Abu Dhabi: The youngest 31-year old Federal National Council (FNC) member from Abu Dhabi, Saeed Al Rumaithi, who successfully won a seat at the Council solely through his active engagement with the public via social media, said that being young equates to him going the extra mile to prove his eligibility.
Also an established social media influencer since 2006, Al Rumaithi, who works as an officer for the UAE Armed Forces in the capital, holds a masters in IT and New Media from a reputable university in San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in IT and Multimedia from a college in England.
“I was, to a large extent, expecting to win because I was regularly communicating with the public through Twitter and Snapchat. Voters also messaged me whenever they cast their ballot for me, which was very reassuring.”
“Based on their feedback, I did a rough estimate and saw that there was a huge possibility of me winning. I would like to seize this opportunity to thank voters for their faith in me and I promise to strive and represent them in the best way possible.”
“I am also proud of the fact that I am the youngest FNC member on the Council; however, this does put more pressure on me as I need to go the extra mile to prove that I am capable of giving and achieving just like any other FNC member,” he added.
Al Rumaithi aspires to propose solutions for a profusion of societal issues, with emphasis on obstacles that Emirati youths encounter on a day-to-day basis.
“I will make sure to always closely connect with Emirati youths and look at their needs through social media and other engaging platforms. I also have certain plans in place to drive them to think about what are some of the projects that they have always had an appetite for and wanted to execute.”
In addition, expanding their frontiers of knowledge and forcing them to position themselves as an integral part of the UAE society, Al Rumaithi also seeks to enable young people to have an increased stake in societal and political-related matters.
“The youths of today are the rulers of tomorrow so we need to always provide them with the necessary ingredients, expertise and information for them to eventually take over.”
Among some of the other ideas on his agenda that he aims to tackle are proposing that retired citizens get the right to work for a specific number of years.
“This will be mutually beneficial for both the retired citizens, who can work for an extended period of time, and for the UAE, which can hugely benefit from these citizens’ expertise and proficiency.”
Al Rumaithi also desires to inspire a strong sense of cultural awareness among the youth so they can appreciate and preserve their country’s heritage, an aspect that Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan had always stressed.
Strengthening Emiratis’ Arabic language capabilities is yet another mission that Al Rumaithi is determined to embark on as it is considered to be the UAE’s official language.
“One of the solutions I have for this is to increase the number of majors available in Arabic in universities.”
Maisoon Mubarak is a trainee at Gulf News
