Thursday, Nov 22, 2012
Dubai: UAE’s former foreign minster spoke about the union and its founders and Zayed’s vision, by discussing his book Zayed: From Al Ain City to the Ruler of the Union, which is considered the first book about the union.
Rashid Abdullah Al Nuaimi, spoke about Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, former UAE president, who he had closely worked with for about 30 years.
The lecture was held at the Cultural and Scientific Association of Dubai on Wednesday as part of the UAE’s 41st National Day celebrations.
Al Nuaimi said he was not a historian or biographer but that his book contained his thoughts and reflections that occurred to him. He added that the book tells an old story and if one reads it it does not do justice to what the UAE has achieved today.
The book has recently been reprinted.
Shaikh Zayed, Al Nuaimi said, highly valued education. “When Zayed first took the reigns of Abu Dhabi, he gave special care to the Development Office that the British had established, but the British had not given any importance to education, and Zayed was not convinced that anything can happen without education, so he started to develop education.”
“Shaikh Zayed saw that uniting the Emirates was the only way to build up the country and to overcome any challenges that can be forced on any Emirate from the outside, especially after the British left.” Al Nuaimi explained. He added that Shaikh Zayed was not the only ruler of the Emirates that thought so, but the same belief was held by the other rulers.
“But Shaikh Zayed’s familiarity with political thought and being in touch with the outer world made him positive that the area must unite to be able to prosper and live,” Al Nuaimi explained.
He added that the union was created on bases of cooperation, love and mutual agreement. He explained that one of the reasons the union was successful was Shaikh Zayed’s wisdom while creating the constitution, as it decreed that each emirate will have full control of its own affairs and that the federal government will not interfere with those affairs unless the emirate asks for it and only to the degree that the emirates allows.
Al Nuaimi added that when word about the Emirates wanting a union was out, a lot of Arab countries that he said claimed to be progressive, were against the union as they thought the UAE will be a regressive country and a burden to the Arab world.
“How wrong were they” he said. He explained that Shaikh Zayed faced this opposition with patience and wisdom and took their opposition as ignorance of the UAE, as he said back then, nobody knew who or what Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Sharjah were.
“With calm diplomacy and wisdom, Zayed was able to turn those countries opposing him into friends and allies; as he used to treat those countries even better,” Al Nuaimi said.
By Noorhan Barakat?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
