5 Emiratis Arrested for "Threatening UAE Security"

Five Emirati citizens have been arrested over the month of April for supposedly creating a security threat for the UAE government.
The actual crime these five Emiratis are being accused of is not a conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism or a plot to commit fraud, but instead, these five citizens are facing imprisonment and heavy fines for "crimes including insulting the President, Vice President, and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
Salim Saeed Kubaish, the Attorney General of the Emirates, said that the five were being investigated for "crimes of instigation, breaking the law and perpetrating acts that pose threats to state security," among other reasons.
One of the Emiratis arrested, Abdullah al Shehi, is the head of a group, the Al Shahouh Folklore Society, which has petitioned for universal suffrage in the upcoming FNC elections.
These arrests are a sure sign that the UAE is not as free as it may appear on the surface. Although it is considerably liberal when compared to some of the other Middle Eastern nations, the UAE is still clearly not one of the countries looking for a complete democratic political system.

The "Emiratisation" of the Workforce

A big domestic issue within the UAE is the demographics within the workforce. The Emirates have long been an accessible place for foreign workers to find a job regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religion. The accessibility of work in the UAE is a key reason for the fact that only 20% of the people living in the Emirates are actually citizens. Due to this small percentage of native Emirati people that can be a part of the work force, the UAE government decided that something needed to be done to help the natives and citizens of the Emirates.

Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash, the Minister of Labour, outlined a new labor policy that focuses on workers' rights and the "Emiritisation" of the work force. Gobash explained that Emiratisation is the process in which the hiring of local workers becomes a priority, and as a result, more citizens get hired over foreign workers. Gobash stated that the way this process will be further implemented was to give incentives to companies that hire qualified local help instead of looking for foreigners who are qualified for the same job.

Another aspect of the policies was the protection of workers' rights. Minister Gobash ensured that the new policies were meant to protect ALL workers, regardless of nationality. The policies would, however, make switching jobs more flexible for locals, while foreign workers would have to commit to working for their "sponsor" employers for a set period of 2 years.

Gobash's main goal with these policies is to "create a safe, monitored, well organised labour market will help in boosting the country's economy and stability."

Rules of the FNC Election

Yesterday, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, the State Minister for FNC Affairs made a statement to the people of the United Arab Emirates regarding the amount of people allowed to vote as a part of the Electoral Colleges in September's Federal National Council elections.

According to Gargash, a decree made by President Khalifa in 2005 establishes a minimum number of people needed to be a legitimate election, which is at least 300 times the number of representatives. This decree, however, does not include a maximum amount of people that can be involved in the elections.

The program for politcal empowerment outlined by President Khalifa is meant to eventually allow every Emerati the right to be involved in the elections, whether as a voter or a candidate. This change is meant to be gradual, however, and even as the Electoral College gets to vote and decide on 20 of the 40 members of the FNC, the other 20 representatives are still chosen by the respective rulers of the Emirates.

What I found interesting about this article is that, on the surface, the UAE seems to be a fairly democratic country with plenty of voting rights, and for the most part, that is the case. Underneath that democratic exterior, however, it becomes apparent that when it comes to wielding the power in the UAE, the rulers of the Emirates are the ones in charge and calling the shots.