Page 397 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Chapter Nine

Important as the role of these two governments was for the genesis
of the constitution, it was possibly even more significant once they
were absent; having had ample demonstration of the room for
disagreement between these two Slates, the governments of the
Trucial Stales suddenly appreciated the common ground which had
always existed between them.
The rather more extreme positions taken so often by either Qatar
or Bahrain thus eventually turned into catalysis for a relatively
painless final operation of constitution-making, during which each of
the seven Emirates sacrificed some treasured views. Thus with only a
few changes, most of which had already been discussed during the
previous months, the drafl which had last been reviewed in full
during the meeting of the nine Deputy Rulers in October 1970 became
the constitution of the UAE.

Centralistic and federalistic elements
It is not by chance that the Arabic name of the new Slate became the
rather more active derivation of the root wahada, by calling it dawlah
al imarat al 'cirablyah al multahidah (United Arab Emirates).125
The federation of the nine had been called ittihad al imarat al
'arabJyah,12G 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 Slate 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 Slate, which they had helped to create.
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
centre during the first few years of the nascent State. This prevented
over-enthusiastic ad hoc unification which could have suffocated
some of the enthusiasm for the federation. The realities of political life
in the UAE did not encourage rapid unification in every aspect, and
thishelped tomainlain theintegrityofthevariouslocalsystems.lt was
eventually realised that these systems still had a very valuable role to
play because of their immediate proximity to the citizen.

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