Page 397 - UAE Truncal States

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Chapter Nino
Important as the role of these two governments
was for lh
ot the constitution, it was possibly oven more significant e genesi s
1,'e absent; haying had ample demon,ol the
once they
disagreement between these two Slates, the room for
governments
Trucial Slates suddenly appreciated the of the
common ground which had
^ZViiheTiove TxTreme positions taken so often by either Qatar
Rahrain thus eventually turned into catalysts for a relatively
°r t cc final operation of constitution-making, during which each of
C ett EmiL* sacrificed some treasured yiews. Thus with
1 \ oc most of which had already been discussed during the
■
few chang , draft which had last been reviewed in full
dindntUhemeeting of the nine Deputy Rulers in Octeber «70b»m
the constitution of the UAE.
Centralistic and federalistic elements
It is not by chance that the Arabic name of the new State became the
rather more active derivation of the root wahcicla, by calling it davvlah
oi imarat al 'arabJyah al muttahidah (United Arab Emirates).-
>i
- , e federation of the nine had been called ittihad al imarat al
arahiyah126 Union of Arab Emirates. This change of emphasis,
which helped to tilt the balance further towards a more unified, if not
even a more centralised State than that envisaged earlier, was in
keeping with the concepts which were being developed at the time by
citizens who had become intimate advisers to the Rulers in Abu
Dhabi, and Dubai, particularly H.E. Ahmad Khalifah Suwaidi and
H.E. Mahdi al Tajir, who had taken over most of the responsibility for
the finalisation of the federation talks, and who were then given
important positions in the new State, which they had helped tocreate.
In their view, the new State had more chance of consolidating itself the
more it played down the individuality of the Emirates and strength­
ened the hand of the central authorities. It was difficult to administer
shaikhdoms of such different sizes and stages of development from one
ted
centre during the first few years of the nascent State. This preven
over-enthusiastic ad hoc unification which could have suffocate
some of the enthusiasm for the federation. The realities of politicaU'J
in the UAE did not encourage rapid unification in every aSPec*!^s
this helped to maintain the integrity of the various local systems. It^
eventually realised that these systems still had a very valuable ro
play because of their immediate proximity to the citizen.
372
The Formation of the Federation
While the centralistic tendencies had only qualified success in
practice, they featured prominently in the text of the constitution.127
Part Seven (Articles 120-125) deals directly with the balance of
centralistic and federalistic elements and is entitled “Distribution of
legislative, executive and international jurisdiction between the
Union and the Emirates”. Article 120 contains a catalogue of
nineteen matters for which the central authorities shall have
exclusive legislative as well as executive powers.128 Apart from the
obvious ones such as foreign affairs and defence, this catalogue also
includes education and electricity services, which in some other
federations are under the regional authorities. Exclusive legislative
power is reserved for the central authorities in a further catalogue of
fifteen points (Article 121), such as labour relations and social
security, real estate and expropriations in the public interest.129 The
individual Emirates have jurisdiction over all matters which are not
assigned by the constitution to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
central authority (Article 122), hut Articles 116 to 119, which form
Part Six (entitled “The Emirates”), do not give a comparable
catalogue of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the
individual Emirates. Yet the vague wording of these articles implies,
rather than describes, such powers by saying: “The exercise of rule
in each Emirate shall aim in particular at the maintenance of security
and order within its territories, the provision of public utilities for its
inhabitants and the raising of social and economic standards”
(Article 117), and “The member Emirates of the Union shall all work
for the co-ordination of the legislation in various fields with the
intention of unifying such legislation as far as possible” (Article 118,
Part One). The failure to list the powers of the individual Emirates is
consistent with the intention of the fathers of the
constitution:
existing laws and well-established institutions in the Emirates were
guaranteed continued existence.
Forthcoming legislation in almost all matters that cou e
anticipated, as well as the accompanying executive and ju icia
institutions which could be expected to evolve, were assigned to the
central authorities in Articles 120-125. The authors of the consti­
tution could foresee the very obvious situation that in some Emirates,
notably Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and to some extent Sharjah, the existing
laws and regulations as well as the functioning government machi­
nery could and probably would
unifying the public remain barriers to the process of ;
sector. The almost complete lack of legislation
373