The UAE: From Bold Dream to Spectacular Reality in One Generation

By Richard H. Curtiss

Demographers know that residents of the United Arab Emirates generally rank third (after Japan and the United States) among the world's top non-European nations in annual surveys of per capita gross domestic product. First-time visitors to the Middle East also note that two UAE cities, the ports of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, have the most spectacular urban skylines in the region, comparable to the familiar rows of glass and steel towers rising abruptly from the water's edge in Hong Kong and Manhattan. Middle East experts also marvel at the tens of thousands of acres of dense greenery—date plantations, vast fields of wheat and vegetables that make the country self-sufficient in those respects, sprawling grassy city parks planted with flowering tropical trees and shrubs, and seemingly endless windbreaks along the highways of arid-lands trees and shrubs—all in a sun-baked land that only 30 yearsago was largely lifeless salt flats and wind-blown desert sand dunes.

The facile explanation is petroleum, lots of it, and the wise use of its revenues and by-products. But the story is considerably more complicated—and interesting—than that. Much of it revolves around the personality and imagination of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, and the sustained and systematic manner in which he has turned his boldest dreams into reality.

The UAE is a federation of seven adjoining Emirates which was created after the British government announced in 1968 its intention to withdraw its armed forces from the Arabian Gulf. Three of the Arab emirates of the Gulf, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, chose to go it alone along with the sultanate of Oman. Another seven of the emirates, formerly called the Trucial States, formed a federation in 1971 to be governed by a supreme council of rulers. Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi, which has an area roughly equal to that of the other six emirates combined and which also was the first of the seven emirates to produce petroleum in large quantities, was elected president by his peers on the supreme council. He subsequently has been re-elected unanimously at successive five-year intervals.

Sheikh Zayed's grandfather, Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, ruled Abu Dhabi from 1855 to 1909, the longest reign in the emirate's history. He was succeeded by Sheikh Sultan, Sheikh Zayed's father, who ruled from 1922 to 1926. After a brief reign by an uncle, Sheikh Zayed's elder brother, Sheikh Shakhbut, assumed power in 1928 in a thinly populated land whose people made their living largely from pearling and fishing

The 1930s was an era of catastrophic economic decline throughout the Arabian Gulf because, in 1934, the Japanese introduced cultured pearls into world markets. This precipitated a collapse of the Gulf pearling industry, upon which the economies of all of the Gulf emirates had been based for centuries. Because of its agricultural areas around the inland oases of Al Ain and Liwa, Abu Dhabi suffered incrementally less than some of its neighbors. In general, however, the regional economic depression lasted through World War II and afterward until the first petroleum geologists arrived in the area.

At the time oil explorations began in Abu Dhabi in the early 1950s, Sheikh Zayed was the representative of his brother, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, in Al Ain. The name means spring, or fountain, in Arabic and the area generally was designated on English-language maps of the time as the Buraimi Oasis.

At the time it was a cluster of small villages built around a great pool of water that marks the spot where an underground aquifer gushes to the surface of the desert. Inhabited since the Stone Age, parts of the area were claimed not only by Abu Dhabi but also by Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Zayed received his political and diplomatic seasoning in dealing with the tribes and villagers of the area, which eventually was divided between Abu Dhabi and Oman after Saudi Arabia withdrew its claim in return for concessions elsewhere. Since then the scattered villages have grown together into a single large metropolitan area which now is divided between the Omani town of Al Buraimi and the Emirate town of Al Ain. Residents and visitors have unrestricted access to both sides of the open and largely invisible border that bisects the metropolis.

It was during his many years in Al Ain that Sheikh Zayed first demonstrated his personal predilection for making the desert bloom. He directed the clearing, refurbishing and, where necessary, rebuilding of the ancient systems of stone-lined and covered felaj channels that conduct water by gravity from springs to outlying villages, fields and orchards.

In addition to providing the water necessary to revive the economies of the villages under his supervision, he also used some of it to maintain the rows of ornamental trees he planted along the streets of Al Ain. These towering trees, two generations later, now shade the streets of what has become perhaps the greenest oasis city in the entire Arabian peninsula.

After a trip to Europe in 1953 with his brother, Sheikh Shakhbut, Sheikh Zayed returned to Al Ain determined to provide for his people the schools, hospitals and other modern facilities he had seen during his travels. He began this task even before Abu Dhabi's abundant oil revenues began accumulating rapidly enough to make the job easier. When they did, Sheikh Zayed urged that they be used to launch a nation-wide modernization program. It was a vision not fully shared by his brother, however, who saw little reason to change the traditional ways. Therefore, roughly a decade after their trip to Europe, and with the agreement of members of the ruling Nahyan family, Sheikh Zayed assumed the leadership of the country in the mid-1960s.

