Yearbook 2011
Maldives. The capital, Male, was shaken in early May by several days of violent protests against sharply increased living costs. Police repeatedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters, who were described as essentially young supporters of former President Maumun Abdul Gayum. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of MDV that stands for the country of Maldives.
The opposition to President Mohamed Nashid, a former prisoner of conscience during Gayum’s reign, accused the government of losing control over price developments. Food prices had risen by 30% in a short period of time as a result of the government’s decision to allow the exchange rate of the domestic currency to fluctuate against the US dollar at the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to overcome the budget deficit.
According to Countryaah official site, the government’s first attempt to curb criticism was to halve the import duty on diesel to lower transport and energy costs. During the year, neighbors India and Sri Lanka granted the country credit for food imports.
At the beginning of the year, the first local elections in the history of the Maldives were conducted as part of the government’s efforts to decentralize decisions. All 181 inhabited islands got their own elected parishes. The voters also appointed 19 atoll councils and two city councils.
In November, for the first time, the Maldives hosted the South Asian Cooperation Organization SAARC Summit. The former Maldives Minister of Justice, 36-year-old Fathimath Dhiyana Said, was appointed Secretary of the organization at the beginning of the year, the first woman in that position and even the youngest.
Maldives Geopolitics
The Republic of Maldives, located in the Indian Ocean south-west of India, is an island state made up of about 1200 islands. Independent from the United Kingdom in 1965, it took the form of a presidential republic in 1968 after being a sultanate. Since then, foreign policy has been based on three lines: non-alignment during the years of the Cold War, maintaining solid relations with the countries of South Asia and, finally, participation in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The latter membership is linked to the fact that the Maldives is a state with a Muslim majority: Islam is the official religion and source of law. From 1978 to 2008 the Maldivian political scene was dominated by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. In 2008 a phase of democratic transition began, with the launch of a new Constitutional Charter and a first attempt to liberalize the system. The winner and president Mohamed Nasheed, head of the Democratic Party of Maldives, emerged from the first multi-party elections in Maldivian history. Nasheed’s presidency was abruptly ended in February 2012 by a coup organized by supporters of the past regime, the police forces and Islamic movements, opposed to the reform proposals towards a secular state model. The head of the government is Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, vice president during the Nasheed era (2008-12) and former United Nations official. Presidential elections were held on 7 September 2013, which were then canceled by a Supreme Court ruling and postponed to 19 October. On the eve of the vote, however, a new sentence postponed the electoral appointment to 9 November. Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, half-brother of the former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, emerged as the winner. In September 2015 there was an attempted murder against the president, who however came out unscathed; among the organizers there seems to have been the vice president, Ahmed Adheeb. Riots ensued, which was followed by the imposition of a state of emergency for a week in November. The main concern of the Maldives is the risk of sea level rise as a consequence of global warming: according to some studies the phenomenon could lead to the disappearance of the country by 2100. During the Nasheed government, the Maldives became independent of energy sources fossil, using only energy from the sun, wind and biodiesel. From an economic point of view, the Maldives had to face serious losses caused by the tsunami of December 2004, which caused a contraction of the GDP of about 4%. However, tourism has driven the recovery, allowing annual GDP growth to stabilize at a good pace.