COLOMBO: The Indian Ocean state of the Maldives will press ahead with reforms despite political protests that have seen the arrest of more than 100 anti-government activists, Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed told AFP.

The government will stick to an original schedule to have a fully-fledged democratic system in the nation of 300,000 before the end of 2005, the 41-year-old minister said in an interview in Colombo.

“It is not just a multi-party system we are talking about, but an electoral system, a judiciary and a media that will also go with that,” Shaheed said.

He said the government had secured the support of two European experts to set up an electoral system for the former British protectorate which for the first time wants to conduct multi-party parliamentary elections.

The nation of Sunni Muslims will also for the first time have independent commissions to run the civil service, the judiciary and to conduct elections, while there will also be an independent press complaints commission, he said.

“We have already fast-tracked the process and judges are being trained, the electoral system is being drawn up,” Shaheed said. “This is a tremendous task, but we will have it as the president promised by the end of the year.”

Political parties were allowed in the Maldives, one of South Asia’s most exotic tourist destinations, for the first time in June this year in line with reforms promised by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who has ruled the country since 1978.

Anti-government demonstrations and protests since the weekend have gripped the capital island of Male where about a third of the nation’s population lives.

Shaheed said about 130 people were in custody by Tuesday morning, including the main opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed who was taken in on Friday.

“We will release him soon if there are no charges against him,” Shaheed said before accusing Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party of creating trouble and trying to push the country into anarchy.

“We knew they would try to create violence and that is exactly what they did. We have arrested about 130 people by Tuesday morning for creating violence and causing trouble.

“They (the MDP) have no political plan. They have no proper programme. All they want to do is to push the country into anarchy. I think the moderates within the MDP are not happy with this situation.”

He said dissidents who were for the first time allowed to carry out political activities openly had launched the campaign to demand Gayoom’s ouster without offering any political alternative.

“All they say is Gayoom should go. But if Gayoom goes tomorrow, we will have chaos,” the minister said. “We want democracy and what we see is that with democracy we can’t expect everyone who comes in to be a liberal.”

Shaheed was visiting Sri Lanka to attend the funeral of slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, whom he described as a top spokesman for South Asia on the international scene.—AFP