Page 425 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Nine

planning of immigration and naturalisation policies were called for.
Under the heading “conservation of national wealth” the memo-
randum criticised the unequal distribution of wealth. Abu Dhabi
having exclusive authority over its oil revenues, the memorandum
called for management of the nation’s single resource and the
financial benefits derived from it to be handled by federal bodies, a
central bank, national rather than foreign banking institutions, a
reserve fund, and lighter federal control over what it called foreign
“economic invasion” and over ownership of real estate and land by
foreigners in some of the Emirates. It called for a more equitable
distribution of the wealth and an improvement in living standards
for all citizens by providing them with suitable sources of income.
The authors staled that “economic and social justice is a pillar of
internal stability.”
Probably the most important immediate impact which the memo­
randum could be expected to have was to improve substantially the
functioning of and the interplay between the federal institutions.
The memorandum therefore included the following statements and
demands: “The Supreme Council, which draws up the state’s policy,
should meet periodically (regularly) every month . . . The Supreme
Council’s General Secretariat should have competent cadres to
prepare agenda, studies and documents. Ministers should be given
(more) powers.” A very fundamental demand in this respect was that
the Federal National Council should be given full legislative powers
and cease to be only a consultative assembly.
Several of the authors of the memorandum had also been involved
in formulating the draft of the permanent constitution which was not
adopted by the Supreme Council in 1976. They may have hoped that
the renewed discussion about a permanent constitution in Spring
1979 would bring up all these points which the memorandum raised.
Therefore the document concluded with the statement that the
provisional constitution was now an anachronism and a hindrance
to unification attempts and that “the current phase necessitates the
immediate start for having a permanent constitution.”
The memorandum also has some direct references to democratis-
ation: where the point of a general improvement of living standards
was raised, a further paragraph stated: “not by bread alone human
beings live. The citizen should be nurtured democratically and fields
of freedom of opinion should be provided to him to participate in
the country’s politics in a democratic way consistent with Islam.’
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