He promptly launched a massive but carefully planned construction program to provide the entire emirate with the infrastructure facilities he had worked so hard to provide the people of Al Ain. The most obvious result is the spectacular growth of the city of Abu Dhabi, where Sheikh Zayed literally laid out a new city grid plan centered upon a spectacular waterfront corniche, and preserving virtually nothing of the previous town except its many mosques. Now thousands of the city's residents live in spectacular glass apartment towers abutting tree-lined swaths of landscaped lawns, fountains and walkways and overlooking the sea. And by now Abu Dhabi, too, is a vast, green oasis of the sea.

Then, after creation of the UAE in December 1971, the same pattern of building schools, clinics, hospitals and other public facilities was repeated throughout the new federation, initially based largely upon funds from Abu Dhabi's petroleum production, and later accelerated as some of the other emirates, particularly Dubai, Sharja and Ras Al Khaima, developed petroleum or industrial facilities of their own.

The Emirate of Dubai, in particular, has created a major port and economic free-trade zone called Jebel Ali, while the city of Dubai, built along both sides of a scenic port called "the Creek," has become a center of world commerce and the Middle East headquarters for hundreds of international companies.

Now, 24 years after its founding, the UAE's population has grown from 180,000 to 2.23 million residents, a high percentage of them guest workers from Europe, Africa, other Middle Eastern states, Pakistan, India and other Asian countries. Where there were fewer than 30,000 students in the UAE's schools in 1971, today there are 400,000 in primary and secondary schools. There also are 15,000 students in institutions of higher education, the largest of which is the Emirates University in Al Ain.

If there is anything that equals Sheikh Zayed's interest in turning his desert country green, it is this vastly expanded educational program for the UAE's youth, to whom he refers as "the real wealth of a nation." All of them, even in the remotest mountain and desert areas, have educational opportunities that were not available to their parents, or to Sheikh Zayed himself, when they were growing up.

It is another proud claim of the UAE that men and women have equal educational opportunities. The statistics bear this out. Roughly equal numbers of boys and girls attend the nation's schools, from kindergarten through university level. No feminists in the Islamic world, and few anywhere else, would take issue with Sheikh Zayed's publicly expressed philosophy on the subject, which has been translated into the laws of his country: "Islam gives women their rightful status, and encourages them to work in all sectors as long as they are afforded the appropriate respect. The basic role of women is the upbringing of children, but, over and above that, we have to support a woman who chooses to perform other functions."

One of the ways in which this interpretation of Islam has been translated into action is manifested in the establishment of a voluntary military training program for women initiated by the armed forces of the UAE during the Gulf war. This has been followed by establishment within the UAE armed forces of a women's military unit, the only one in any of the six member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, to which the UAE belongs.

Sheikha Fatima, Sheikh Zayed's wife and the UAE's First Lady, has played a prominent personal role in promoting adult literacy courses for women who grew up before schools were available throughout the UAE. She also has lent her personal sponsorship to health education and to education and training in the country's traditional crafts—all designed to help women participate completely in the country's accelerated national development.

Including his early days as the ruler's representative in Al Ain, Sheikh Zayed has spent nearly 50 years in the governance of his emirate, serving for half of that time as the UAE's president. While he remains extremely active personally, receiving a steady steam of official visitors in his diwan, often through the evening and into the early morning hours, he also has set up a firm plan for succession. His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa, is crown prince and deputy (after Sheikh Zayed) supreme commander of the UAE armed forces. Sheikh Zayed's second son, Sheikh Sultan, is UAE deputy prime minister and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Public Works Department. Other sons of Sheikh Zayed also hold important posts in the the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the federal government, or both.

Other key posts in the UAE are held by rulers of other component emirates, members of their families, and citizens of all of the seven emirates. At the time the UAE was established, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, second largest of the emirates and the only one besides Abu Dhabi that was producing oil at the time, was elected first vice president of the UAE. He held that post until his death in 1990, at which time his eldest son and heir, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al Maktoum, was elected to succeed him. The first vice president currently is prime minister of the UAE as well, although that has not always been the case.

It is the prime minister, chosen by the president in consultation with his colleagues on the supreme council, who together with the president selects the cabinet ministers. They in turn are drawn from all of the component emirates and together are described in the constitution as "the executive authority" of the UAE.

The equivalent of a parliament in the UAE is the Federal National Council, composed of 40 members drawn from the seven emirates on the basis of population. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharja and Ras al Khaima have six each, and Ajman, Fujaira and Umm al Qaiwain have four each. Presided over by a speaker, or either of two deputy speakers elected from among its members, the FNC is responsible under the constitution for examining and, if it chooses to, amending all proposed federal legislation. It also can summon and question any federal minister regarding the performance of his or her ministry.

One of the most conspicuous ways in which the UAE has made its presence felt in the world has been through its generous foreign aid program. The country, with fewer than a quarter million residents, has spent more than $17.4 billion on foreign aid in more than 40 countries on three continents. This is equivalent to 3.5 percent of GNP. By comparison, the United States spends less than 1 percent of its federal budget on foreign aid—a minuscule fraction of its total GNP.

