believe its own lies. Those who don't understand Anni's words don't understand the humor that comes from being aligned with one's conscience - or irony. He may not be the best leader, but right now he is the only hope we have for nation building and democracy - otherwise mob rule it is. The mob is in charge and its not the MDP. Its truly a case of the pot calling the kettle black and those in the know do know. No one is fooled, except the fools of course.

  6. @tsk tsk

    Nelson Mandela too was called the father of mob violence when he stood for the dismantling of the apartheid regime in South Africa. He spent 25 years in prison for standing for the rights of his people for equality as human beings.

    Martin Luther King stood for the rights of his people. And he was vilified for his capacity to draw people on the street with his stand for African Americans to have the basic rights for equality as human beings.

    What a compliment to President Nasheed that you would call him the father of mob violence .

    In South Africa it was the white man’s belief that the African was an inferior human being (sub-human) biologically, ranked just a little higher than the ape. The whole Bantu Education programme was based on that belief. To provide the African to have an “ education” that will make them good servants to the white man.

    It is Nasheed’s stand for democracy, for freedom of speech and for a social protection system that would liberate our people from the tyranny of poverty my dear tsk tsk what draws the crowds.

    The winner, really, as I see it is President Nasheed. For Anni, his life purpose is clearly to transform the culture of apathy domination tyranny and greed. People will come, people will go, governments will come and go, but I see President Nasheed never faltering in his work to realise the vision he has for our nation.

    And you my dear tsk tsk can sit where you are sitting being a couch leader and never know what it is to take a stand.

  7. This so called investigation was commissioned by the coup regime. No one is surprised by the outcome. It is all part of their plan.

    Democracy has been gagged and spat out. Nasheed has been stitched up.

  8. edited one (pls post this only)

    @ tsk tsk

    Bro, I feel sorry for you, it must be frustrating to be a baghee today, day in day out you guys try so hard to put decent face on your coup leader waheed blackened face, yet President nasheed just keeps on raising from the ashes and exposing waheeds foolishness isn’t it.
    Even this Singapore Judge Selvam turned out to be a crook, gave the bagee Waheed a half cooked report and ran away with the money and a resort island. lol one crook cheated the other crook and took away the money. Here is my advice, do what Selvam did, just take out your cut from this coup government and run, at least you wont live a in a constant state of headache.

  9. Real Baaghee is Nasheed.

    It was clear that Anni tried to declare the state of emergency on 6th and he himself said that he was under the impression that he had declare the " state of emergency on 6th and 7th Feb" .

    Anni had tried to create an environment to declare state of emergency from 4th Feb. onwards by ordering MDP thugs to fight against the opposition demonstrators . Until 5th of Feb. MDP leaders refused to do do but on 6th Reeco was forced to carry out Anni order to send the thugs to artificial beach to start a bloodshed there.

    Anni planned to do this in order to abolish the Parliament and Judiciary to bring all power under his arm.

    So reall Baaghee is Anni.

  10. The judgement of the Maldivians are have crucial in this hour as regards the coup and the beautiful legitimization orchestrated by CONI both Co chairs.

    It is stupid to believe that Gengiskhan,European wars, Facism, Nazism, Stalin, Pol Pot and Columbus did not kill altogether hundreds of millions of people. These genocides have nothing to do with Islam and Muslims and yet Islam is portrayed as violent religion when its essence is nothing but peace as the complete code of life; for individuals, community, nation states and global community.

    Similarly, now based on the same tactics of propaganda the coup leaders are miserably failing the propaganda system as truth is close at hand in the Maldives. The credibility of the TV channels are being laid to rest with due to continuous baseless propaganda and lies about Anni and MDP.

    There has not been a single loss or jeopardy to neither to the people nor to the interests of the people during his short tenure.The economy was turned around, free healthcare , new found freedom and liberty, social security, housing, massive youth programmes and transport network.

    Arrest of judge was to salvage a rogue judiciary and many other inconsequential decisions were to for clear protection of the common man, and these isolated cases have been blown out of proportions to discredit Anni to serve their evil intentions and vice. To their dismay result of their propaganda is soaring popularity of Anni as a hero of such a high stature beyond the scope of coup leaders imagination. The end matters not the process with justifiable means.

  11. The most important question I would like to raise is do we really need a Supreme Court. When the country really needed a decision on an important constitutional issue it turned to a group of foreign persons to get an opinion and accepted it. Both the opposition and the government of the day decided that the Supreme Court is of no use.

    As per our constitution it is the Supreme Court that should decide on such constitutional matters. But the seven fools there are happy to stay in the side line and watch their functions being usurped by someone else. what a sorry state we are in.

  12. It is truly unfortunate that Maldivians are blind to the social stratification that our country is swimming in. Imagine, all these wealthy businessmen earning more than a hundred thousand rufiyaa a month, excluding their excessive salaries from the parliament sitting around discussing what’s going to be the best for the country.

