During President Mohamed Nasheed’s recent visit to India, he was interviewed by one of India’s premier news channels, NDTV’s “Walk the Talk” programme.
“Walk the Talk” hosts influential world leaders and popular public personalities.
The President was interviewed on the issues ranging from climate change, economy and the rise of pro-democracy movements in the Middle East by the host of the programme and the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express Shekhar Gupta.
When asked about the Maldivian economy, the President said the Maldivian economy has seen steady recovery over the past year, the primary objective of the government was providing social protection for the poor and most vulnerable in the country.
When asked the President, describing him as a “veteran of struggling for democracy, freedom and individual rights”, for his thoughts on the pro-democracy movements in the Middle East, he said the Maldives would always support people’s struggles for freedom in any country.
He said what the Middle Eastern countries needed were political parties.
“It is very important for development that they have free and fair elections and they have strong political parties…in the absence of political parties it is going to be very difficult to protect the freedoms that you want,” he added.
When asked about the situation unfolding in Libya, the President called on the international community to make “on the ground intervention in Libya” and asked the United Nations to consider sending peacekeepers to Libya.
He said Libyan President Colonel Gaddafi should listen to the people and resign.
Further, the President said it was a responsibility of the rest of world to ease Gaddafi’s departure, and “it is a responsibility of every single Indian, Maldivian and every single citizen.”
He said it was the responsibility of everyone to ensure that “we don’t have headlines saying, ‘500,000 people dead in Libya’, ‘aerial bombing in Libya’.”
The show was aired on NDTV yesterday at 9pm Male’ time.