The Coast Guard is said to have boarded the boat, handcuffed and arrested people on board the dhoni. There is no word after that.
The Maldivian crisis raises anew a range of very old questions that states and citizens across South Asia need to consider:
1. Do borders delimit and limit our concerns about human rights and democracy?
2. Where is the threshold beyond which polite, international legal constraints about sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs do not apply, for clearly there should be such a threshold in international society?
3. Should considerations about such limits inform the decision to buy and sell arms, boats and other equipment that can have a 'dual-use' capability--against true marauders and against one's citizens?
The crisis also points to how government-controlled media can prove a liability to the government itself because their credibility is eroded over time. The result is that coverage of crisis situations is polarized to the point where everything one side says seems wrong to the other. In the argument over who is telling the truth, it is real people who fall between the cracks.
2 comments:
Sadly all government of Maldives does is "spin, spin, spin". They lie to their own people, they lie to themselves, they lie to the international community about their abysmal human rights record and this incident and the reporting of it on state-owned media is a case in point.
The question is for how long can they continue? I doubt for very long. Their own people, the people of South Asia and the international community at large will soon realise and come to terms with the fabrications and innnuendos created by this government to hide the truth. Soon the naked truth will be exposed.
Thank you Subcontinent South for an accurate reporting of the situation.
I think Indian government should stop helping Maldives if they are using our gift aid against their citizens.
Post a Comment