Dubai’s ruler turns tide on development

Dubai’s ruler turns tide on development
By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

Published: April 23 2007 19:16 | Last updated: April 23 2007 19:16

Every weekend Umm Suqeim beach, one of the last remaining public beaches in Dubai, swarms with human life. Arab women, shrouded head to toe, tend to their children alongside Russians in their skimpiest briefs, and local elders chat among themselves while low-paid construction workers meander along the beachfront, collectively enjoying one of the few free pleasures in Dubai, where economic and social divides often prevail.

The cosmopolitan and egalitarian symbolism of this 750m strip of sand, nestled in the shadow of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel, a self-styled seven-star icon to opulence, stirred strong emotions among the emirate’s population when it was announced last month that the beach would make way for yet another offshore real-estate development.


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The complaints from Dubai’s expatriate population, usually confined to blogs and the letters pages of newspapers, gained traction through an online petition.

With the signatures growing by a thousand every day, Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, ordered an end to work on the beach – a rare U-turn – to rapturous approval from beachgoers and residents.

“The decision had looked arrogant and greedy – let’s grab the last land while we can,” says the author of Dubai’s best-known expatriate blog, Secret Dubai Diary.

The incident provided a snapshot of decision-making in the emirate, which is balancing rollercoaster development with the demands of expatriates, about 95 per cent of all residents in the UAE’s business hub. Half of Dubai’s 1.4m-strong population is from south Asia, mainly low-paid workers, while Arab and western expatriates, including more than 100,000 Britons, are seeking the tax-free lifestyle in increasing numbers.

Many are now putting down firmer roots, thanks to a freehold law that opened the real estate market to non-Gulf Arabs in 2002.

For decades, Dubai’s rulers have governed in consultation through the majlis – a place where rulers would sit with trusted advisers, large merchant families and commoners – to discuss issues of the day. The public outrage triggered by news of the closure of the best beach in Dubai seems to have created a similar situation, with the ruler apparently changing his mind after listening to public opinion.

“I like to think that this petition reached the powers that be, helping to persuade them to keep this beach open, as a place for the people,” says one of the organisers behind the online petition, who did not want to be named for fear of being branded a trouble-maker.

Despite the victory over the beach, decisions still come from the top down. International human rights organisations continue to highlight the ill-treatment of construction workers and press for the UAE government to introduce the right to collective bargaining.

Nor is the UAE on the road to western-style democracy. The federation last year held its first elections, with an electoral college of Emirati candidates picked by the seven rulers of each emirate voting among themselves to choose representatives to a federal consultative council. It was the slowest move towards more political openness among its Gulf Arab state peers, but UAE government officials are unapologetic, saying the country will move at its own pace.

Keeping Dubai an attractive destination for wealthy expatriates, however, is clearly on the minds of the powers-that-be. Perhaps a victim of its own success, last year Dubai’s population grew by as much as 300,000, clogging roads and jacking up rents. Sheikh Mohamed has implemented an annual 7 per cent rent cap to blunt soaring rent inflation.

Dubai’s dog shelter, threatened with closure and putting down hundreds of stray dogs after being turfed out by its landlord, received land from the government after an extended media campaign with wide-eyed puppies tugging on the heartstrings of the mainly foreign dog-lovers.

Increasing home ownership in the expatriate community has also led to a different type of popular pressure through residents’ associations, some elected, which negotiate with government-controlled developer Emaar Properties over issues such as service fees.

But longstanding expatriates take a more cynical view of their ability to influence events. They mainly believe the input of local residents – not foreigners – reversed the decision on the beach. One local family living near the beach organised objections from other long-time residents to the development, say locals.

Zabeel Investments, the company behind the beach development, is owned by Sheikh Mohamed’s second son, Hamdan, who appears to be being groomed to succeed his father.

While the beach – one of Dubai’s most valuable pieces of real estate – may have been saved from the developers, at least temporarily, others maintain that Dubai’s supercharged 15 per cent annual economic growth rate, matched by ambitious projects in tourism, logistics and finance, will continue to force the closure of other “expatriate institutions”: private beach clubs, sailing clubs and cricket pitches are all making way as Dubai’s mega projects march on.

For the organisers of the petition, however, the popular response to their effort to carve out a public space amid the private development of Dubai, is a signal of a more organised community of expatriates, who want some say in their new-found home. ”People are making their lives here. It used to be a matter of staying here for two years, getting a tan while making money before leaving, but now there is a community,” said the organiser of the petition.