Battle of President's

Since very ancient times, the Maldives were ruled by sultans and occasionally queens. Historically Maldives has had a strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. After the 16th century, when European colonial powers took over much of the trade in the Indian Ocean, first the Portuguese, and then the Dutch, and the French occasionally meddled with local politics. However, these interferences ended during the time of Rivalry between two dominant families, the Athireege clan and the Kakaage clan, resulted as protection Agreement with British in 1887. During the British era, which lasted until 1965, Maldives continued to be ruled under a succession of sultans until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin Didi.

MOHAMED AMIN DIDI
The first elected president of the country introduced several reforms. While serving as prime minister during the 1940s, Didi nationalized the fish export industry. As president he is remembered as a reformer of the education system and a promoter of women's rights. Muslim conservatives in Malé eventually ousted his government, and during a riot planned by Senior Government officials, Didi was beaten by a mob and died on a nearby island. This resulted the republic as sultanate for few years.Mohamed Amin Didi was born on the 20th July 1910 to a respectable Hura family in Male'. His father was Ahmed Dhoshimeyna Kilegefaanu and Aishath Didi was his mother. He studied at St. Joseph's College, Colombo and St. John's, Panadura Sri lanka and took up his matriculation in India. During his short life he experienced the rigors of two world wars and had to cut short his education when the land of his birth demanded his services. Though he was educated in Colombo his literary ability was promoted from studying at the Aligarh University. The result is the birth of the first Republic of Maldives on the 1st of January 1953. But his modernization programme had gathered too much of a momentum, according to conservative thinking. A period of political instability had created other ambitious leaders. After 7 months and 26 days of Presidential office, the great leader was stripped of his feathers. His attempt to regain what he had lost cost him his life.

• 1910 - Mohamed Amin Didi was born to a respectable Hura family in Male' on July 20, 1910.
• 1932 - Amin Didi was a member of the constitution drafting committee.
• 1944 - Established the first Girl's School " Madharasathul Saniyya" (currently named Aminiyya School) on November 28, 1944.
• 1952 - Established the first National Museum of the country on November 11, 1952.
• 1953 - Amin Didi became the first president of the Maldives and head of the government between January 1, 1953 and August 21, 1953. He died in Vihamanaafushi Island on January 19, 1953.
• 1946-1953 - Became the principal of Majeediyya School.

IBRAHIM NASIR
The Second Republic was proclaimed in November 1968 under the presidency of Ibrahim Nasir, President Nasir is widely credited with modernizing the long-isolated and nearly unknown Maldives and opening them up to the rest of the world. His foremost work include that of bringing Maldives to the U N even with the opposition of some nations that felt awkward at including a nation of such a small size. He laid the foundations of the nation by modernizing the fisheries industry with mechanized vessels and starting the tourism industry. Even today the nation is dependent on these two industries as a primary source of income for the nation.He is credited with many other improvements some of which include:

• Introducing an English-based modern curriculum to government run schools• Bringing television and radio to the country with formation of Television Maldives and Radio Maldives for broadcasting radio signals nationwide
• He abolished Vaaru, a tax on the people living on islands outside Malé
• He abolished many other taxes on various imports to the country, some of which have been since re-instated
• He brought about the independence of Maldives from being a protectorate of the British Empire
• Before his resignation he proposed to the Parliament a motion in favor of that no one may be elected as President for more than two terms. (It got rejected by the parliament)
• Built the first international airport in the Maldives (Malé International Airport).

Ibrahim Nasir (born 1926) is a Maldivian statesman who served as his country's Prime Minister under Sultan Muhammad Fareed Didi (from 1957 to 1968 ) and succeeded him to become the first President of the Second Republic from 1968 to 1978. He is currently living in Singapore.President Nasir belongs to the royal family of previous Maldivian sultans. President Ibrahim Nasir is the son of Aishath Didi daughter of Moosa Didi son of Dhadimagu Ganduvaru Maryam Didi daughter of Husain Didi son of Al-Nabeel Karayye Hassan Didi son of Prince Ibrahim Faamuladheyri Kilegefan son of Sultan Muhammad Ghiyasuddin son of Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar II son of Sultan Muzaffar Muhammad Imaduddin II of Dhiyamigili dynasty. President Ibrahim Nasir was succeeded by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who was then Minister of Transport and former permanent representative of the Maldives to the U N.

MAUMOON ABDUL GAYOOM
Former university lecturer Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was elected to replace Nasir in 1978. He introduced the Maldives to the international community & joined many organizations including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The local populace appeared to benefit from increased tourism and the corresponding increase in foreign contacts involving various development projects.
Born in Male on December 29, 1937. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is the son of Abdul Gayoom (Maafaiygey Dhon Seedhi) and Khadheeja . His father had 25 children by 8 different wives and Gayoom is the 10th in his family. His father was the chief judge for some time.Much of Gayoom's early life was spent in Egypt. He was among the 15 students selected at the direction of the then-president Mohamed Amin Didi for special education overseas. Gayoom attended Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He spent six months learning Arabic.In 1966, he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Islamic Sharia and Civil Law, with honors. He was later awarded Masters degree in Islamic Sharia. He completed English Language course from the American University in Cairo.In 1967, he began working for the American University in Cairo as a research assistant in Muslim History under Professor Marsden Jones for almost 2 years and joined Ahmadu Bello University in Kano, Nigeria as a lecturer in Islamic Studies .

