Mohamed Nasheed, a name that holds a special place in Maldives history. In 2018, the 50-year-old political leader had defeated then Asia’s longest-serving leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in a historic win. This ended Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s unchallenged rule of three decades in the Maldives. The young charismatic leader earned international renown as a campaigner against climate change and the rising sea levels posing an existential threat to the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago. A decade later after his historic feat, Mohamed Nasheed is back in the global spotlight after a Supreme Court ruling that has plunged his homeland into chaos. Nasheed, who was once compared to Nelson Mandela because of his life in prison, had fled into exile after he was convicted and jailed in 2015 on a terrorism charge widely seen as politically motivated.
Now, the 50-year-old political leader is calling for help to depose President Abdulla Yameen, whose refusal to comply with the court’s order to release high-profile political prisoners drew international censure. The President’s decision to declare a state of emergency and arrest of two top judges in the country has provided a new opportunity for Nasheed who was appealed to regional superpower India to send in troops and restore democracy.
A veteran in the political corridors of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed was repeatedly arrested for speaking out against the government in the 1990s. He then formed the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in exile in Sri Lanka and Britain after leaving the Maldives in 2003. It is now the main opposition party in the country.
Nasheed returned to his homeland in 2005 and was elected President three years later on a promise to make the holiday paradise islands carbon-neutral within a decade. In a major step, Nasheed held an underwater cabinet meeting in 2009 in an effort to press the world to cap carbon emissions.
However, his intention to buy a new homeland to relocate the Maldives’ entire population, raised a few eyebrows. After weeks of street protests over the sacking of a judge, and a year later lost a controversial run-off against Yameen, half-brother to his old foe Gayoom, Nasheed was pushed aside in 2012.
By 2016, he was again in exile in London, securing political asylum with the help of high-profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Yameen’s regime, furious, tore up his passport. Nasheed insisted he was “a refugee” but still a Maldivian national.
Last year, Mohamed Nasheed had announced from Colombo that he will take on Yameen for the presidency – even though stepping foot in the Maldives would result in his arrest.