President Yameen-Supreme Court face-off pushed Maldives into Emergency
There would be no dearth of people in Maldives, India and elsewhere who thought that the Maldivian Supreme Court's dramatic decision of February 1 — ordering the immediate release of high-profile prisoners, including ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-vice president Ahmed Adeeb and holding that prisoners were free until fair trials could be conducted without undue influence — marked the end of the road for president Yameen Abdul Gayoom. In such times, he has used the biggest ace up his sleeve. Since he thought the popular mood wouldn’t win him the presidential election, he has imposed national Emergency — proving everything is possible under his rule.
The Yameen government failed to implement the top court's order, and Supreme Court released a second order on February 4 stating there is no legal barrier to implementing the order, and that it must be implemented. The end effect of the Maldivian apex court’s unprecedented order, actually, was bound to be the opposite.
Maldives’ top officials went on record to say that a Supreme Court order of impeachment or arrest of president Yameen was imminent and made it clear that such an order would not be implemented. However, the feared order hasn’t materialised.
The latest update from Maldives is that president Yameen has submitted letters to Supreme Court, asking that it revoke the court order issued on February 1. Minister of legal affairs at President’s Office, Aishath Azima Shakoor said the request was submitted with the power bestowed upon the president by Article 115 of the Constitution.
Then there was a report in a leading English daily of India on February 5 that the Maldivian Supreme Court had sought Indian help to enforce the order. Maldives’ department of judicial administration promptly denied the report, saying neither the Supreme Court nor the department itself has made any such request. In any case, the SC has neither the jurisdiction nor the Constitutional power to approach a foreign government for help in enforcing its orders in its own land.
Whatever be the truth, the ongoing faceoff between the Yameen government and the Supreme Court will only weaken the case of the Opposition and strengthen the hands of the government despite its poor track record of muzzling democracy and free expression because the apex court has gone far beyond its mandate and brief.
For example, the Supreme Court has no power to order the president's impeachment as that power is vested only with the People’s Majlis or parliament.
Moreover, the SC has nullified and overturned a few clauses of the Constitution over which it clearly has no jurisdiction. For example, it has said Judicial Services Commission, which is the only authority that has the power to investigate disciplinary matters regarding judges — including justices of the Supreme Court — cannot carry out its functions.
Some of the decisions in the order completely contradict the constitution. The court has commandeered for itself some powers outside its jurisdiction which nullified the constitution. The court is aware that opposition parties are once again in a majority in the Majlis and will get support from the opposition if it returns to power. But in the long run, the SC can hijack any government at will.
Objective political sources in Maldives have told this writer that president Yameen can now effectively woo a large number of Maldivians by talking of the Maldivian pride and paint the opposition with a black brush for reaching out to foreign powers merely for the sake of grabbing power.
Also, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of former president Nasheed, which rocked the Yameen government with a massive show of strength — by having more than 20,000 people at a rally in Malé on May 1, 2015 (gathering more than 20,000 people for a rally is a big thing for a country whose total population is only four lakh) is now finding it difficult to gather even 1,500 people for its protest rallies.
Only the parliament is empowered to impeach the president. This scenario became a stark reality after the apex court's order of immediate release of all political prisoners, including many MPs. If the Yameen government had implemented the order, it would have meant the government losing majority in parliament.
That’s why ahead of the parliament's scheduled beginning of a new session on February 5, Yameen cleverly ordered barricading of the parliament by troops, effectively ordering the shut down of the parliament for an indefinite period. If he hadn’t done this and allowed the parliament to meet, the opposition would have gone ahead with the president's impeachment.
On February 4, the opposition took recourse to another measure to make itself heard, especially among the international community. 37 Opposition members of parliament signed a resolution calling on the international community to impress upon the government of Maldives the need to respect the rule of law, and implement last week’s Supreme Court order — which called for reinstatement of 12 opposition MPs besides ruling the release of political leaders — after which the opposition coalition now enjoys a clear majority in the House.
As of now, president Yameen is indisputably facing his worst political crisis. In fact, it’s virtually an existential crisis. He has emerged as the murderer of democracy in the eyes of the international community. He may be down, but he is definitely not out. Not just yet. The international community is not going to win him elections and power. His own countrymen will.