Good morning distinguished delegates, invitees and all who are present here:
I cannot exactly tell you how key this note is going to be but I will at least try to share my thoughts on the day with you.
There is a picture that always has remained with me where Nehru gives a speech, I think in 1947, -- there is a mike that says All India Radio and it is in black and white. Later on we started hearing what he was saying at that day. It was the famous speech of Tryst with Destiny, where 62 years ago in 1947, when India first became independent, the speech I think was delivered to the first Indian parliament and it was followed by the searing-in of the first Indian government. In that speech, I remember Nehru talking about long year ago we had made a tryst with destiny. And it goes on, I think, saying it is now time -- I should have actually written down the quote, it would have sounded a lot better. Then he goes on to say that it is now time to deliver on the pledges of freedom.
In my mind, we stand at a very similar juncture. Long years ago we made a pact with destiny and that is for freedom, for most importantly, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, peaceful political organised activity and for the people of this country to be free from intimidation, torture and inhumane and degrading infliction of pain. Long years ago we did make that pact with destiny. We wanted to save this country, save the society from all those ills and now we have to deliver.
How we deliver upon these pledges is as important as when we were actually, in a sense, struggling for this day – today. And now, it falls very much within this season of Indian independence that in 12th August 2004, people of this county very historically came out in protest. And I believe that was a defining moment in the history of this country. It registered very well that the people are looking for change and that there really is no going back and we have to bring about these changes.
Many of us were really fighting against many odds. I am sure non of us would have believed, even two years ago, that we will be celebrating this event or these activities, in a sense, trying to find this space of free expression, intellectual thought. But thank god that we are here today.
Again, I would also like to stress that one of the features of the last so many years was that words had been under arrest as much as many people. In my mind, it was the arrest of language and words that defined the nature of governance of this country. We were unable to speak, we were unable to say what we wanted to say. And all that we were looking, in fact, was an opportunity for us to be able to express our minds more freely. In doing so, in finding that space, for free expression, we have had to bring about a number of changes.
We had to jettison or relinquish the idea of all that reverence of government, pomp and ceremony of government, and the status, especially, of our rulers and how we present our selves in front of our people. We can be very aloof, we can be very far away from people and still govern. But that kind of government or that kind of governance calls for another set of circumstances where you would have to intimidate the people, you cannot grant all the freedoms.
We all understand that we are experiencing many new challenges because of the new freedoms. This is very tender and early and democracy and freedom of expression in this country is very fragile. It cannot be taken for granted and it can recede very quickly as Dr Shaheed recently pointed out in Delhi, this has happened many times in history.
But we are glad that we have been able to move ahead with this Constitution and now this Constitution is a near road. Never have we been able to sustain a liberal Constitution as long as a year. In the last effort, it lasted seven months - that was back in the 1930s. Again also in the early 50s it again lasted for a few years.
The new Constitution needs to be implemented and its features have to be consolidated as quickly as possible. It never is easy when society is changing so rapidly and when everything is in flux, to consolidate anything.
We have a number of challenges. We have a whole set of series of economic challenges. We are in a very unfortunate period in time where the world is going through a recession. And therefore dividends from democracy or the pledges that Nehru was talking about, it is difficult for us to execute them or provide for them in the manner that we thought we would be able to do without the recession. But I’m sure recessions come and go, and I’m sure we should be able to have a good grip on things and make sure that we are able to consolidate democracy.
In my mind, for this to happen we have to build independent institutions. One of the main features of this new form is that powers of the state are separated, the judiciary, the legislature and the executive. The new Constitution calls for a new judiciary or new three powers in very new forms. Fortunately, we have been able to have our first multiparty presidential elections and therefore, we have a new executive. Fortunately, we have been able to have our first multiparty parliamentary elections and therefore, we have a new legislature. Unfortunately, we seem to have done nothing to have a new judiciary. So the difficulties that arise in consolidating democracy for that reason remains. And in my mind, all of us who were engaged in composing the Constitution was very much preoccupied with the legislature and the executive and we didn’t perhaps give enough consideration on how we may be able to come up with a brand new judiciary. We have a brand new executive; we have a brand new legislature that represents the aspirations of the people that reflects the new society. But, we do not have a judiciary that reflects our new thinking. I hope that discussions and discourse will somehow lead us to a situation where we may be able to address this key issue.
We have to be mindful and we have to be tolerant enough to understand that with the new found freedoms, people are bound to move out from the map in expressing themselves, and people do that. But we should be intelligent enough to be able to digest those instances. We should not jump up and down on a few criticisms or for that matter, whatever people say. I don’t have a problem. I hope others also will not have a problem with that. Whenever there is an election we will always out to the country and we will win it. We can only do that by listening to the people, by trying to satisfy the aspirations of the people.
Now, if you are trying to find a society in flux, in change, this is it. I do not think there have ever been many experiences as we are experiencing here today in the Maldives. We have been able to have a home-grown democratic movement in a hundred percent Muslim country. We have been able to galvanise the people into political activism. We have been able to have peaceful political activity. We have been able to create space for free expression. We have been able to build political parties with their internal structures and internal democracies. We have been able to amend the Constitution to reflect a very modern set of bill of rights, all the standard features of a reasonable government. We have been able to implement that Constitution, in a sense, we have been able to have our first multiparty presidential election. Most importantly, we have been able to transfer power very smoothly.
If we go looking for countries and instances when societies have not been able to smoothly transfer power after so much entrenchment of dictatorship and single party autocratic rule, this is not an easy exercise. But we have been able to smoothly transfer power. Also we have been able to have a free parliamentary election and in my mind an election that reflected the changing society that we are in.
None of the parties got a clear majority in the parliament. Yes, we did get the most amounts of votes but that wasn’t translated to a majority in the parliament. But I would like to say we are also able to maintain a balance of power in the parliament and we are also hopefully able to have appropriate agreements and understandings in the parliament and be able to consolidate democracy through legislations.
We are always looking at neighbouring countries and trying not to do the things that they do wrong. With us many countries became or had their first multiparty elections after a long time. But, when you try to bend circumstances beyond its ductility then it snaps. We will try our best not to do that.
Today’s gathering here is of course, an opportunity for all of us to go through these thoughts, to examine our selves, to have free discussion and to see how and what we may be able to learn form our own experiences. I am very happy and thankful for the Indian high commissioner for arranging this exercise.
We are also growing up to say that we don’t have a hang-up with colonialism. We want to look forward. We are not worried about what our ancestors did. We want to move forward. We cannot always be pointing fingers and if you are anchored and dragged by the past it is always very difficult to achieve a bright future. But to have a bright future you have to be able to see a bright future, to picture a bright future, to imagine a bright future. I hope that this gathering would make room for that imagination as well.
Again thank you very much for inviting me today. I am apparently appearing five times during the course of these seven days. And also I am told that I am getting over exposed by our spin doctors. The problem here is I tend to think, or at least I tend to feel that democracy, at least in its early stages, would mean a fair amount of engagements. And I don’t have a problem in being with the people. Of course when you have cameras and pictures and all sorts of things like that, it spreads far more widely when you usually are around a tea shop or a street corner talking to people. But you try to have your normal life. But of course, it is impossible with a dozen guards around you but we do try to have a normal life.
And I must say I am happy, I am confident that we will be able to consolidate democracy and we will hopefully be an example to other countries in the world.
Thank you very much.
