13th May 2007- Last Thursday's meeting of the Special Majlis (Constitutional Assembly) brought into focus the real problems the people of the Maldives face in getting an amended constitution. The problem lies in the lack of capacity in the Majlis and the incompetence of individual Special Majlis Members elected by the people of Maldives.

The meeting, with the newly elected Gasim Ibrahim in the Chair for the first time, ended in disarray again and accomplished nothing - a common occurrence for the Special Majlis that has been functioning for two and a half years with no tangible progress made.

The confusion which reigned highlighted three aspects: the poor quality of the Rules of Procedure of the Special Majlis - which had taken over a year to draft and adopt, the lack of competence of and knowledge of a majority of the Members that make up the assembly, and also the possibility that the newly elected Gasim might be out of his depth in the position.

The last of these points is most worrying for the Maldivian people. Upon his election, Gasim had declared that he intended to get the 'job done within three to four months' - a claim which skeptics had dismissed as over-confidence. On Thursday Gasim realized the task facing him was not so simple.

Gasim proclaimed that the immediate issue facing the SM was the election of a new member to the Administrative Committee of which Gasim had been a member. His election automatically vacated a seat in the Committee. Three members were nominated and seconded, but in the voting, none of the candidates were elected as the Rules state that one must receive a minimum of 57 votes to get elected. The Rules do not provide a method to elect a candidate in the instance the required 57 cannot be gained.

Effectively, no other work can go ahead until this matter is resolved - and the Rules designed over twelve months by the 'delegates of the citizens' are of such questionable standard that this issue, for which the Rules do not prescribe a solution, can hold up all work for an indefinite period of time.

The Chair then decided to call for a second round of nominations - at which stage, members raised the issue that 'the Rules do not state that the Committee seat is automatically vacated', although the Committee's role is to advise the Chair. In an attempt to resolve the issue, Gasim declared verbally his resignation from the Committee, to which some members objected, saying all resignations must be put forward in writing.

The basic lack of good will among the members meant that a small minority then proceeded to disrupt the meeting by raising what they claimed to be Points of Order - merely as a delaying tactic. The whole Majlis had to sit helplessly as two to three individuals of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party brought the meeting to a standstill.

When this immediate situation was resolved, the second attempt at election went the same way as the first, with none of the candidates able to garner the 57 votes required. A proposal to extend the session into the afternoon until the matter was resolved was not carried. This vote was taken after the 12:30pm closing time and Gasim was abused for his performance by members because of this.

The session proved to be a vindication for previous Chair Abbas Ibrahim who had been widely held by the MDP to be the cause of the delays. However, legal experts have long maintained that the real problem lay in the quality of the members elected to the SM.

Several Members of the SM are not fully literate and lack any knowledge regarding politics or the law. Their seats were won by spending vast amounts of money on their prospective constituents. Some of the most notorious SM Members such as Meemu Atoll's Ahmed Shafeeq Goathivag, have not visited their constituencies in two years - several islands in the atoll have issued threats that he is not welcome to visit because of his antics in the Majlis.

Despite the MDP's claims that the Government of Maldives hinders SM members from speeding up constitutional reforms by preventing SM members from freely expressing themselves in public the MDP's Shafeeg Goathivag told foreign journalists that he has been able to carry out his constitutional rights for his Majlis work (video of interview linked below).

In closing, Gasim stated: "This Majlis has gained notoriety among the Maldivian people and all of us members must share the blame for it." However the blame must also filter through to the voters, say analysts who claim that the Maldivian public is not politically mature enough to handle the reform process.

The election to the Administrative Committee is set to continue in today's session of the Special Majlis, its 147th meeting.

-- Kalhala