• He returned to the Maldives in 1971 joined Aminiyya School as a teacher of English, arithmetic and Islam.
• In 1972, he was appointed as the manager of the government shipping department.
• On 12 March 1973, Gayoom was placed under house arrest for criticizing President Ibrahim Nasir's policies. Banished for four years on 14 May 1973. After serving five months of his sentence, Gayoom was released.
• In 1974, Gayoom was appointed as under-secretary in the Telecommunications Department promoted to director of the department.
• On 28 July 1974, Gayoom was again arrested for criticising Nasir's policies. This time he was kept in solitary confinement in a prison in Malé. After 50 days in jail, he was set free in September 1974. Six weeks later, he was appointed as special under-secretary in the office of then Prime Minister Ahmed Zaki.
• In 6 March 1975 he was made the Deputy Ambassador of the Maldives in Sri Lanka. In 1975, he was sent to the United Nations for two months as a member of the Maldives delegation. Upon his return, he was appointed under-secretary at the department of External Affairs. After nine weeks, he was appointed the Deputy Minister of Transport. One year later, he was tenured at the United Nations from September 1976.
• In 29 March 1977, Gayoom was appointed as Minister of Transport, making him a member of Nasir's cabinet. He held the post until 10 November 1978.

As Ibrahim Nasir's second term was coming to an end, he wanted someone else running for the presidency. Five months later, Maumoon was elected with 92.96% of the votes as the new President of the Maldives. President Maumoon was threatened by three failed coup attempts during his presidency.

• First in 1980 ex-SAS mercenaries to carry a coup attempt which was sponsored by Ahmed Naseem, brother-in-law of Nasir and former junior Minister.
• In 1983, a local shipping businessman, Reeko Ibrahim Maniku made a bid to win the parliamentary nomination by offering bribes to members of parliament and to Attorney General. Reeko Ibrahim remained in self-imposed exile, returning to Maldives only in 2006 and has since registered a political party, Social Democratic Party.
• The 1980 and 1983 coup attempts against Gayoom's presidency were not considered serious, the third coup attempt in 3rd November 1988 alarmed the international community. About 80 armed Tamil mercenaries belonging to PLOTE surrounded the National Defense force Head Quarters nearly captured President Gayoom, who fled from house to house and asked for military intervention from India, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi immediately dispatched 1,600 troops by air to restore order in Malé. Nineteen people reportedly died in the fighting, and several taken hostage also died. The 1988 coup had been masterminded and sponsored by Abdulla Luthufi, who had also been caught in an attempt to assassinate Nasir when he was president and had been tried and imprisoned before being released in 1975.

By the time of new millennium, Gayoom's Popularity seems decreasing despite the developmental effort he made to the Country. Mostly the public criticism pointed out on his police & national defense forces brutality in jails & corruptions within the government by his family members who occupies more then 30 higher ranking posts with in the Governmet.

MOHAMED NASHEED
The remarkable political journey of the 41-year-old leader started at John Moores University in Liverpool in 1984 where he read maritime studies. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 he returned to the Maldives and became a very vocal critic of President Maumoon Addul Gayoom, who had then been in power for 13 years. In 1991 Anni was jailed and made an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" for writing for the popular political magazine Sangu. It was to be the first of 13 occasions when he was jailed for showing open dissent to Mr. Gayoom's autocratic regime, on one occasion claiming he was so badly beaten that he now walks with a limp. In 2000 Anni was elected as parliament member in the People's Majlis, or parliament, and this soon became his power base. Six months later, in 2001 he was tried and sentenced to two and half years in prison for the theft of unspecified "government property". On his release he fled the Maldives and in November 2003 joined with Mohamed Latheef to form the Maldivian Democratic Party while in exile in Sri Lanka. In the same year a prisoner, Hassan Evan Nassem, died in custody at the hands of the security forces and followed by barbaric jail shoot killed half a dozen of prisoners and caused waves of protest across the islands and a chorus of criticism abroad. This hugely increased the pressure on Mr Gayoom to progress with democratic reforms, especially after Mr. Nasheed was granted political asylum by the British Government the following year. After about 18 months in self-proclaimed exile when he forged close ties to Britain's Conservative party, he returned to Male in April 2005. When political parties were finally declared legal in June he built a network of support across the archipelago with branches on nearly all the 200 inhabitant islands. In August 2005, he was arrested again during a sit in to mark the second anniversary of Black Friday, the violent putting down of a peaceful protest in the Male the previous year. He was charged with terrorism and his arrest again provoked huge unrest and civil disobedience. However, by now Mr Gayoom's grip on the Maldives was weakening and in the same year he finally agreed to a roadmap to democratic reform which resulted in the country's first free presidential elections in October 2008. Like the plot from a Alexander Dumas novel the prisoner who he had jailed so many times in the hope the people of the Maldives would forget about him eventually became his nemesis and ended his 30 years in power. LET'S SEE WHAT THIS CHAP CAN DO…..
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