Competing forces undermine identity

Academic warns that globalisation and local fragmentation put pressure on the UAE's indigenous character.

ABU DHABI // Globalisation and local fragmentation are placing tremendous pressure on the UAE's indigenous character and national identity, requiring a concerted federal strategy to prevent the erosion of the culture, a prominent academic has warned Emirati leaders and intellectuals in a frank discussion of the issue.

In one of the longest public meetings to be held by the Federal National Council, Prof Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, professor of political science at UAE University, Al Ain, warned that the Emirati identity faces tremendous pressures both from within the UAE and outside of it. He highlighted increasing tendencies towards globalism and the damage caused by individual emirates acting in their own interests at the expense of the federation.

Another speaker contributing to the often heated discussion said it was not even clear what the Emirati identity was supposed to be. Some of the country's foremost intellectuals and political and social scientists were among more than 200 people - also including legislators, government officials, teachers and students - attending the meeting on Tuesday night. It was convened by the FNC's seven-member education, youth, media and culture committee in response to the decision by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, to declare 2008 the year of national identity.

"Our national identity is facing a tsunami of dangers from the inside and the outside," said Prof Abdullah. "We should look at two challenges to the national identity; they are of our making. Moving towards the local rather than the federal and the move toward globalism in the last five to 10 years." Prof Abdullah said that 38 years after the creation of the federation, national identity was going through its most difficult stages, "trapped between the local and the global".

"It digs deep and pushes a lot of us to be fearful and anxious about our future," he said. The gathering at the FNC building in Abu Dhabi was called to debate the Ministry of Culture's role in building identity. The committee is expected to hold several more private meetings before presenting the Government with its findings and recommendations. Chaired by the council's only female member, Dr Amal al Qubaisi, the discussion was seen as an important element of the exercise,intended to generate feedback from the public, officials and experts on the means of preserving the nation's social and cultural identity.

Prof Abdullah made clear that despite threats of cultural erosion, that identity resembled "an eternal river that has one source and one mouth". However, the river had "some tributaries that we should prevent from expanding". Some speakers felt that the debate was clouded by confusion. "For nine months we have been hearing about the national identity. Nobody has told us what is the national identity," said Wejdan al Mutairi, a student at Zayed University.

"Is it the Emirati dialect? Is the Emirati national dress? Can we keep up with globalisation and be Emiratis? There is no one to answer these questions." Yousef al Hassan, director of the Emirates Institute of Diplomacy, pointed out that some countries adopted cultural symbols that were not truly indigenous. Brazil's ties to football and dance was a classic example, he said. For Prof Abdullah, however, identity rested on a sense belonging and loyalty to the federation that he said should be part of the mindset of every citizen.

"When we say national identity we're talking about the homeland - with its history, institutions, government - permeating consciousness, the feelings and the minds of its sons and daughters," he said. "The essence of national identity is when the homeland is part of the human." Once the FNC committee produces its report, officials from the Ministry of Culture are expected to take part in a full council meeting which is likely to be held later this year or early in 2009.

Describing the challenge facing the committee, and the decision to engage the public in the debate, Dr Qubaisi said: "The intention is to stress the importance of combining the efforts of the whole spectrum of society to preserve the national identity, taking as the starting point from the leadership's belief that he who has no identity does not exists." [e-mail]