    That is the real comedy here, and it’s no more laughable as a heart attack.

    All these laws that protect the wealthy, starting from the most childish, “thou shalt not call names” libel law, all should be abolished as soon as possible.

    The divergence of the wealthy children and the normal kids are getting so wide that the next generation is going to be convulsing in the amplified problems of today; drugs and violence... and I’m just talking about the wealthy children.

  13. Change of government gave: Waheed the presidency; Nazim a resort; and the boys who helped them get their victory: a jail cell. Pity pity pity...

  14. With hind sight Maldives as a nation owes a big thanks to the Commonwealth for advising it on how to deal with the crisis created by the premature resignation of the Nation’s first democratically elected President.

    This nation owes a debt of gratitude to both the independent Maldivian Commissioners and the 3 foreign legal luminaries that helped produce the CONI report. The Commissioner who failed to maintain his independence and so allowed him to be biased and was seen to discount the peace and harmony on the streets of Male merits the contempt of all Maldives. The allure of personal gain proved too much to resist for this biased Commissioner- a fraud!

    It’s very interesting to note minivan news columnists starting to refer to “ex-President Nasheed”.

    President Nasheed was a wily activist who tried his best to play "politician" and who cashed in on his status as the first democratically elected president of Maldives. He did everything to propagate the canard (or myth) that he was the father of democracy in this country.

    Now President Nasheed stands exposed and denuded as a democrat with the way he ran his party and his country. He failed to realize that President Gayoom his nemesis had really pulled the carpet from under his feet by making sure that all the building blocks of democracy was in place to hog tie any wannabe despot like President Nasheed.


    Indeed! The CMAG has noted Saeed’s contributions in full.

    How well noted Mr. Saeed’s contributions were can be gauged by the report on the CONI deliberations signed by the 2 international observers. What a piece of luck that we had foreign legal experts overseeing the whole process.

    The revelation in this whole saga is President Dr. Waheed.

    Very few people would have been able to steer Maldives through the choppy waters that it found itself these past 5 months. He was provoked as few leaders in any part of the world ever was. His education, his training and experience and more than anything else his capacity to listen to able counsel has saved Maldives from immense pain and bloodshed. It looks as if Maldives has found itself a compassionate, able leader who is in touch with Maldivians of all hues and color.

    I pray that the nascent democracy with its baby institutions would take firm root and blossom out in the Maldives under President Wahid’s care - at last fulfilling the dream of all Maldivians to live with respect and dignity under the rule of law.

    Is that too much to ask?

  15. President Waheed: focused on pettily sidelining the press on 30th August while readily accepting the report because it took him off the hook without considering even for one minute its reprecussions for this nation's governing systems or for the poor police and army personnel who helped him get his presidency. A leader needs more than an encyclopedic knowledge of the human condition and systems of governmnet and politics. Most importnatly a leader needs the people behind him.

  16. Mody!!! My father is a Baaghee darling which is why I sympathise somewhat with the police and army personnel who came out that day.

  17. This is pure politics and yet the taxpayer has to suffer the rubbish that politicians dump on us!

    @tsk tsk.
    "I just don’t know what to say about this man any longer. I feel pity for him. He is a thing of the past but still refuses to accept it."

    Don't say anything about this man.
    Don't pity this man no more.
    Accept the present, wet your beak in the puddle, quench your thirst, then take a rest.

    @ah mad

    "I pray that the nascent democracy with its baby institutions would take firm root and blossom out in the Maldives under President Wahid’s care – at last fulfilling the dream of all Maldivians to live with respect and dignity under the rule of law."

    If Wahid, as you say, is Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, the traitor, VP of President Nasheed who is unlawfully and undemocratically sworn in cannot be the example to respect dignity and rule of law, what is the point to ask for anything (not even the least)!

    If Waheed wanted to be an example, on the 6th or long before he noted President Nasheed was going over board; he should have resigned, then joined the mob or what ever one may want to call it, sacked the government in accordance with the existing law with all its faults and should have become president.

    Waheed, however clever he think he is, however much he is educated, however much he is thirsty to become President of Maldives, cannot get rid of is the fact that he broke the constitutional law, he betrayed his President and turned TRAITOR!

    CoNI report can say whatever the CoNI has to say or want to say!

    If, as said by JJR here;


    would JJR or someone tell me:

    What is a coup?
    What is "under duress"?
    How does a police or military or who ever mutiny?

  18. @ ah mad:

    It does not matter how long we argue or our consistency in maintaining our line. Those who revolve around the shifting ideology of a single person are often blind to the most cogent argument.

    However an outsider's view might help them understand. Please read:

  19. President Nasheed's speech in accepting the CONI report with the reservations voiced by Saeed, was just commendable. Deep down even the baaghees realise that but what to do, surely they can't admit openly now can they? 😉 Now the onus is on the government, to show that they really do indeed accept the CONI report. So lets see if the government has the guts to kick DRP and PPM out of a government that they were never a part of, and if the government has the guts to make the military and police officials who derserve to be punished suspended and made accounable for their actions. Some how I doubt if puppet waheed will have the guts to do that.

