'No West-style parliament'

While intellectuals and members of the Federal National Council have openly called for reforms to further empower the body, most have stopped short of asking for a Western style parliament with political blocs or parties.
The country, they say, does not need or want such a system and reforms need not go that far just yet.

In fact, there have been voices of opposition to allowing political parties to function in the FNC, with Emiratis looking wearily to neighbouring Gulf states that have turbulent –but largely peaceful – political systems due to the tugs of war between political blocs or "societies".

"Kuwait does not necessarily stand as a model for democratization for the rest of the Gulf," said Najla Al Awadi, an FNC members from Dubai, referring to the state that regularly sees ministers and sometimes governments resign due to pressure from parliament.

"Political blocs and parties is not a direction we are looking to take," she said, adding that the experience of neighbouring countries should be taken into consideration. "We don't want ideological rifts in the UAE. It's not in the interest of the federation".

While the prevailing view among some Emiratis is that "parties are for those who don't have tribes", as the Dubai Police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim once famously said, there are also fears that further empowering the FNC could promote tribalism to an unhealthy level in society, as well as empowerment of radical elements in society.

Dr Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, political science professor at UAE University said that the UAE needed to move much faster towards democratization, but added that politic parties were "way ahead of everybody" and that no one was asking for them yet. The UAE, he said, needed to start with introducing a fully democratic legislature.

But Hussain Sha'far, an elected member from Dubai, said that full legislative powers were not sought by all members. He said that not a single recommendation made the by the body had been rejected. "Even those laws that were changed by the FNC by almost 70 per cent were accepted," he said.
The powers the FNC has today, he said, were sufficient and what previous FNC members would only "dream of".