Ballot will empower people and strengthen nation

In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Dr Gargash explained that despite the troubling times witnessed currently in the region, which calls for caution, the UAE has decided to move forward with landmark reforms to give the people a greater role in the political process.

The three-phase process will be conducted gradually while maintaining stability and economic viability.

The ultimate aim, he explained, is to have a much more enabled, stronger and bigger Council.

What is the reason behind such a process? Why are elections being introduced in the UAE?

The elections are part of a general effort of modernising the country. It is aimed at enhancing political participation and enabling the members of the Federal National Council (FNC) to play a bigger role in the development of the country. I see the election of half of the FNC members as a natural progression of the UAE.

It is a time when the UAE achievs a substantial degree of development in almost every field - economic, social and infrastructure. The coming stage of development requires modernisation of our political institutions, primarily the FNC.

Furthermore, we realised that we have more educated young Emaratis who are looking to play a role in the development of the country. The UAE has a large reservoir of goodwill and public approval as a result of three decades of successful leadership. The country is now ready to develop its system politically.

Greater political participation will be conducted in a gradual process. This gradual approach that we have adopted stems from realistic appraisal of regional uncertainty in the area that we live in.

We don't have an electoral legacy and we need to develop our political institutions in a measured way, and we will build on this first step in the years to come.

So there was no pressure to introduce the reforms?

No. In the UAE, there is mutual trust between the Rulers and the citizens. The general feeling amongst Emaratis is that the country is moving on the right track. The UAE is the second largest Arab economy and one of the most successful states in the region in terms of its socio-political development. So there were no demands or pressure to implement reforms or introduce elections. Our community is not politicised. If you check the list of priorities for an Emarati you will not find political participation among the top five. It is definitely not one of the top priorities of Emaratis.

But as the government plans for the future, we need to take into account the needs of society. Political participation is an important future issue, which is why we have initiated this process. At the same time, we are also aware that in many places in the region, elections have been divisive and counter-productive for growth and development. The UAE intends to adopt this process in stages with a goal that unifies the country rather than dividing it.

These are times of tension and conflicts in the region. Was not that a reason to be prudent and delay such a big project?

The turbulence in the region is a reality and has been a reality for quite some time. Thus, we have to separate this issue and we cannot say we have to stay stagnant because of regional issues. On the contrary, the country has to continue to move forward in all spheres. We have to be cautious, but this doesn't mean that we should not move forward.

What is the timetable for this process?

It is three distinct phases as outlined in President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan's December 2005 speech. In the first stage, we will see the election of half of the FNC members through the Electoral College. This will be followed by the second phase in which we will look into expanding the powers of FNC members and the enlargement of the Council. At the end of the second phase, the FNC will be a more powerful body and its membership will be expanded.

The second phase of the development is the most important part of the project since it will deal with the powers of the FNC members and their relations with the government. It will be a more complicated one. We have to reach a feasible and credible equilibrium for the UAE so that the FNC fits into our political system. The relation between the FNC and the government is an important issue and that is why the National Election Committee (NEC) will oversee the whole process.

Why is phase two complicated?

We recognise that a more effective FNC will require several mechanisms. Firstly, the FNC members should win a seat through election. Secondly, the FNC as a body needs more powers and that is why we need to review what powers it has at the moment and what power it needs in order to play a greater role. This is more complicated because it requires constitutional studies and clauses.

This takes us to phase three: what do you have in mind for it?

I think phase three will be an open election for half the council. When we move to phase three we will have finished and assessed phase two. The type of Council you will get in phase three is a much more enabled and stronger Council. It will also be a larger Council with more specific powers, with more specific areas of responsibility.

At the same time I think what is important from this experiment in the transitional period is there are many areas that we need to tackle and these things will be tackled in future. One of the issues that must be tackled is of permanent residency of Emaratis. Now this we have tackled as a transitional phase. And this issue was not even addressed because we had no election and then we suddenly saw it. Basically in the past 35 years there has been a lot of movement, people moving from a certain emirate to another emirate, changing their documentation to the other emirate. How does one deal with these issues in the law. I think this will be very important.

I think another thing is that we have had a lot of issues with addresses of voters. I think with the new national identity programme we will have a much clearer data base which will make it easier to deal with a huge electorate. Right now all we have to deal with is about 6,600 people. So it is not an issue, but from that we learned that these are some of the issues that have to be tackled and clarified prior to having an electorate of hundreds of thousands.

