considered the money a gift and used it to buy rifles and a generator. When the bank asked him to repay, he accused it of stealing his money. Shakhbut settled only after the British sent a diplomat from London. 29
Shakhbut was eventually overthrown. But it was no revolutionary uprising that toppled him. He’d become an embarrassment to his own family, the ruling al-Nahyans. On August 6, 1966, with the urging of the British, Shakhbut’s youngest brother, Zayed, took control of Abu Dhabi in a bloodless coup. Sheikh Shakhbut went quietly, apparently relieved to relinquish the headaches of rule. But Sheikh Zayed’s coup didn’t end tribal rule in Abu Dhabi. It strengthened it. Zayed went on to becomethe UAE president, ruling until he died in office in 2004. He is revered as the father of his country. His son Sheikh Khalifa is now UAE president and Abu Dhabi leader.
It turned out that the political scientists who’d predicted an end to Gulf monarchies had got it wrong. In the UAE, as well as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, the same tribal families in power in the 1950s were still locked into power in 2009. Of the six, the UAE has enjoyed perhaps the greatest stability despite offering the fewest political freedoms. The other five Gulf countries allow some form of elections, although in Saudi Arabia only men vote. The sole vestige of democracy in the UAE is an advisory body in which half the members are elected by a hand-picked caucus. Political parties and civil society organizations are banned. Yet the tribal leaders in the UAE, especially Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed, are broadly popular, seen as competent and benevolent. There is precious little political grumbling. How could the theorists get it so wrong?
In the short term, agitators were put down. Witness Sheikh Rashid’s 1939 smashing of the rebel
majlis
. After independence, Sheikh Zayed made clear that he brooked no talk of democracy. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, the professor who is one of the UAE’s few democracy activists, got a personal demonstration. Abdulla had written about UAE tribal rule at Georgetown. The articles weren’t flattering, but they weren’t distributed widely. One of them came to Zayed’s attention in 1991. Zayed got angry. The UAE president stripped the professor of his passport. It was a mild punishment, but Abdulla, who suddenly couldn’t leave the country, got the message.
“We tried to be daring but it wasn’t a good time. We knew we were testing the limit,” Abdulla says while crunching on a Caesar’s salad at the Novotel Hotel in 2008. “It could’ve been much worse. I said ‘Okay, take my passport. I don’t want to go anywhere anyway.’”
Dubai leader Sheikh Maktoum quietly intervened, speaking to Sheikh Zayed and getting Abdulla’s passport returned. The professor got a personal warning from a security man. “You can talk about anything else but don’t mention democracy. Sheikh Zayed doesn’t like it,” the official said. “Anybody can bring it to his attention and you’re in trouble, guy.”
A tiny political opposition has developed in Dubai, but its activists still run into trouble with Sheikh Zayed in his grave. Mohammed al-Roken, a lawyer and rights activist, has been arrested twice and forcedout of his job as a professor at UAE University. His newspaper columns and speeches have been banned by the government, his passport seized. Al-Roken’s main offense has been speaking out about what he describes as a government that caters to the foreign majority. He says Emiratis shouldn’t feel like strangers in their own country, shouldn’t have to stomach immodest dress and rampant boozing. Al-Roken’s conservative critiques are considered political activism, which is not tolerated.
In the longer term, rulers in Dubai and the UAE have stanched dissent the nice way, by paying off their opponents. In practice, a wealthy populace is a happy populace and not one to clamor for political rights. In the UAE,
Shakhbut was eventually overthrown. But it was no revolutionary uprising that toppled him. He’d become an embarrassment to his own family, the ruling al-Nahyans. On August 6, 1966, with the urging of the British, Shakhbut’s youngest brother, Zayed, took control of Abu Dhabi in a bloodless coup. Sheikh Shakhbut went quietly, apparently relieved to relinquish the headaches of rule. But Sheikh Zayed’s coup didn’t end tribal rule in Abu Dhabi. It strengthened it. Zayed went on to becomethe UAE president, ruling until he died in office in 2004. He is revered as the father of his country. His son Sheikh Khalifa is now UAE president and Abu Dhabi leader.
It turned out that the political scientists who’d predicted an end to Gulf monarchies had got it wrong. In the UAE, as well as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, the same tribal families in power in the 1950s were still locked into power in 2009. Of the six, the UAE has enjoyed perhaps the greatest stability despite offering the fewest political freedoms. The other five Gulf countries allow some form of elections, although in Saudi Arabia only men vote. The sole vestige of democracy in the UAE is an advisory body in which half the members are elected by a hand-picked caucus. Political parties and civil society organizations are banned. Yet the tribal leaders in the UAE, especially Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed, are broadly popular, seen as competent and benevolent. There is precious little political grumbling. How could the theorists get it so wrong?
In the short term, agitators were put down. Witness Sheikh Rashid’s 1939 smashing of the rebel
majlis
. After independence, Sheikh Zayed made clear that he brooked no talk of democracy. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, the professor who is one of the UAE’s few democracy activists, got a personal demonstration. Abdulla had written about UAE tribal rule at Georgetown. The articles weren’t flattering, but they weren’t distributed widely. One of them came to Zayed’s attention in 1991. Zayed got angry. The UAE president stripped the professor of his passport. It was a mild punishment, but Abdulla, who suddenly couldn’t leave the country, got the message.
“We tried to be daring but it wasn’t a good time. We knew we were testing the limit,” Abdulla says while crunching on a Caesar’s salad at the Novotel Hotel in 2008. “It could’ve been much worse. I said ‘Okay, take my passport. I don’t want to go anywhere anyway.’”
Dubai leader Sheikh Maktoum quietly intervened, speaking to Sheikh Zayed and getting Abdulla’s passport returned. The professor got a personal warning from a security man. “You can talk about anything else but don’t mention democracy. Sheikh Zayed doesn’t like it,” the official said. “Anybody can bring it to his attention and you’re in trouble, guy.”
A tiny political opposition has developed in Dubai, but its activists still run into trouble with Sheikh Zayed in his grave. Mohammed al-Roken, a lawyer and rights activist, has been arrested twice and forcedout of his job as a professor at UAE University. His newspaper columns and speeches have been banned by the government, his passport seized. Al-Roken’s main offense has been speaking out about what he describes as a government that caters to the foreign majority. He says Emiratis shouldn’t feel like strangers in their own country, shouldn’t have to stomach immodest dress and rampant boozing. Al-Roken’s conservative critiques are considered political activism, which is not tolerated.
In the longer term, rulers in Dubai and the UAE have stanched dissent the nice way, by paying off their opponents. In practice, a wealthy populace is a happy populace and not one to clamor for political rights. In the UAE,
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