Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa finally succeeded in fleeing the country and landed in neighbouring Maldives. Although he was forced to exit further to Singapore due to widespread protests from the Sri Lankans residing in Maldives.
Gotabaya went into hiding after being forced to abandon the Presidential house following countrywide protests holding Rajapaksa government responsible for ongoing economic crises in the country. He had been desperately trying to flee and was even forced to abort the Dubai-bound flight by Sri Lankan immigration staff earlier. Going by the history of diplomatic relationship between Sri Lanka and Maldives it was an easy speculation that Maldives could be an obvious option for him.
Why Maldives?
Let’s go back to the man in question, Mohamed Nasheed, who has a long relationship with Sri Lanka.
Back in September 2003 when riots broke out in the Maldivian capital Male Nasheed fled the country, heading to Sri Lanka. He lived there in exile and it was during this period in November 2004, he remotely founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Later in 2015, he was sentenced to 13-year imprisonment by a Maldivian court. However, he was granted a leave to travel to the UK for medical treatment. He got political asylum in the UK till 2016. After the expiry of the asylum period, he again went to Sri Lanka and stayed there till 2018. Whilst in Sri Lanka, he would write for an English newspaper.
In October 2018, his party, MDP, won the presidential election in Maldives and thus he could travel back to the country. Currently, Mohamed Nasheed is the speaker of the People’s Majlis (legislative body) of Maldives. His party is in power in the country.
Interestingly, his name has been resonating in Sri Lanka’s political circles for many months now. In May 2022, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has resigned as Sri Lankan prime minister today, had appointed Nasheed to coordinate the country’s economic relief efforts.
Wickremesinghe had tweeted then, “I have accepted former Maldivian President @MohamedNasheed’s generous offer to assist in the relief efforts in Sri Lanka’s economic recovery by coordinating the efforts to secure foreign assistance.”
The Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih welcomed the appointment of Nasheed by the Sri Lankan government and tweeted, “Maldives will always stand with Sri Lankans and will support Sri Lanka in every possible way to overcome these difficult times.”
The appointment however raised a lot of eyebrows, as Nasheed had no experience in the field of economic relief.
Nasheed had traveled to Sri Lanka in May, 2022 and It was alleged that he had been actively lobbied the ‘exit’ plan for Sri Lankan leaders to Maldives.
He had called on former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Political Party Representatives, as well as the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. He also met Former Minister Namal Rajapaksa. He had even appealed to the Indian banks and financial institutions to make themselves available to the Sri Lankan people in the time of need.
Because of this time-line, it is highly speculated that Nasheed can offer refuge to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In the current situation, this seems the best option for the Sri Lankan President.
A perfect example of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your”!
In the current situation, this could have been the best option for him but given the strong reaction of the Sri Lankans residing in Maldives against Gotabaya landing in Maldives he was left no choice but to seek asylum in Singapore.