Widely considered the master-mind of Doha’s non-conformist foreign policies, Sheikh Hamad Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani has embraced his new responsibilities with gusto as Qatar looks to build on its international ambitions.

The man he replaced, Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa, Sheikh Hamad’s cousin and brother of the emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was reported to have grown ‘tired’ of the job, having been premier since 1996.The Qatar News Agency reported Sheikh Abdullah’s resignation on the same day Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Hamad was appointed Prime Minister, but it is unknown whether the resignation prompted the change, or was prompted by it.

‘It was no surprise to Qataris that Sheikh Abdullah left the government,’ says a Doha-based political analyst. ‘His post has been largely ceremonial for some time and Sheikh Hamad has been the public face of Qatar’s ambition for several years.’

Sheikh Abdullah’s malaise seems to have spread to the wider process of political reform in Qatar. On 1 April, Qataris elected 18 new members to the third session of the Central Municipal Council (CMC), which acts as a consultative body to government institutions. The CMC, established in 1999, is Doha’s first experience of democracy and was seen as the precursor to more ambitious plans involving the creation of an elected parliament with legislative powers.

Yet less than a month after CMC elections, five consecutive sessions of the civic council were postponed because of poor attendance, with just 11 out of 29 members attending the final meeting on 29 April.Mohamed Hamoud al-Shafi, a member of the New Al-Rayyan party who was re-elected in April, says poor attendance is the main reason for the declining stature of the CMC.

‘I wonder how such members can call for empowering the council while they are not performing their role and betraying the trust bestowed on them by their constituents,’ he says. ‘It is unacceptable that the council had to postpone its meeting for the fifth consecutive time.’The lack of political will at home is in stark contrast to the state’s international ambitions, both political and economic.

Narayanappa Janardhan, political analyst at Dubai-based thinktank Gulf Research Centre, says the long-planned inaugural parliamentary elections are unlikely to materialise while the CMC continues to make such an uncertain impact.’Political reform needs to be top-down not bottom-up in Qatar,’ says Janardhan. ‘The region will decide the pace of reform in the country, but it will not be a grassroots movement.’

Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, perhaps frustrated by recent criticism, says the main reason for the ‘democratic incapacity’ in the region is the lack of a correct understanding of reform.

‘There can be no economic reform without political reform, which must be supported and guided by social reform,’ he stressed on 23 April during a Doha forum on democracy.The Emir would not be drawn on the likely timeframe for further legislative reform, saying only that the state was ‘getting ready’ for elections.

A Doha-based diplomat says that for most Qatari people, the strength of the economy outweighs any political negatives. ‘It is difficult for other countries to understand, but there is very little political will for change when the country is so flush in every other indicator,’ he says.

While the state is enjoying new-found riches, inflation, particularly in the housing sector, is a common gripe among Qataris, hitting 11.8 per cent in 2006.Finance Minister and Acting Minister of Economy & Commerce Yousef Hussain Kamal told a local audience in February that inflation could be brought under control.