If Government Bring an IDEA consultant to Train the Special Majlis Members in the Process of Constitution Making, the Process will go Smoother and faster. 

 

 I would like to call on our government to bring an  IDEA consultant to Maldives in order to train our Special Majlis members in the Art of Constitution Making. It is not an ordinary process and it needs professional knowledge. Thus our members are in dire need of such training, for a smooth transition to  finishing the building process. Getting such training by IDEA is very common in every part of the world. Even in Asia.

At  the moment we have  only one person who has done an IDEA run workshop. She also only did a short training course run by IDEA in Thailand last year. That trainee was Lubuna Zahir Hussain. Lubuna participated in an IDEA held  two-week training seminar from 24 July to 4 August 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand, It was just a two week training workshop to train trainers to conduct training for others who participate in constitutional reforms.

In an interview she gave to IDEA staff afterwards she mentioned the desperate need for such training for the Maldivian constitution making  members like her. She also mentioned the desperate need we have for such resources (in terms of written literature) about the subject of constitution making in Maldives. She said she is going to share the file with the rest of the  members. Rather than a brief training to conduct training on such a complex subject by one of the parliament members, it would be good if the government get a consultant to come to Maldives to conduct a proper first hand training. The task at hand can be made a lot easier to the members. Previously I my self put a lot of blame on the members, and quite frankly, now I realise that their performance is should not be blamed in the absence of such support systems they need. Their lack of development is also to be blamed on lack of Knowledge; awareness and experience. Perhaps the serious complications and tension can be minimised by learning about the process by experts.

IDEA at the moment is helping our neighbouring South Asian country, Nepal in constitution reform process. IDEA’s Nepal programme is with the aim; to support a peaceful, inclusive and participatory constitution building process which can lay the foundation for a sustainable democracy. More specifically, by providing comparative experiences, IDEA aims to build capacity of participants in the political process and to promote discussions that lead to the development of a consensus on constitutional issues. This is been done in collaboration with UNDP and I am sure UNDP will be more than willing to help in anything that will speed up the reforms in Maldives as the likes of Organisation has started severely criticising the slow pace of development.

At the moment according to IDEA Maldives including Nepal is one of the five countries that have being involved in the constitution building process. IDEA states that Constitutions are the fundamental building blocks of democracy. They define the polity, they set the rules of the relationship between the state and its citizens; they fix and reflect the social contract that underpins the functioning of an organized society. At the moment Constitution-building is an  essential part of the roadmaps to peace and democracy. So to make our road map a success we should seek IDEA help for our Majlis members to perform effectively.