New Dubai Ruler is a believer in change

I read this on Bahrain Tribune today.

Dubai (AFP) - The UAE appointed the Ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice-President, succeeding his elder brother Shaikh Maktoum.

The official WAM news agency said Shaikh Mohammed, currently the Defence Minister, was also asked to form a new cabinet. Officials said they did not expect a major reshuffle in the government.

“Members of the Supreme Federal Council ... agreed to charge Shaikh Mohammed as Prime Minister to form a new government,” WAM said. It said the council, headed by UAE President, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, elected Shaikh Mohammed to his new posts.

The current Cabinet was sworn in after the death in 2004 of the then UAE president, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Shaikh Mohammed is a moderate Arab leader. “I say to my fellow Arabs in (power): If you do not change, you will be changed,” he said in a conference attended by Arab and world figures in Dubai last year. “If you do not initiate radical changes to restore respect to public duties, uphold the principles of transparency, justice and responsibility, your peoples will resent you, and the verdict of history on you will be severe,” he added.

Shaikh Mohammed, 56, over the course of 20 years, transformed Dubai into a popular tourist destination. His decision in 1985 to arm Dubai with an airline, Emirates, was undoubtedly the most crucial move at the core of his strategy to develop the city. In the following years, numerous tourism projects were launched, as well as various free zones – mainly for Internet and media – which contributed to the city change toward a business hub. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the US, Shaikh Mohammed has been endeavouring to fight all links between Islam and terrorism and show that Islam and modernity are compatible. “The evil has been committed by the perpetrators and not their religion. We should never brand Islam and Muslims with such terrorist acts,” he said following the attacks.

Born in Dubai in 1949, Shaikh Mohammed studied in a military college in Britain before starting his public career in 1968 as the director of police and public security in the emirate, which was still a British protectorate.

Shortly after independence in December 1971, he was promoted to a general by his brother, Prime Minister Shaikh Maktoum, and was nominated as the defence minister for the new federation. He was the youngest minister in the world. He is passionate about horses and takes part in races of endurance, while he is keen on poetry.