Monday, November 12, 2007

Maldives caught in another diplomatic row?

“Several of the fugitives, as well as some of the suspects detained in the Maldives, received training in bomb making in Pakistani madrassas”, said a Maldives police spokesman in an interview to BBC (Nov 8, 2007). Following the Maldives’ police allegation, a Pakistan High Commission official said he is “disappointed and saddened by the allegations that terror suspects were trained in Pakistan”.

Earlier this year Imad Solih, a presidential appointee to the Special Majlis raised controversy when he referred to Indian parliamentarians as ‘rapists and murderers’. Indian High Commission dispelled Solih’s comments saying “this was an uneducated and superficial viewpoint”. (I think we were in fact very lucky to have avoided a major diplomatic row - thanks to the Indian govt for understanding how ‘uneducated and superficial’ we are)

In 1983 President Gayoom himself was caught in a similar diplomatic quandary when he made a public speech claiming Maliku (minicoy island) for the Maldives.

Our neighbours are a little too big and powerful for us to be making statements that could be repulsive to them. After all, India and Pakistan both armed with nukes are among the most populous countries in the world. We are lucky that they understand how infinitesimally insignificant we are compared to them in the overall geopolitical scheme of world affairs. So, don’t you think it is in the interest of our country to keep our jingoistic urges in check?

2 comments:

moyameehaa said...

yeah. thanx to em. being grown ups they dont bother what the kids say usually. but sometimes it might get serious.

and gayom said that? oops. hahaha. i dint know it before.i wasnt even born.

and that pakistani madrasa thing, we all know it, and we even know musharraf is a dictator and many bad things th US do.and imad solih's comments (though too generalised) have some truth. but kids must not talk bad of grownups .. in their presence.not from the government side.


nice that ur back again.

Khilath Rasheed - journalist and blogger from Maldives said...

Hi. Glad to know you are back to blogging.
How's life over there?
I want to get a way from Maldives ASAP.
Perhaps you can find me a job over there in next three or five years.
I hope to settle all my "debts" here in Maldives and get away from this God forsaken place as fast as I can.