Today - every politically active Maldivian seems to be hell-bent on completing the Constitution of the Republic. It had taken the Gayoom regime 17 years to write the existing Constitution. However, the Constitution does not provide for a specific remedy in case of breach of a constitutional right. This has given ample opportunities for the Government to be in breach of the Constitution and for the people to suffer as a consequence of this. No wonder every politically active Maldivian is dying to see the Constitution amended.

The Special Majlis has been assembled to amend the Constitution. Yet the present one seems doomed to take twice as long with the government trying their level best to hinder those genuinely interested in reforms to build a stable democracy.

Many of us have missed out on a salient fact: the fact that the present Constitution is only half as bad as projected by the opposition. The real problem is not the Constitution - but those charged to implement the laws given therein.

For example, the Constitution does grant citizens certain basic fundamental rights. Yet, in practice few of those rights are granted and if someone happens to be naive enough to demand his / her constitutional rights, the powers that be would automatically consider the person as nothing less than a threat to national security and the entire machinery of the government would home in on the individual to make life as miserable as possible.

After fifteen long years of suffering under the Gayoom regime, I have concluded that there are no laws in the country - at least not the type of laws that protects citizens' interests. Sure, they do exist on paper, but the reality is that those articles pertaining to citizens' rights are merely for display and serve the purpose of a magician's bag of tricks.

In a simple case where an individual is unhappy with the State's handling of it and while it is his constitutional right to appeal to the government, he'd be in dire straits for having made the appeal. He might lose his job for no apparent reason, his child may get reprimanded on a regular basis by the school authorities and he might find himself stuck on a roller coaster ride headed to disaster.

During the twenty eight years of Gayoom's rule, many a Maldivian - and some foreigners too - have learnt this lesson, albeit the hard way. However slow the pace of change may be, changes are being forced upon the government by the sheer weight of public discontent.

Let us consider a basic right like the rights of citizens that entitle them to legal representation. Until a few years back, there were instances where lawyers weren't allowed to set foot inside a court room. Yet, things have progressed to the stage where lawyers are allowed inside the previously sacrosanct premises like the buildings of the Maldives Police Services.

Had you asked me ten years back, whether a lawyer would be allowed to provide legal counsel inside a police station, I'd probably have laughed in your face. Yet today, to those who can afford to pay the expensive fees charged by lawyers, the government does permit lawyers to represent their clients - yes, even during the investigation phase of a criminal case.

The Maldivian law states that the right to a legal defence is an opportunity accorded to citizens. Recently I had the opportunity to question a criminal court judge (inside the court room) whether I would be provided a lawyer by the State as I could not afford the legal fees.

"The law does not assert that lawyers have to be provided by the State:" was the judge's response. What the judge failed to tell me was that the law does not state the reverse either. The law does not assert that lawyers shall not be provided by the State.

Even when I ascertained that I was demanding a legal right, he still refused to budge from his position. "Do you mean to tell me that those who made the law are unaware that the country constitutes of both rich and poor?" I asked the judge.

His response: "That's not a question I can answer."

Not content with my understanding of the Maldivian law, I questioned Mr. Imtiyaz Fahmy, a young and vigorous Maldivian lawyer, who, after undertaking a thorough research of the question, said: "I have talked to legal experts on Maldivian law and they are unanimous in stating that lawyers should be provided to those who cannot afford to pay the legal fees involved."

I asked Mariya Didi, an MP for Male' Atoll and an English qualified barrister, who has been practicing law in Maldives for the last 13 years what she thought of the right to legal counsel. She was of the opinion that those detained should have access to legal counsel.

"Article 16 of the Maldivian Constitution gives the individual the opportunity to have access to legal counsel if he/she so requires. The question here is, 'who will pay for legal counsel?' We all accept that the Government should provide basic means like food and basic health care for the less fortunate. Even though there is no specific law on welfare, the Presidential Palace and the Welfare Ministry does make measly handouts to the ever-increasing group of "less fortunate" in our society who can't afford basic things like schoolbooks, healthcare, etc.

"Although we may not agree on the way it is done, we all agree that basic needs should be provided by the state to the less fortunate. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that provision of legal counsel to those detained on suspicion of a crime is as fundamental a right as bread and butter".

For me the equation is a simple one. One: all citizens are equal before the law. Two: A citizen's right is not a prerogative of the moneyed class alone. If one is financially incapable of securing legal counsel, such legal counsel being a citizens' right, then the State should facilitate the provision of the basic right under question.

During the last twenty eight years of President Gayoom's authoritarian rule, we have seen that he tends to favour the rich while treating the poor disdainfully - as second class citizens. Let us hope that at least in this instance Gayoom will see the light: enough to rectify a grave wrong.