Taking over the mantle of responsibility

On January 4, millions of residents across the UAE mourned the loss of one of the country's leaders. Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, former UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, passed away, and the UAE moved into a new era of leadership. This era, like Shaikh Maktoum's, was profoundly guided and inspired by its forefathers.

The transition of power was very smooth. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, took over the leadership from his late brother.

He had prepared all his life for this role. When he was just 19 years old, Shaikh Mohammad had witnessed the creation of the federation that would become the United Arab Emirates.

On February 18, 1968, he accompanied his father, Dubai Ruler Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, to a desert campsite where they met Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, then Abu Dhabi Ruler. From that day onwards, Shaikh Mohammad would undergo training that would make him the leader he is today.

After attending a British military school, he was appointed by his father as the Head of Dubai Police and Public Security in 1968. This was his first public position. On December 2, 1971, the day the UAE was created, Shaikh Maktoum appointed his brother Minister of Defence, making him the youngest minister of defence in the world at the time.

In 1977, Shaikh Mohammad took over the administration of Dubai International Airport. When their father, Shaikh Rashid, fell ill in 1981, Shaikh Mohammad and his brothers worked closely together and took on new responsibilities.

In January 1985, Shaikh Mohammad expressed a desire to start an airline, and by October, Emirates Airlines took to the skies for the first time. This marked the launch of modern Dubai and of a new, lucrative industry — tourism.

"Stagnation means regression, therefore a person should strive to develop his position. If you cannot, you should give up your place to others," Shaikh Mohammad once noted.

The 1990s proved a time of great responsibility for Shaikh Mohammad, with various conflicts arising around the world. He dispatched aid supplies to Kuwait during the 1990 Iraqi invasion, and marked the UAE's first involvement in an active war zone through a speech stressing the UAE's commitment to liberate Kuwait.

During the Serbian aggression in Bosnia, Shaikh Mohammad pressed for an international force to be dispatched to Bosnia, and along with the late Shaikh Zayed, directed the Ministry of Defence to airlift wounded Bosnians to Abu Dhabi and Dubai for treatment. He played a decisive role in Somalia in the early 1990s, when famine and strife were rampant, and in 1999, ordered the UAE military to construct 1,000 houses for homeless Kosovars.

In 1995, the UAE awoke to the news that Shaikh Mohammad had been appointed Crown Prince of Dubai by Shaikh Maktoum. "I do not know if I am a good leader, but I am a leader," Shaikh Mohammad later noted.

"And I have a vision. I look to the future, 20, 30 years. I learned that from my father, Shaikh Rashid. He was the true father of Dubai. I follow his example. He would rise early and go alone to watch what was happening on each of his projects. I do the same. I watch. I read faces. I take decisions and I move fast. Full throttle."

The full throttle approach is one Shaikh Mohammad continues to use today. The architect of modern Dubai, as he is now known, announced the creation of the Dubai Shopping Festival in 1995. A year later, the world's richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup, was staged under the directives of Shaikh Mohammad, an equestrian enthusiast.

In a major push for diversification of Dubai's economy, he announced the establishment of Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City at the turn of the millennium. And in 1999, Shaikh Mohammad announced his initiative to make Dubai a fully online government within 18 months; a year and a half later, "e-Dubai" became a reality. Shaikh Mohammad has said, "No matter how big the challenge, strong faith, determination and resolve will overcome them."

When Shaikh Maktoum died, Shaikh Mohammad, the poet, the champion horseman, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister, took charge of a city internationally known for its successes. Charismatic and commanding, Shaikh Mohammad is a traditional people's man.

In between issuing directives to protect workers' rights, ensuring that stricter laws are enforced to protect the rights of labourers and domestic workers, strongly promoting freedom of the press and urging UAE national women to confidently participate in the Federal National Council elections, Shaikh Mohammad takes the time to meet with the people who shape his country.

In October 2006, he visited the Fishermen's Board in Jumeirah to pledge his support to a way of life that has sustained his country for decades.

The same month, Shaikh Mohammad received members of business councils and chief executives of Arab and international companies.

Earlier this year, he ordered the budget of the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare to be raised to Dh100 million. In September, heart-warming pictures of Shaikh Mohammad visiting primary and secondary schools on Delma Island graced the papers; he ordered an immediate upgradation of computer labs.

Back in 2001, he offered a Palestinian boy from the West Bank a full three-year scholarship at the American University of Dubai.

When the war in Lebanon broke out in the summer of 2006, Shaikh Mohammad ordered the reconstruction of schools in South Lebanon and compensation for fishermen whose work stopped due to the oil slicks that covered Lebanese waters.

Shaikh Mohammad is known to have said that the word "impossible" should not be included in a leader's dictionary. Quotes taken from his speeches and statements are a testament to the determination of a man with a vision beyond people's expectations.

"We have to make history and approach the future with steady steps, not wait for the future to come to us," he once said.