UAE | Heritage and Culture
Institutions urged to preserve archives
As the Year of National Identity is coming to an end, the official in charge of preserving the nation's "most precious asset" appealed to all governmental and private institutions to preserve archives or what he called the UAE's memory.
- By Samir Salama, Associate Editor
- Published: 23:53 December 6, 2008
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
- Dr Al Rayes assumed several positions in the Ministry of Education and contributed to establishing the Zayed University. He was chairman of the Arab Federation of Archives between 2002 and 2006.
Abu Dhabi: As the Year of National Identity is coming to an end, the official in charge of preserving the nation's "most precious asset" appealed to all governmental and private institutions to preserve archives or what he called the UAE's memory.
Dr Abdullah Mohammad Abdul Kareem Al Rayes, director general of the Centre for Documentation and Research, said archives are the most precious asset and gift of one generation to another, Dr Al Rayes said the preservation of the UAE's records protects the rights of citizens, documents the actions of the government and helps shape the evolving national experience.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Dr Al Rayes said the UAE is an ancient land whose history goes back to thousands of years.
Dr Al Rayes said many chapters of the UAE's history remain unwritten because historians have no access to resources.
Gulf News: Would you share the story of the UAE's National Archives?
Dr Al Rayes: The UAE has never had a proper national archives. The unofficial body, which used to carry this name, was meat to accommodate official exiles. It was a big shredder of rare documents that reached there and there was no law to regulate the functioning of the national archives to document and preserve the UAE's rich history.
In keeping with the instructions of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE, the national archive was joined to the Centre for Documentation and Research and all the documents were deposited in the centre... A law was then worked out to set up the National Archives for the UAE.
How do you see the role of the Centre for Documentation and Research?
The centre is committed to preserving and promoting UAE history and its centuries-old rich culture and heritage. It is mobilising resources for a better understanding of the Emirates' history. Every nation has its own history and civilisation, which needs to be explored, researched and documented for the benefit of posterity by using scientific research tools.
What is your perspective on recording the UAE history and what's your major challenges?
Our challenge is to view the past from new angles and achieve a better understanding of the behaviour and patterns of life of the people who lived in the region of the Emirates thousands of years ago. The new technologies used in archaeological excavations have brought about a revolution in our dealing with the past... This in the long run will help fill the gaps in the local, regional and world historical records.
What is your plan to achieve this?
Ever since it was established in 1968 by late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan to preserve the memory of the nation, the Centre for Documentation and Research has been endeavouring to fulfil this mandate through documenting and preserving the country's rich history and national heritage and carrying out scientific research based on authentic records.
All documents produced between 1506 and 1971 or as many as 7 million rare documents were collected, classified, translated and saved on CDs, microfilm and microfiche. The centre was not meant to become the National Archive. So its mandate did not include collecting documents originated after 1971. These documents had to remain in the governmental institutions that issued them until the law on the National Archives is passed.
How far has the law reached?
The draft law was passed by the Federal National Council and approved by the emirates. It will shortly be signed into a law by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Once the law is enacted, the Centre will be entitled to collect all documents produced by the various governmental institutions between 1971 and 2003. Under the law, each document of significance will be deposited at the centre five years after it is produced.
If you look across the entire government - and it doesn't really matter what kind of format you're talking about - the government generates millions and billions of records every day to conduct business... Probably only anywhere up to five per cent of all federal records that get created document the national experience and come into the centre for permanent preservation and access by the public.
A single ministry generates around 30 million documents a month.
We are building an advanced foundation and a centre for preserving and restoring of documents and we are training human resources. An international training centre will be built in cooperation with the International Council on Archives (ICA).
It will take us two years to organise documents collected from governmental institutions. In the second phase, the documents are scanned and saved on CDs and stored on microfilm and microfiche.
We will Arabize ICA AToM or Access to Memory, which is a web-based archival description software that is based on ICA standards. It supports multi-repository collections.
The centre has entered into an agreement with the American, the Canadian, the Australian and the UK archives. An advisory committee made up of the chairmen of these archives will meet in the first week of February next year to decide the roadmap for the National Archive of the UAE. Before that, the executive board of the ICA will discuss moving the headquarter of the ICA to Abu Dhabi.
How much have rats nibbled at the UAE's history?
We inspected archives across the UAE ... They were in immense mess ... We did not see rats. We witnessed acts of nature, which dealt some fatal blows to archives .. We also watched the heavy impact of harsh environmental factors, including the lack of controlled climate, accidental fires, and pests and moulds... But I can tell you for sure that humans themselves remained the greatest threat to archives... I witnessed the crime of shredding rare documents, other documents about to perish that were rescued by seeming miracles, or sheer coincidence. I have seen massive destruction of archives, culture and records on a disturbing scale - a TV station destroys its treasures of documentaries and movies that date back to the 1940s ... protocols and agreements to which the UAE is a signatory are on the verge of ruin.
I really cannot say how much of our history and the nation's memory has been destroyed. It will take us sometime before we know for sure the extent of this tragedy.
The Centre for Documentation and Research is being criticised for depending heavily on foreign historians to write the UAE's history. Your comment?
We sought expertise of all Emirati historians and academics. We also drew some of the best intellects from around the world. This provided an excellent opportunity for fostering intellectual interaction among archaeologists, historians and academics specialising in the history and culture of the UAE and the Gulf and laying the ground work for future cooperation worldwide.
Would you elaborate on the law on the National Archive of the UAE?
The proposed law would penalise individuals and official institutions, which kept government documents from the archives. Once implemented, the law would guarantee that ministries and government offices hand over their documents five years after the date of their origin. Documents could be classified as secret, barring access to them, introducing stern punishment for transgressors.
The law states that individuals in possession of government documents must release them to the archives or face harsh penalties.
The proposed law is far-reaching in its scope as it covers private, non-government documents produced by associations or banks. Officials found guilty of negligence and destroying classified documents face a prison term of up to one year or a fine of Dh1 million or both.
Profile: A veteran
Dr Abdullah Mohammad Abdul Kareem Al Rayes graduated and earned his masters degree from the Higher Colleges of Technology. He is a holder of PhD in English from Wisconsin University in the United States. Dr Al Rayes assumed several positions in the Ministry of Education and contributed to establishing the Zayed University. He was chairman of the Arab Federation of Archives between 2002 and 2006. He was Vice-President of the International Federation of Archives in 2005.
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