An oddly large number of the names of decidedly undemocratic states start with 'Democratic Republic'. Perhaps it is less surprising, then, that the proposal for a SAARC Centre for Human Rights at the recently concluded 13th SAARC summit came from the longest-serving authoritarian of Asia, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives. According to the president, "such a centre, based on civil society, could promote international standards, facilitate cooperation among lawyers and jurists, and share expertise and resources and advocacy of human rights and democracy in the South Asian region". This is a fantastic idea, particularly for a region where democracy is in a state of flux and the democracy-deficit is omnipresent. But President Gayoom does not have the credibility to sell it.
In the light of increasing international criticism, on 14 March 2005, Gayoom unveiled much-vaunted proposals for both political and constitutional reforms in the Maldives, with a deadline of one year. He followed that up by allowing for registration of political parties, beginning 5 June 2005. However, repression has since begun in earnest and the reform efforts have stalled (see also accompanying opinion piece pp 97). Most significantly, political parties have not been allowed to carry out their activities. Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed warned the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) on 1 November 2005 that "inciting rebellion" through "peaceful disobedience" was an "offence" that could result in prison time.
Alleged confession
Shaheed's threats of repression had already been borne out by the events of 18 October 2005, when Jennifer Latheef, daughter of MDP spokesperson Mohammed Latheef and a MDP councilor, was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for alleged terrorist offences. She was charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for inciting violence in the civil unrest in Male in September 2003, which had followed the murder of four prisoners by guards in Maafushi Prison.
The 'terrorist' offence said to have been committed by Latheef rested on a claim by a police officer that she had hit him in the shin with a stone. Of the seven witnesses against Latheef, six were fellow police officers, whose statements were reportedly contradictory. If stone-throwing was to be considered a terrorist offence, the jails of the rest of Southasia would be full of incarcerated terrorists.