Nor is UAE participation in international affairs confined to just sending money. The UAE air force participated in the Gulf war in 1991 and UAE ground forces were part of the GCC force that helped turn back an Iraqi attack on the Saudi town of Khafaji and later spearheaded the liberation of Kuwait City. UAE forces also participated in the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia that started in late 1992.

Since then, the UAE has arranged the airlift of wounded Bosnian Muslims to Abu Dhabi where they have received medical treatment and their families have been provided accommodations and financial allowances for one-year periods. Relief supplies for Bosnia also have been assembled by the UAE Red Crescent Society, and they have been airlifted to Bosnia in UAE aircraft.

In addition to the state foreign aid programs and personal expenditures by Sheikh Zayed recorded above, a number of other UAE citizens have become personal patrons of international relief programs. The level of institutional and personal support has been so high in the UAE that international non-governmental organizations, including the French-based Medicins sans Fronti²res, have established their regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

Starting in 1969, when during a visit to Jordan Sheikh Zayed met then-PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians also have received generous financial as well as diplomatic support from the UAE. Today the UAE still provides support, particularly during the current peace negotiations. In addition to adding the UAE's diplomatic weight to that of other Islamic countries on the question of the final status of Jerusalem, Sheikh Zayed has given specific support to Palestinian positions in their negotiations with Israel, saying that the Palestinians "know better than others what is in their interests, and what is the appropriate decision for them to take."

At home the UAE has mutually agreed land borders with its Arab neighbors. Of great concern to the country, however, is Iranian military occupation since 1971 of three Arabian Gulf islands, Abu Musa, Greater Tunbs and Lesser Tunbs, all of which historically have been part of member emirates of the UAE. The UAE has called repeatedly for direct negotiations to end the Iranian occupation. If Iran will not agree to bilateral talks, the UAE has called for referral of the dispute to the International Court of Justice.

The UAE also has strongly supported Kuwait in its demands that Iraq return or account for some 600 citizens or residents of Kuwait still missing after the Gulf war. Nevertheless, the UAE recently called successfully for other Arab League countries to join it in supporting a relaxation of the U.N. embargo on Iraq to enable the Iraqi people to obtain needed food and medicine as well as other supplies and equipment to provide clean water and adequate medical treatment.

Neither the UAE's expenditures on its armed forces nor its generous foreign aid programs ever have been domestic political issues because of the extraordinarily generous health and educational services and financial security provided to UAE citizens. There also are some unique social programs aimed directly at alleviating special problems as they occur at home.

Two such problems that arose only in the past 20 years as petroleum wealth penetrated UAE society were the increase in lavish wedding celebrations and the heightened expectations by the parents of young women of lavish dowries for their daughters. Both were lowering the marriage rates within the country.

Sheikh Zayed dealt with the first problem simply by calling upon his countrymen to stop the ostentatious wedding parties as a matter of national interest. The second problem was more insidious, because many young men had begun looking abroad for brides rather than waiting for years to assemble the dowry required to marry a local girl. Sheikh Zayed ordered creation of a special "Marriage Fund," which now has disbursed an estimated $200 million to young people to encourage marriages between citizens of the UAE.

Another problem already familiar in Kuwait, which began to enjoy massive petroleum revenues well before the UAE and which had an equally high per capita GNP until the Gulf war, has been that of voluntary unemployment among the children of wealthy families. In a series of major speeches throughout 1995 Sheikh Zayed stressed the importance of the work ethic, and its vital role in the development of society.

His campaign was aimed particularly at those who, because of social or educational status, were reluctant to enter the lower rungs of public- or private-sector employment and accept beginning wages. "I cannot understand," Sheikh Zayed said pointedly, "how a physically fit young man can sit idle and accept the humiliation of depending on others for his livelihood."

Nor has this major national campaign been focused solely upon the "idle rich." With his eye on a problem familiar in the United States, where the native-born seem increasingly reluctant to take some of the jobs now held by immigrants or guest workers, Sheikh Zayed this year bluntly told UAE citizens living in an irrigated agricultural area of the emirate of Umm al Qaiwain: "Youth unemployment is unacceptable. Your young people should work, and earn through their sweat, so that they become an example for their sons and brothers. A healthy person who does not work commits a crime both against himself and against his country. How does such a person live? Where is he headed?...This kind of person should learn from the example set by those handicapped people who are following a working and productive life."

These problems are all too common in prosperous societies, and few in the world are more prosperous than the UAE. Nevertheless, Shaikh Zayed, after 50 indefatigable years working in the service of his people, which include nearly 30 years as ruler of Abu Dhabi and nearly 24 as president of the UAE, sets a remarkable example of extraordinary personal accomplishment.

Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.