So in phase three we will have a different FNC, probably a different mechanism.

We will have direct elections for half the Council and the other half will be appointed. The Council will be much larger. It will definitely have a bigger role.

Would you see that as a major change?

It's a moving world. Our world is changing all around us and it is not static. It's a dynamic situation around us and this dynamic situation means that we cannot come and say that things are fine and let's stay the way we are. Because there are also fundamental changes happening in society and in the region.
 
These fundamental changes are realities on the ground. Among them are a younger population, challenges on resources, the issue of fundamentalism, the role of women. So naturally what you are trying to do is basically absorb these changes while maintaining stability and economic viability. These are two trends that are moving together, a trend on how you do things and a trend on challenges that are requiring you to do things a certain way. The point is that you have to adapt to a lot of these changes as you move along.

But adapting should be in a gradual way and in a credible way. So that by the end of the process you have a system that has created genuine modern participation with genuine powers. But at the same time the general framework of the system is the same. That it is basically a government, a federation that is based on ruling families, based on their relationship with their citizens. It is an open society known for its tolerance. It's a Muslim and Arab society known for its tolerance. These are the basic things that you want to keep, but you also want to modernise. These trends move together and our goal is to adopt and adapt and at the same time maintain the basic values. The basic values are not only what people think are traditional values. Basic values are openness, economic viability, ability to make quick decisions, make sure women are an important component of society and to enlarge freedom.

Did you look at the experiences of other countries when deciding to take this approach?

I think every country has its own model. In the UAE, the FNC first of all is a federal body and as a federal body, the FNC will need to play a national role because in some emirates you have consultative councils.

So I see the FNC as something in the national level discussing issues that are of national concern, many of which are also of local concern. For example, the FNC is not going to discuss local budgets, [although] local budgets are substantial.
 
At the same time, we have similar issues as in other countries. There's always the issue of national identity. In the Arab world, national identity has different challenges to it. There are what I call smaller identities, tribal, regional, emirate-wise etc. At the same time there are supra-national identities as in Islamic or Arab nationalist. What we need to do in the FNC is to try to strengthen the identity of the country, and it is a challenge throughout the Arab world. In summary, I see us developing, hopefully, an effective FNC that suits the UAE.
 
In the initial phase we looked into the examples of many other counties and we carried out comparative studies in order to find the system that best suits our need as a country whilst maintaining a balance with our traditional heritage and culture.

We came out with the NEC to supervise these things and this naturally is from the studies that we did to see how elections are being run and we opted not to run them through the Ministry of Interior. This was a conscious decision because the UAE strongly believes in the importance of civil society and the involvement of civic bodies in the election process.
When we came to the executive directives of the elections, we looked at different experiences and were able to benefit from these. When we looked at the mechanism for elections, we looked at actual elections being run manually, and then we moved on to electronic and even electronic was going to be partial. We had some good support from Bahrain which has quite an advanced electronic system, although they haven't used it. And we decided that with this small electoral college it was the perfect time to implement it and then move on because throughout the world electronic ballots are being used. It was an opportunity for us and also reflective of associating modernisation in people's minds with the elections.

How can a candidate campaign when they don't know the power of the FNC?

The importance of it is when you start your initial phase, it is not going to be a perfect phase. That's why it is called an initial phase. In this learning curve, while we politically try to assess our direction, it is also a learning curve for all of us as a society on how elections are conducted, the mechanism.
 
I always say, in the UAE as a society… the level of awareness is very high. Education is high, it's an open society, but when it comes to elections, this is the first experience. Naturally in the first experience, political programmes are not going to be as mature as when the process is developed. I think in the first experience it is natural that, for example, people will vote on name recognition because there is no history of candidates and how well they did in their parliamentary life.

I think the powers of the FNC are very clear. If somebody comes and says I will highlight the issue of education and what needs to be done etc, I think this is within their power. Or if somebody comes and says I will follow an agenda of improving health and housing, I think this is within their agenda. The nature of the programmes, perhaps will not be as mature as they will be when the whole experiment develops. I think this is part of growing pains. This means in the beginning candidates will speak about generalities rather than specifics. I think this happens in every society. Voters will vote because they know this person rather than knowing what they can do for them because there is no track record. I think it is natural for us to go through this process, I think it is important that we take a gradual approach because this approach will do several things for us. Among them is the ability to evolve our course of action as we move on.

