NEW DELHI, AUGUST 7, 2008: Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India, on Thursday released a book on "Small States Security Dilemma: A Maldivian Perception" at Observer Research Foundation.
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 7, 2008: Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India, on Thursday released a book on “Small States Security Dilemma: A Maldivian Perception” at Observer Research Foundation.
The book is authored by Mr. Ibrahim Hussein Zaki, a former Secretary General of the SAARC, and Dr. Regina Mulay Parakh.
Speaking after releasing the book, Mr. Gujral said it was a great coincidence that the release of this important book happened on the day of Maldives getting a new Constitution.
Mr. Gujral said it was a historic day for the Maldivian people as the President of Maldives, Mr. Maumoon Abdul Ghayoom, this morning ratified a new democratic Constitution.
Mr. Gujral congratulated the people of Maldives for achieving a new Constitution peacefully through negotiations at a time when many nations in South Asia is in turmoil.
Mr. Gujral said though the country of Maldives was the smallest in the world, there was no state as dynamic as the Maldives.
The book’s author and former SAARC Secretary General Zaki said the project, conceived as early as in 1988 when Maldives experienced an attempted coup, could have been finished much earlier but for the hurdles placed by President Ghayoom.
“Ghayoom did not allow the book to be written independently. He wanted to rewrite every page,” Mr Zaki, who was also a former minister in the Ghayoom government, said. “I started writing the book when I was a minister, but it could be printed just now,” he said.
Co-author Dr Regina Mulay Parakh also blamed the inordinate delay in the project to the opposition by President Ghayoom. She recounted her many meetings with the President and his efforts to rewrite everything.
“We thought it was useless to publish the book like that, and instead wait for the opportune time to print the book. We are happy now that the book could be published in the way it should be,” Dr. Parakh said.
Describing idling unemployed youth in Maldives as “a ticking bomb”, Dr. Parakh said drug trafficking and women issues were the two other important problems facing the country.
The authors said Maldivians think that societal and environmental security were more important to them than military security.
The function was chaired by Mr. Vikram Sood, Vice President of the Centre for International Relations, ORF and attended by former diplomats, experts and representatives from the Maldivian Embassy in New Delhi.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
