Brown Pundits

Posted By Nandalal_Rasiah on February 7, 2012

Mohamed Nasheed, former political prisoner and muck-raking journalist, has stepped down as Maldivian President following weeks of protests in which the police and some soldiers defected to the civilian side.  Nasheed was the democratic and apparently anti-autocracy challenger to 30-year dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, suffering several stints in prison for his journalism and political activism.  Now, Nasheed stands charged of imprisoning a high-court judge who freed a trenchant critic of his administration, tanking the economy, violent suppression of protests and ‘letting Islamic values slip.’  Now, if you remember your 80s human-rights activism history, a fellow by the name of Mahinda Rajapakse was a prominent domestic and international activist against the ‘white van disappearing’ phenomenon of 1988-89 Sri-Lanka, against the backdrop of the marxist JVP’s second uprising.  The familiar activist–candidate–leader–tyrant narrative has played out many times.   It is my hope that the post-modern and rights-based discourse world has produced its last generation of lefty proto-autocrats but I am not confident at all.  South Asia shows us that where the proto-autocrat talent pool may be dry, nepotism will supply.

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