Page 376 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

The Formation of the Federation

Once again il looked as though Qatar’s well-meaning zeal only
alienated the delegates from the less well prepared member states
and from Bahrain; the latter by virtue of its long history of overseas
trade and formal education claimed that it should be the federation’s
natural “think lank”. Being host to the meeting, the Government of
Qatar presented a 20-item agenda designed to compel the Supreme
Council of Rulers to discuss steps which would enable the federation
to function as one body even before the adoption of the new
constitution, which had still not been drafted. The majority of the
other emirates rejected this agenda and one day was spent trying to
agree on a new one. The communique issued on 14 May indicates
the dilemma facing the federation of nine emirates. The members
supported the idea but the majority were hesitant over putting these
principles into effect, and the meeting adjourned without having
decided upon a President, the names of the ministers to replace the
Temporary Union Council,46 a Hag, a capital, or a centralised military
command.
One of the stumbling blocks was that Bahrain insisted that the
members of the proposed parliament (Federal Assembly) should be
selected on the basis of proportional representation. This was
opposed by all the other emirates because this system would have
given Bahrain, with its large and well-educated population, an
overwhelming advantage.
At this stage, preparation of the draft constitution had not
commenced, the British withdrawal was still two years away, there
was even a hope that the Conservatives might reverse the decision,
therefore the majority of the delegates to the Supreme Council
meeting seemed tacitly to agree to disagree, gaining more time to
consult on the final shape and size of the federation. Yet most
delegates had already become much more conversant with the
realities of political life in a federation; and they realised that the
spirit of the constitution had to be derived from the political
relationships between the member States, not introduced as theories
by outside experts. At the Supreme Council meeting in May 1969 a
committee of the Rulers’ own advisers and legal experts was set up to
prepare in two months the first draft of the constitution to be
submitted to outside legal experts for comments and recommenda­
tions.47 The Egyptian legal adviser, Dr Wahid Ra’fat, who had been
asked a year earlier by the Government of Qatar to give a legal
opinion, was appointed to study this draft during the month before it
was presented to the Rulers. The expert who had been appointed in
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