I don't know. Maybe? Probably? What is a guy who launches a coup d'etat supposed to look like?

As former President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed confirmed he was ousted at gunpoint, his successor offered a rather lame defense:

Nasheed told reporters that he had been forced out of office: "There were guns all around me, and they told me they wouldn't hesitate to use them if I didn't resign." But his replacement, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, the former vice-president, said the transfer of power had been peaceful and constitutional.

"Do I look like someone who will bring about a coup d'etat?" Waheed asked reporters. "There was no plan. I was not prepared at all." He called for a government of national unity.

"To be sure, I wasn't planning on taking over the government during all the chaos, but now that I'm in charge, why should I relinquish control? I'm sure the country will back this change when we have our next elections... whenever. But it's not a coup. Definitely not a coup. Nope, this is totally democratic."

According to the Minivian News, the Maldives high commissioner in the UK, Farahanaz Faizal, has resigned in protest at the new government: "My conscience wouldn't allow me to serve a government which had overthrown a democratically elected government in a coup d'etat."

On a side note, what kind of would-be-overlord in their right mind would bother to take control of an increasingly corrupt, fundamentalist and violent country that's likely to get swept under the ocean by a tsunami in the near future?

"Hooray! I'm dictator for life of glug glug glug..."

Jonathon Narvey is the Editor of The Propagandist