The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): The 93-member Maldivian Parliament, People’s Majlis, is now having the supermajority (more than three-fourths of total seats) of the People’s National Congress (PNC), the party that President Mohamed Muizzu belongs to. In the general elections on Sunday, PNC won 71 seats out of 93. Together with its coalition partners, Muizzu’s party has 75 members in the parliament. The opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) is reduced to only 12 seats from 65 in the previous parliament.
Besides being a top political leader, Muizzu is an engineering and management professional. He earned a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of London and a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Leeds. His PhD thesis was on “Thermal and time-dependent effects on monolithic reinforced concrete roof slab-wall joints.” He also completed a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from PMI.
In essence, Muizzu is a highly educated person who has a deep understanding of engineering and project management. His ability to stay fit and agile is something that keeps him in a separate league. His humility to get down to squatting in his formals to talk to a child further underscores his fitness and humility. He is a professional to the core. His father Abdul Rahman was a former judge and scholar of religion, who received an award from President Mohammed Waheed for his contribution to religious education.
With this background, when Muizzu decides to lean away from India and towards Beijing, it’s his culture as a professional that shows him the way. He is not a lousy, outspoken or egoistic political leader. He is not someone with people’s skills. He is someone who knows how things that don’t work can be fixed. He is calm, composed and in control. He doesn’t despise India; that’s not what a sublime professional like him would do.
The moment three of his cabinet colleagues made uncharitable remarks against India, he restrained them without losing a moment and even removed them when social media warriors tried to blow the matter out of proportion. He maintained his poise and remained adamant about sending back Indian military professionals whose number was less than 100 but symbolically it brought India into the picture, a regional superpower with nearly 100 billion dollars of defense budget. Muizzu chose essence over fluff. He wanted substance rather than pretensions.
Indian establishment often gets emotional recalling how it helped the Maldives in December 2014 when India sent 375 million tonnes of drinking water to Male by aircraft and then 2000 tonnes by INS Deepak and INS Shukanya. Maldives was facing an acute water crisis after a massive fire in the Male Water Sewerage Company complex rendered the water purifying facility out of operation. Maldives consists of tiny islands with exquisite sandy shores that are barely a few feet above sea level, making groundwater either not usable or not accessible. The only source of drinking water is the rainfall.
Just before the Maldives elections, China favoured him for all the overtures Muizzu had been making before and since he became President last November. China sent 1500 tonnes of high-quality mineral water straight from the melting glaciers of Tibet. This water is highly clean and rich in minerals. The agreement for the supply of water from Tibet to Maldives was signed between Muizzu and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region’s Chairman, Yan Jinhai, who visited Maldives immediately after Muizzu became President.
The Chinese water harvested from Tibetan glaciers reached Male on March 26-27, barely a month before the Maldivian general elections and at a time when the country, with the onset of summer, was again facing serious water shortages. The Maldivians voted overwhelmingly for the person who ensured the countrymen would drink the cleanest and the richest water available on the planet. Do you call this pro-China or project management?
In the evolving geopolitics, China’s stake in maintaining the world order has grown as it’s the second-largest economy. It’s both good and bad for China and how China plays this role is both exciting and alarming to watch out for. The United States under President Joe Biden has seen American forces withdrawn from Afghanistan, Russia invading Ukraine, Iran-supported terrorist organizations carrying out one of most horrific terror attacks on Israel, and Israel retaliating with Palestinians in Gaza massacred with no one in the world to care. But that’s not the end! Iran has challenged Israel with an attack and promised more.
Chanel Rion with a baby face is a former chief White House correspondent for One America News Network (OAN). Although she is known for promoting conspiracy theories, this time she seems to have an unbeatable conspiracy to dish out. In a recent opinion broadcast on OAN, she blamed the US leadership for foreign policy blunders that have brought the world to WWIII.
According to her, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is the proxy US president and Sullivan himself is the third eye of former US President Barack Obama, who is believed to be practically running the Biden administration. She blamed Sullivan for helping Iran and getting Iran sympathisers appointed to key posts. This has made another major player in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia — that traditionally countered Iran to make a distance from the US. Recently, Saudi Arabia cancelled Sullivan’s trip to the country, which would have been the fifth this year.
While Muizzu represents a small country, his approach is calculated and thoughtful. Even if he is an enemy, a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend. Indian policy makers should now take new initiatives to bolster relations with the Maldives President who is now in full control of the politics of his island nations. India should better forget what relations it had with the earlier Maldives government, rather New Delhi should look forward to what both the countries can do together benefitting the interests of both the nations. India should treat Maldives as a sovereign nation. Only then, the bilateral relations will improve. (IPA Service)
By Arun Kumar Shrivastav