What is the difference between appointed members and elected ones? Do you see one having more power than the other?

The powers of all members are the same; in the end there will be one Council. The issue of appointing members is important because the UAE is the only federal system with a single representative institution. Appointing and electing members create a two-tier chamber. The Rulers feel they have certain members whom they have appointed and the people feel there are members who are elected.

Some say there is some lack of interest from citizens in the process … is that correct?

I think the impression is incorrect. The Abu Dhabi road show saw the largest attendance, both by men and women. The Sharjah potential candidate scene looks more competitive right now. But there is a lot of interest in road shows, the press, people announcing their names. The call centre has received 5,000 telephone calls. I think there is confusion to a certain extent.

In Abu Dhabi and Dubai there is a big local government and people think the local government affects their lives more than people in other emirates. The other emirates have smaller local governments and as a result people think that federal institutions will play a more important role in their lives. I think this is one of the distinctions. We see huge interest in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. In Dubai, of course, with regard to people intending to run, again the field is not as strong as Sharjah, but we can't tell yet. We have to wait for formal applications. The reasoning perhaps in Dubai is that of a large private sector tradition. The private sector tradition makes people shy away from running in political contests. In Sharjah, you have a stronger legacy with people working for the government and being members of the Consultative Council. Perhaps they are more bold in electoral competition and do not have a problem with losing. These are nuances we have to analyse in the next period.

FOR THE PEOPLE

What about women?
I don't have a crystal ball in front of me. I can say women will be in this council, they will come in as appointed members definitely. I am hoping that women will win some seats. I think it is important for women to campaign. In my opinion this election will be won on name recognition and contacts. I hope they win many seats. In parliaments worldwide, women do not have a fair representation. I think it will be encouraging if women win three or four seats.

What about those not included in the poll list?
There has been a lot of discussion on the selection of the electoral college. Many people want to be in the electoral college. Members were selected by the Rulers of each emirate. Our job is to manage the process. In many ways the college is an image of the emirates, they include the old, the young, the educated, the less educated, the man, the woman. So in many cases this is the process. It is a beginning. If it was not 6,689 and there were 50,000 people in phase one, somebody will still come and say why am I not included. I think the important thing is to go beyond the issue of why am I not included to the issue of the whole process that is an initial phase, this is us building a house and just putting up the pillars. You should not judge the programme by phase one, it is a necessary phase for us to create this gradual approach, it is necessary for us to see what practical obstacles will come. It is a necessary phase for us to start the process. So if you are asking if it is a perfect phase, no it is not. Is it an important and a necessary phase? Yes of course it is.

Political parties in the UAE?
I think people are energised, they are feeling the FNC will be more representative of them. There is huge support for the political system. Many see this is their way of reaching out to the government and playing a role in the government. I don't envision political parties. One of the problems with political parties in the Arab world in general is that while in many parts of the world political parties have been a part of the parliamentary system, political parties in the Arab political system in many cases, have been ideological parties. And in many ways it is the ideology of exclusion - of me and not you. They are not inclusive ideologies, whether they are Islamists or Arab nationalists. Most political parties in Arab history are ideological parties and have led to a one party state. And this is one of the negatives of how people see political parties in the Arab world. People seem them as divisive, as a single opinion or single strand party, and you see this throughout the Arab world.

I don't see the UAE process necessarily leading us to political parties. The process will create a more representative body. We don't want to create a model, which others think is right.

We want a model that helps the system, that encourages participation, works with the system and also represents the people. If we achieve these goals we are successful, we don't need to duplicate other countries. We want what is best for our circumstances.

LINK
Channels open to candidates

Campaigning
There are many channels open for campaigning such as radio and TV. Candidates can hold public meetings. They can have an election centre. People want us to assist them in creating a channel where candidates can meet the electoral college. We are working on allowing them that extra channel. The NEC will call for these meetings or an open day.

Priorities
Political participation is not among the top five priorities of UAE citizens. We had a workshop in Abu Dhabi among many decision makers, not the Cabinet members. They split us into three groups to prioritise what the challenges are in the coming period. Amazingly, the groups agreed on the first four challenges:

• Demographics
• Education
• Maintaining the economy’s performance
• Regional stability
• The fifth was split between health and environment.

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