Page 399 - UAE Truncal States
P. 399

r





                                                                        Chapter Nino
                                                                                                                                                                                             The Formation of the Federation
                                                                          Important as the role of these two governments
                                                                                                                          was for lh
                                                                        ot the constitution, it was possibly oven more significant   e genesi  s           While the centralistic tendencies had only qualified success in
                                                                        1,'e absent; haying had ample demon,ol the
                                                                                                                                   once they             practice, they featured prominently in the text of the constitution.127
                                                                        disagreement between these two Slates, the                  room for            Part  Seven (Articles 120-125) deals directly with the balance of
                                                                                                                         governments
                                                                        Trucial Slates suddenly appreciated the                       of the             centralistic and federalistic elements and is entitled “Distribution of
                                                                                                                  common ground which had                legislative, executive and international jurisdiction between the
                                                                        ^ZViiheTiove TxTreme positions taken so often by either Qatar
                                                                                                                                                         Union and the Emirates”. Article 120 contains a catalogue of
                                                                                                                                                         nineteen  matters for which the central authorities shall have
                                                                            Rahrain thus eventually turned into catalysts for a relatively
                                                                        °r t cc final operation of constitution-making, during which each of             exclusive legislative as well as executive powers.128 Apart from the
                                                                        C ett EmiL* sacrificed some treasured yiews. Thus with                           obvious ones such as foreign affairs and defence, this catalogue also
                                                                        1   \ oc most of which had already been discussed during the                     includes education and electricity services, which in some other
                                                ■
                                                                        few chang ,             draft which had last been reviewed in full              federations are under the regional authorities. Exclusive legislative
                                                                                                                                                        power is reserved for the central authorities in a further catalogue of
                                                                        dindntUhemeeting of the nine Deputy Rulers in Octeber «70b»m
                                                                                                                                                        fifteen points (Article 121), such as labour relations and social
                                                                         the constitution of the UAE.                                                   security, real estate and expropriations in the public interest.129 The
                                                                                                                                                        individual Emirates have jurisdiction over all matters which are not
                                                                         Centralistic and federalistic elements                                         assigned by the constitution to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
                                                                        It is not by chance that the Arabic name of the new State became the            central authority (Article 122), hut Articles 116 to 119, which form
                                                                         rather more active derivation of the root wahcicla, by calling it davvlah      Part Six (entitled “The Emirates”), do not give a comparable
                                                                         oi imarat al 'arabJyah al muttahidah (United Arab Emirates).-                  catalogue of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the
                                          >i
                                            -                            , e federation of the nine had been called ittihad al imarat al                individual Emirates. Yet the vague wording of these articles implies,
                                                                          arahiyah126 Union of Arab Emirates. This change of emphasis,                  rather than describes, such powers by saying: “The exercise of rule
                                                                         which helped to tilt the balance further towards a more unified, if not        in each Emirate shall aim in particular at the maintenance of security
                                                                         even a more   centralised State than that envisaged earlier, was in            and order within its territories, the provision of public utilities for its
                                                                         keeping with the concepts which were being developed at the time by            inhabitants and the raising of social and economic standards”
                                                                         citizens who had become intimate advisers to the Rulers in Abu                 (Article 117), and “The member Emirates of the Union shall all work
                                                                         Dhabi, and Dubai, particularly H.E. Ahmad Khalifah Suwaidi and                 for the co-ordination of the legislation in various fields with the
                                                                                                                                                        intention of unifying such legislation as far as possible” (Article 118,
                                                                         H.E. Mahdi al Tajir, who had taken over most of the responsibility for
                                                                                                                                                        Part One). The failure to list the powers of the individual Emirates is
                                                                         the finalisation of the federation talks, and who were then given
                                                                                                                                                        consistent with the intention of the fathers of the
                                                                         important positions in the new State, which they had helped tocreate.                                                               constitution:
                                                                         In their view, the new State had more chance of consolidating itself the       existing laws and well-established institutions in the Emirates  were
                                                                         more it played down the individuality of the Emirates and strength­            guaranteed continued existence.
                                                                                                                                                          Forthcoming legislation in almost all matters that cou e
                                                                         ened the hand of the central authorities. It was difficult to administer
                                                                                                                                                        anticipated, as well as the accompanying executive and ju icia
                                                                         shaikhdoms of such different sizes and stages of development from one
                                                                                                                                          ted           institutions which could be expected to evolve, were assigned to the
                                                                         centre during the first few years of the nascent State. This preven            central authorities in Articles 120-125. The authors of the consti­
                                                                         over-enthusiastic ad hoc unification which could have suffocate
                                                                                                                                                        tution could foresee the very obvious situation that in some Emirates,
                                                                         some of the enthusiasm for the federation. The realities of politicaU'J
                                                                                                                                                        notably Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and to some extent Sharjah, the existing
                                                                         in the UAE did not encourage rapid unification in every aSPec*!^s              laws and regulations as well as the functioning government machi­
                                                                         this helped to maintain the integrity of the various local systems. It^
                                                                                                                                                        nery could and probably would
                                                                         eventually realised that these systems still had a very valuable ro            unifying the public             remain barriers to the process of                 ;
                                                                                                                                                                           sector.  The almost complete lack of legislation
                                                                         play because of their immediate proximity to the citizen.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       373
                                                                         372
   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404