Story of Dubai is story of overnight success, selling dreams, visionary leadership and disciplined development. Dubai was A port city which survived on fisheries till 1960's but sudden discovery of oil in decade of 1960's turned the fortune of this small coastal emirates. One can sense the money and opulence flowing on the streets of Dubai while walking on the roadsides of Palm Jumeira or tracking the coast of Burj Al Arb. Was it a result of sudden discovery of wealth or was it a planned effort from the visionary leadership of Al Maktoum family? Will Dubai be a blip on the horizon of developmental history of modernistic world or will it remain there as a shining star forever?
The answer lies in understanding the development model of Dubai and UAE in larger perspective. First important ingredient to any task of development is the leadership. Dubai has got it right on spot. The leadership of Al Maktoum family has proved to be benevolent to public. Leaders have created a concentration of power but the futurist vision of leaders and focus on technology have created new avenues for public. For example, from the very beginning leaders understood that oil has bright but a limited future. Once the oil resources are consumed, the country may face existential crisis. In fact, Dubai did not even have oil. For Dubai questions were much grave. But they found answers in creating a jugglery of dreams and experiences for the world. Dubai focused on tourism and finance sector. It invested in building trademark buildings like Burj-Al-Arb and Burj Khalifa. It promoted beach events, desert tourism, adventure tourism and built global village. It provided good offices for negotiations and created a Singapore in the middle east for traders of Finance. As a result, an emirate which has no natural resources, no productive outcome of its own and depends on import for even basic necessity of food grain, turned into a gold vault of money. Today Dubai's sovereign wealth fund is one of the largest in the world. This can be gauged by the fact that first colony on the Mars is going to be funded by Dubai.
The focus on technology is visible in the next generation projects Dubai has taken up. The world's first Hyperloop project is coming up in Dubai. Any new technology in the world is first tried and tested in Dubai. The architectural marvel of Burj Khalifa and Burj-Al Arb were extremely difficult technological challenges and stands as an example of human resolve, constructive skills and architectural advancement. From the airport to hospital, every public office is occupied with high tech technologies.
Was it all so simple? Is political will the only thing needed to make this dream turn into reality? If that is the case then why country like India are not able to develop at this faster rate despite having a leader like Modi at the helm. More interestingly it is bewildering to know that most people who transformed Dubai are people from South Asia, mostly of Indian origin. If you stop at a traffic signal, very likely you'll find all drivers to be from South Asian nations which are known for their lawlessness, chaos and rule-breaking attitude. How do they get transformed in Dubai.
The secret to this transformation lies in strict law enforcement system. Machiavelli rightly said for a king, it is better to be feared than loved. Nowadays we live in generation of 'Lex Rex' i.e. law is king. All the nuisance creator, chaos lover, rule breaker and incorrigible Indians suddenly turn most law-abiding and sincere residents of the coastal nation. When compared to India, one can say that Dubai's secret of success lies in its politics and society. They extract the maximum work from Asian workers and do not allow them to have any citizenship in return. They have successfully sold the dreams to Indian middle class to come and work in Dubai and become rich. They have masterfully sold the dream of being a center of development and tourism to western nations from where large number of people come every year to enjoy the life here despite 6 months sweltering heat of 50+ degree centigrade. The dictator form of government has allowed them to keep the system as close box and portray a positive image of Dubai. For instance, posting any negative image of Dubai on social media account is a crime. Begging is a criminal act punishable with strict penalties on life. All this has helped Dubai in creating an atmosphere where people can focus on their work and enjoy the fun which Dubai offers. Shedding aside the traditional Islamic emirate tag, Dubai has a become Thailand of the east. Prostitutes from all different nationality could be found in Dubai at reasonable prices.
A general question that comes to our mind is whether India can achieve this kind of development and money generation. Has our democracy become a bane for us?
The question raised above is a serious question which needs to be investigated from multiple vantage points. Prima facie, it looks yes that democracy has turned the country into a slow bullock cart and put cap on the animalistic instinct of people. The extreme freedom of expression allows peoples to violate the law and create chaos in the system. The slow decision making create unnecessary hiccups in our development cycle. But deeper in the detail, one can see that problem is not with the democracy itself. Problem is not with the politics also. Problem lies at much basic level. After all, politics is general behavioral pattern of public and democracy is merely a template of behavior to public. Problem in India is that its society is failing itself. Politics is just a microscopic mirror of the social system. As a society we have failed each other. For instance, with all political will we launched demonetization but then as a society, we tried our best to assimilate and protect the black money hoarders and helped them turning their money into white. That's where we fail. Our law and order is very lenient. Our fatalistic attitude and forgotten principles of karma/duty results in chaos at traffic signal. The scale at which we need to execute our plans add another level of complexity in the whole system. Diversity in lifestyles further complicate the rule making and rule execution. One may ask, where lies the solution? Can we really wish for achche din? Can India or at least a part of it could be transformed into Dubai some day?
Yes is the only thought that comes to mind when one ponders over this question. The real question should have been when and how? But before that we need to answer why we think the answer to above questions is YES. The reason is democracy. Listen to any all India radio discussion at 9:30 Monday evening. One can hear people calling from remotest part of the India offering advices and giving suggestion over how should India go about the development and how can we succeed as a society. This is possible because we have democracy. Our people can be transformed into most law-abiding performance oriented people. All we need is strict law enforcement. The wisdom of democracy will soon take us to that path. But administration of such norms, rules and regulation is possible only with the spread of technology and education. This is the answer to how? The problem of India's woes lie in greater use of localized contextualized technology and educating our growing population with focus on specialization. UID is one very good initiative in this direction. Once in place fully, it can be panacea for most of our problems. People could be tracked and challaned for jumping traffic lights or peeing in public. All this is possible. Education will help in rectifying social system and help people in overcoming ethnic identities and local caste/class relations. And once achieved such status, it would be more sustainable because India is home to all sorts of natural resources and goods.
The development model of Dubai is standing on the sand. It sells dreams. It has created an ecosystem but the roots are not very deep. Contrary to it, in India roots are very deep. It is democracy. People have a sense of ownership. It is not subjected to whims and fancies of one good leader. We believe in institutions. But we have failed to give dreams to our population. We have failed to create an ecosystem. Time has come for us to work on our core competencies and utilize technology and education to reform two pillars of development i.e. law and order as well as society.
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