  20. @ Patriot
    I’m sure if you would just take the time to read the CONI report, you would find that all these questions you pose in your comment are answered in full.

    As to your references to the inter relationship between ex-President Nasheed and Dr. Waheed in his then role as VP, you would remember that Dr. Waheed went public distancing him from the illegal arrest of the judge, and giving advice to release him.

    The relationship between President Nasheed & President Waheed was very complex. The latter was sidelined. Why?

    We can only hazard a guess that this was due to the fact that President Nasheed was acutely aware that it was more than anything else Dr. Waheed’s Stanford pedigree coupled with his vast experience in administration and international diplomacy gained at the UN which lent his Presidential bid any credibility. Further we also know from Dr. Hassan Saeed’s writings that at some point in order to get President Waheed to lend his name to Nasheeed’s Presidential bid in 2008, he had promised President Waheed that he would resign mid-term. President Waheed has indeed served his country well. These facts perhaps fed an inferiority complex in President Nasheed towards Dr. Waheed that has marred their relationship ever since.

    I think the time has now come to think of this nation first. Exercise your right to make sure that those who rule in your name do their job right - in accordance with the constitution and the laws of the land. How could Democracy and rule of law take root unless we move beyond worshiping personalities and occupy ourselves more with substance? To get the nascent institutions up and running is a man sized job. Hasn’t President Dr. Waheed proved himself beyond any doubt that he is quietly fit for the great task ahead? Think about it.

    @ Tsk Tsk
    Thank-you. It’s an amazing read. The full report is in effect a MUST read for every Maldivian. It warmed my heart reading the ringing endorsement of the 4 independent Maldivian Commissioners.

    Maybe that at long last we as a nation have the intellectual underpinnings necessary to take charge of our destiny. It fills me with hope that any wannabe dictator and despot aiming for the hot seat in Maldives will think twice and take lessons from how President Nasheed tried and failed to take the law into his own hands.

    President Nasheed and his cabal of foul mouthed activist’s failure to take the law into their hands and also their failure of employing their bully boy tactics of threatening mob violence on the streets is a victory for every son and daughter of Maldives irrespective of party affiliations. This should encourage the bright young and capable members of MDP, and the other parties to make their voices heard in their party.
    Vive la Republique!

    We have an opportunity ahead of us to reconfirm the democratic credentials of President Waheed in the weeks ahead when the country deals with the Hulumale court cases of abuse of power of ex-President Nasheed by arresting Judge Abdullah.

    What we want to see for President Nasheed is an impeccably free & fair trial conducted with all transparency and due process which President Nasheed denied his countrymen when he arrested politicians, businessmen and even a sitting judge without due process.

    One lesson we learnt with CMAG is that we can do very well with foreign legal expertise and that they can contribute immensely to our way of life.

  21. If you ask the thieves association to investigate a member thief of the stolen goods do you believe that the goods will show up or another thief will tell you the goes the initial report then steps selvam out of the business contacts? One crow does not pick on the other crow's eye? Money is the solution in all corruption societies, no wonder that this Selvam got enough out of this deal? What does it matter for him? he only got his bank account more full than before...

  22. we do not care what Anni thinks and feels. We only need to care bout the majority, We are not going to move around with the cult. Its a gone case.

    Anni is a big lier and he has no values in front of the majority of Maldivians. This will be proved if he context in 2013.

  23. I have asked you many times to give us evidence for all the accusations you make about Anni.

    And you offer none.

    Just another empty vessel making noise, Mody. You poor sod.

  24. @Ah mad

    You have not answered me!
    Instead a long story such as the "Ipad CoNi report" that the "Singaporte Abdullah Ghazi" presented!

    Though you are well aware that in fact, this document is lame, rhombus in shape and conveniently freeing the actual manipulators and instead punish the many innocent who blindly took part in the execution of the robbery!

    Have a good laugh and just say nothing!

    And @Ah mad.
    Very true ("It does not matter how long we argue or our consistency in maintaining our line. Those who revolve around the shifting ideology of a single person are often blind to the most cogent argument."), it does not matter how long we can go on arguing there is no way "hypocrites" can believe real and living evidence.

    When Prophet Mohamed was asked to split the moon, when at the signal the moon did split and went apart! The people were so frightened they begged him to undo what was done and he did so!

    But hypocrites did not believe and wanted to wait for their people who were traveling to return and give evidence!

    When they returned and gave evidence to seeing the moon split;
    they (hypocrites) said that it was black magic that worked even to the far places!

    It is only a true believer who can believe what they see!

    I am truly of opinion that if accepted by CMAG without remorse; So long democracy and your ilk can start sharpening your claws to welcome some ism!


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