The lessons of UAE’s leadership transition

ByTommie C. Curtis

May 17, 2022 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When the UAE federation was born on December 2 1971, number of if any expected that the new union would last very long. The doubters, armed with previous unsuccessful encounters in the Arab environment, assumed the new point out would disintegrate just like other unions did in this section of the planet.

Right now, the UAE is ranked amongst the top 10 nations around the world in the planet on nearly every development index, with a phenomenal amount of top quality of daily life that has manufactured it the leading destination for overseas financial investment and talented staff.

On that day, 50 years ago, there was no way everyone would have imagined, for instance, that this freshly fashioned desert nation would become a leading international vacation spot for tourists. Or it would be a entire world-course hub for organization and trade. But these days the UAE is all of that and more.

The nation’s founding fathers, and the leaders who followed on their footsteps, gave the world the to start with UAE lesson in how to make certain improvement, prosperity and social pleasure.

In a location rife with conflicts, all forms of conflicts in truth, political, army, sectarian, the UAE has been an oasis of stability and expansion. The UAE has previously drawn advancement ideas for the following 5 a long time.

In the past handful of times, the UAE provided the world a further lesson. It is about the political consistency the smooth transition of leadership.

In virtually all nations, a adjust in the best business office of governing administration typically leads to a transform in policy and way. Occasionally the adjust is instead considerable. Also, in that period of time of changeover, no matter how long it is, point out affairs and features are halted amid the regular confusion and for the lack of clarity, or the expected transform in administrative groups.

Foundation of unity

Not in the UAE. Its unique construction, centered on solid foundation of unity amid the folks and their leaders and constitutional rules set by the founding-fathers, signifies that succession of electrical power is a clean procedure. The constitutional duty is transferred effortlessly from one chief to a different.

The UAE, represented by members of the union’s Supreme Council, on Saturday elected its third president, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed in the very same orderly manner it experienced elected the late Sheikh Khalifa 18 several years in the past, following the dying of Sheikh Zayed, the good founder of this country and its very first president.

A person has to just appear chronologically at the UAE’s very last 50 yrs to see that the country’s path is truly one solid uninterrupted march in direction of prosperity, created by the pioneering leaders and carried forward by the present management. This is the legacy of Sheikh Zayed, Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and their brothers, the founders of the UAE.

Throughout his presidency, Sheikh Khalifa embodied Sheikh Zayed’s unwavering religion in the union and love for the men and women. With his father’s legacy as a guiding theory, he led the country’s ‘phase of empowerment’, which he declared on the nation’s 34th anniversary in 2005 that paved the way for initially immediate election of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC) in October 2006 to widen the participation of citizens in the enhancement march.

Following on the founder father’s eyesight, Sheikh Khalifa, with equally His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed on his facet, embarked on landmark alterations in the government framework to scrap red tape and improve its efficiency.

New portfolios for science and technological know-how, local climate change, pleasure and tolerance had been established to choose the country to yet another level of progress, sustainable growth and competitiveness. His rule witnessed historic milestones like the prosperous operation of the Arab region’s initially multi-device nuclear plant and the get started of the house programme with the Mars exploration.

He carried forwards Sheikh Zayed’s loaded humanitarian legacy with the establishment of the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation in 2007 to combat starvation, poverty, disease and illiteracy around the globe. More than 80 nations around the world have obtained assistance from the basis.

Previous year, he declared the upcoming 50 yrs strategies — not only to sustain the UAE’s phenomenal rise as a international centre for business enterprise and innovation but also to realise the founders’ vision of earning this young country the ideal and happiest country on earth.

New era

Now, the UAE enters a new era but just one that will be a continuation of the superb march it has witnessed in the past 5 decades. Guided by the similar eyesight and ideas, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed shoulders his constitutional duty to realise the 50’s principles.

Explained by political gurus all over the world as a person of the world’s most influential leaders, Sheikh Mohamed will set all his years of expertise in govt in the assistance of his nation to choose up the country’s enhancement to new, unprecedented ranges.

We all don’t forget his promise that the UAE will be celebrating when it ships out the final barrel of oil in 50 a long time as the economic system will no extended be dependent on oil. To realise this bold strategy, the President has put a excellent aim on education. He always claims that Emirati males and ladies, not oil, are the real prosperity of this country.

Under his long yrs at the helm of the armed forces, the UAE armed service has develop into one particular of the most impressive present day armies in the location. He has also been the architect of the UAE’s productive overseas coverage that proceeds to participate in a leading purpose regionally and beyond to convey about steadiness, tranquil resolution to conflicts and financial prosperity in this section of the entire world — a reminder of the part Sheikh Zayed typically played during his lifetime, offering mediation and progressive remedies in regional disputes. It is the similar thread of wisdom, tolerance, and moderation.

In his congratulatory letter, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid explained Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed as an “extension of Zayed.” The President “is the protector of the values, ideas and pillars that Zayed instilled when he founded this country with his brothers, the Rulers of the Emirates,” the Vice-President famous.

And that is an additional lesson the UAE offers to other countries, close and afar. It is consistency. A ongoing eyesight that all its leaders subscribe to and get the job done challenging to realise. A eyesight that was established on that auspicious day, December 2, 1971, when famous adult males signed on to sort this exceptional nation.