Who Is Mohamed Muizzu? 'India Out’ Campaign Backer Says He’ll Bring China, Maldives Closer if Elected
Mohamed Muizzu wants to get rid of New Delhi’s so-called ‘influence’ and bring China closer to Maldives without realising he is endangering the atoll’s sovereignty.
Mohamed Muizzu is one of the contenders facing Maldives President Ibrahim Solih on Saturday as Maldivians vote for the run-off. The 45-year-old civil engineer is a staunch advocate for Chinese investment in the island-nation’s infrastructural development and has vowed Malé and Beijing will only come closer if he is elected.
His mentor is Abdulla Yameen, the creator of ‘India Out’ campaign and former president who was jailed for corruption, under whom he served as construction minister.
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Muizzu is Yameen’s proxy. The mayor of Malé plans to steer the strategically placed atoll in the Indian Ocean region closer to China and during his tenure sanctioned a $200-million bridge linking the capital with the archipelago’s main airport, according to AFP.
He met Communist Party of China (CPC) officials during a virtual meeting in 2022 and said if his party, the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), is voted to power he would expand the “strong ties between our two countries".
It is unclear whether he will win but he won 46% of the vote in the election’s first round earlier this month, seven percentage points ahead of incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, 61.
“The Maldivian people have come out and set a great example of nationalism despite the various obstacles placed in front of them," Muizzu said.
The campaign led by Muizzu is focused on bashing New Delhi for its political and economic ties to the Maldives.
Muizzu’s source of anguish is also because India helped the nation restore democracy when it sent troops to Male in 1988 to prevent a Maldivian group led by Abdullah Luthufi overthrow the government. Luthufi was backed by the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).
Under Operation Cactus, Indian armed forces ended the coup d’etat.
India sent its army because then-president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom requested military intervention from several countries, including India.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is the half-brother of former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
Abdulla Yameen’s party engineered the attack led by an Islamist group that stormed a football stadium in Male to break up a public yoga session, with police firing tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Muizzu has erected his campaign on Yameen’s ‘India Out’ sentiment where he spreads fears that Maldives is in the clutches of the Indian government and has pledged to free it from any so-called interference from India.
The PPM has pledged that it will get rid of the small Indian military detachment in Maldives. India has donated four aircraft which protect Maldives’ vast coastline and help with medical evacuations.
He also vowed to pardon Yameen and said he would embrace the Belt and Road Initiative and renegotiate bilateral agreements with India.
Yameen is currently serving an 11-year jail term on the same remote prison island where he had imprisoned opponents during his autocratic presidency, according to AFP.
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