The Dregs of Dictatorship

         When democracy wrestles dictatorship, it's comparable to wrestling a Hydra; when you cut off one head, two grow back. Patience, persistence, and determination can slay the beast, but the beast will never play fair, and beast will draw blood. Many middle-eastern countries are learning this the hard way. With countries like Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Maldive (the country this article is based on) overthrowing deeply routed dictatorships, it's becoming clear that just taking power away from one dictator does not vanquish or even necessarily improve their governments. Dictatorships don't always die when the dictator leaves office. In these countries, the dictators have stepped down, but they left behind powerful networks of regime loyalists. In other words, the dictator is gone, but others are left behind to pick up where he left off, and sometimes go even further. The president of Maldive, Muhammad Nasheed, was the first president elected into office after the Dictatorship was overthrown. He was able to cut the countries deficit, establish a tax base, and elect a Parliament, but he was still left with a rotten judiciary system  "handpicked by the former president, which was now hiding behind a democratic constitution. These powerful judges provided protection for the former president, his family members and political allies, many of whom are accused of corruption, embezzlement and human rights crimes." Free speech was also being abused by Muslim extremists. The former president’s cabinet members threw anti-Semitic and anti-Christian slurs at the democratic government, claiming that democracy granted them and their allies license to call for violent jihad and indulge in hate speech. When Nasheed sought the help of the United Nations, old loyalists and allies of the former president and the corrupt chief judge of the criminal court, rallied and protested in the streets, and forced Nasheed to resign....at gunpoint. Even though Nasheed worked so hard to establish his democracy, reverberations from past dictatorships could still be felt. 

      The author of the article "The Dregs of Dictatorship" was written by none other than Muhammad Nasheed himself! Ethos: Nasheed was the president of Maldive, saw the injustices and corruption of his past government firsthand, and was involved in the fall, and rise of the corrupt government. Therefore, he is a credible source. Pathos: Nasheed was obviously very frustrated that his best efforts to better his country's government not only got him thrown out of office, but also seemed to be in vain when the corruption continued and peaked. He does not regret trying though, "Choosing to stand up to the judge was a controversial decision, but I feel I had no choice but to do what I did - To have taken no action, and passively watched the country's democracy strangled, would have been the greatest injustice of all." To close, the dictator can be removed in a day, 'but it can take years to stamp out the the lingering remnants of his dictatorship.'

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