Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer
As most Journal Pioneer readers know, the academics affiliated with the University of Prince Edward Island’s Institute of Island Studies engage in research on island states around the world.
The findings of many scholars who study sovereign islands have demonstrated that island countries have a higher percentage of democratic political systems than other countries around the world. (I published an article on “Small Island Nations and Democratic Values” in the journal World Development in February 2004.)
This is especially gratifying, as most of these nations are located in the so-called Third World – where so many countries are victims of civil wars and dictatorships.
There are, though, exceptions, including two island chains in the Indian Ocean, the Comoros and the Maldives, one off Africa, the other south of India. I’ll deal with them in two instalments.
First, there’s the Union of the Comoros, an archipelago of 1,862 square kilometres located northeast of mainland Mozambique and northwest of the world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar.
Its 773,000 people live mainly on three islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Moheli. A fourth Comoro island, Mayotte, with 194,000 people, refused to join the new country at independence from France in 1975, and is now a French overseas department.
The islands’ inhabitants are descended from Arab traders, Malay immigrants and African peoples and speak Arabic, French, and Comoran (a blend of Swahili and Arabic). Most are Muslim.
The islands’ chief exports -- vanilla, cloves and perfume essence -- are prone to the uncertainty of price fluctuations, so the country is heavily reliant on foreign aid and remittances from Comorans living abroad. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in terms of purchasing power parity was only $1,300 in 2012.
The Comoros become a French protectorate in 1886 and were granted autonomy in 1961 and sovereignty fourteen years later. The country has experienced more than twenty coups or attempted coups, beginning just weeks after independence, when the first president, Ahmed Abdallah, was deposed in a coup d’état, replaced by Prince Said Mohammed Jaffar.
His successor, Ali Soilih, tried to turn the country into a secular, socialist republic. But in 1978 Soilih was toppled and killed by mercenaries led by a French soldier of fortune, Bob Denard.
Denard was involved on attacks against the government of this small island group four times, the last being in 1995, when he removed Said Mohammed Djohar from office, before being himself arrested by French forces.
Mohamed Abdulkarim Taki, elected president in 1996, drafted a constitution which extended the authority of the president and established Islam as the basis of law. This increase in the powers of the central government, located in the capital Moroni, on Grande Comore, did not sit well with many islanders.
Secessionists on the islands of Anjouan and Moheli declared unilateral independence in 1997. After four years of violent conflict within and between the various islands, the Comoros gained some stability in 2001 under a new constitution granting the islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Moheli greater autonomy within the federation. The new Union government retained control of security and financial matters.
Yet things went downhill again in 2006, when Anjouan politicians refused to accept the election of Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi as federal president and set up a rebel government. Two years later, Comoran and African Union troops recaptured the breakaway island.
The current president, Ikililou Dhoinine, from Moheli, won the presidency in 2010. The opposition said the poll was marred by massive fraud, alleging that ballot boxes were stuffed, voting papers stolen and opposition observers chased away from polling stations.
Clearly, the country is far from being a consolidated democracy. Political tensions and instability remain major issues.
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