Political Ideologies, Chalfonts Community College (The ACT Building Resilience Project). September 2016 Robert Gabriel Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe First Prime Minister (1980– ) and President (1987– ) of Zimbabwe, born in Kutama, Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia). Largely self- educated, he became a teacher in 1942. After short periods in the National Democratic Party and Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), he was briefly detained, but escaped to co-found, with Ndabaningi Sithole, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). After a 10-year detention in Rhodesia (1964–74) he spent five years in Mozambique gathering support in preparation for Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. His ZANU and the ZAPU forces of Joshua Nkomo united in 1976 to form the Patriotic Front, and later, a coalition government. Though Mugabe formerly espoused a pragmatic Marxism and declared his intention of turning Zimbabwe into a one-party state, multi-party elections were held in 1990 (which he won), and his party dropped all references to ‘Marxism–Leninism’, and ‘scientific socialism’ from its constitution in 1991. He came to world attention in 2000 for initiating a land redistribution policy aimed at local white farmers, which resulted in intimidation, civil disturbance, some deaths, and much international condemnation. He won a fifth term in office in 2002, but controversy surrounding the election process led to Zimbabwe being suspended from the Commonwealth for a year, and following the decision to reaffirm the suspension in 2003 he announced that he would withdraw from the organisation. Political Ideologies, Chalfonts Community College (The ACT Building Resilience Project). September 2016 Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi, President of Yemen (Elected on Feb 21, 2012) Field Marshal Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi (born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician who is the President of Yemen since 27 February 2012. He was previously the Vice President from 1994 to 2012. Between 4 June and 23 September 2011, he was the Acting President of Yemen while Ali Abdullah Saleh was undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia following an attack on the presidential palace during the 2011 Yemeni uprising. Then, on 23 November, Al-Hadi became Acting President again, after Saleh moved into a non-active role pending the presidential election “in return for immunity from prosecution.” Al-Hadi was “expected to form a national unity government and also call for early presidential elections within 90 days” while Saleh continued to serve as President in name only. Hadi was born in 1945, in Thukain village in Abyan, a southern Yemeni governorate where armed men known as Ansar Al-Shariah have controlled the area since late May 2011. He graduated in 1966 after receiving a military scholarship to study in Britain, where he also learned to speak English. Then, in 1970, he received another military scholarship to study tanks in Egypt for six years. Hadi spent the following four years in Soviet Union studying military commanding. He occupied several military posts in the southern Yemen army until 1986, when he fled to Sana’a with Ali Nasser Mohamed, president of South Yemen at the time. He became Vice President of Yemen after Ali Salim Al-Beidh resigned and lost the civil war. Al-Hadi was appointed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh as Vice President on 3 October 1994. Before his appointment as Vice President, he was briefly the Minister of Defense. Hadi was the sole candidate in the presidential election that was held on 21 February 2012. His candidacy was backed by the ruling party as well as the parliamentary opposition. The Election Commission reported that 65 percent of registered voters in Yemen voted during the election. Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi took the oath of office in Yemen’s parliament on 25 February 2012. He was formally elected as the president of Yemen on 27 February 2012, when Saleh resigned from the presidency and formally ceded power to Hadi. From his early days at office, President Hadi advocated fighting Al-Qaida as an important goal. In a meeting with british foreign minister in his first days at office Hadi said “We intend to confront terrorism with full force and whatever the matter we will pursue it to the very last hiding place”. Another security issue he is busy with is the Yemeni military which suffers form a sharp division, since Major General Ali Mohsen Saleh defected in late March 2011 in the midst of protests demanding Saleh’s ouster. The military services protests extended to the Republican Guard – based in the south of Sana’a – when dozens from the Fourth Brigade closed down southern entrances to the capital city and demanded the firing of the brigade’s commander, Mohammad Al-Arar, and his general staff. Political Ideologies, Chalfonts Community College (The ACT Building Resilience Project). September 2016 Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi, was elected as the new President of the United Arab Emirates on 3rd November, to succeed his father, the late HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. On 18th September 1966, following his father’s assumption of the post of Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa was appointed as Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi and as Head of the Courts Department in Al Ain. Council oversaw the implementation of a wide-ranging development programme in Abu Dhabi, including the construction of housing, water supplies and other essential services, roads and the general infrastructure that led to the emergence of the city of Ab uDhabi as the modern city that it is today. Of particular importance in terms of ensuring that citizens were able to benefit from the country’s increasing wealth was the establishment by Sheikh Khalifa in 1981 of the Abu Dhabi Department of Social Services and Commercial Buildings, charged with the provision of loans to citizens for construction. Over Dh 35 billion have so far been lent by this Department, with over 6000 multi-storey buildings being constructed throughout the Emirate. The establishment of the Department, popularly known as the ‘Khalifa Committee’, followed another decision taken by Sheikh Khalifa in 1979 to alleviate the burden on citizens of the repayment of loans from the commercial banks. This involved a fixing of the interest rate payable by citizens of loans for construction at 0.5 per cent, with the balance of the interest being charged by the banks being paid by Government. A further step to ensure that citizens were able to build the properties that they needed, both for residential and for investment purposes, came with the creation by Sheikh Khalifa of the Private Loans Authority, early in 1991. By July of that year, only a few months after the Authority was created, 11,034 citizens had received loans amounting to Dh 11.15 billion. Earlier this year, he noted: “the United Arab Emirates is keen that its armed forces are on a par with developments in the military sphere elsewhere in the world, in particular in terms of planning, organisation, weaponry and training. We shall continue to strive for this, so that our armed forces attain the maximum efficiency possible.” His key objectives as the new President of the United Arab Emirates, he says, will be to continue on the path laid down by his father. In particular, he says, he will continue with the ‘open door’ policy and with the practice of holding regular consultations with the country’s citizens, so that he may become aware of, and follow up on, their needs and concerns. Political Ideologies, Chalfonts Community College (The ACT Building Resilience Project). September 2016 Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of South Sudan (since Jul 11, 2011) On July 9, 2011, South Sudan becomes an independent country. Salva Kiir becomes President. In the late 1960s, Kiir joined the Anyanya in the First Sudanese Civil War. By the time of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, he was a low-ranking officer. In 1983, when John Garang joined an army mutiny he had been sent to put down, Kiir and other Southern leaders joined the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the second civil war. Garang had little military field experience and relied upon the more experienced Anyanya veterans, including Kiir, to actually carry out the ground war. Kiir eventually rose to head the SPLA’s military wing. An attempt to remove Kiir from his post as SPLA chief of staff in 2004 nearly caused the organization to split. Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement formally ending the war in January 2005, which he had helped start, he was appointed Vice President of Southern Sudan. Perhaps significantly, former Southern Sudan president John Garang like Kiir is of the Dinka people, though of a different clan. After the death of Garang in a helicopter crash of 30 July 2005, Kiir was chosen to succeed to the post of First Vice President of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan. Kiir is popular among the military wing of the SPLM for his battlefield victories and among the populace for his unambiguous pro-secession stance. Comments by Kiir in October 2009 that the forthcoming independence referendum was a choice between being “a second class in your own country” or “a free person in your independent state” were expected to further strain political tensions. Reports in January 2010 that Kiir would not contest April elections for Sudanese president, but would focus on re-election as president of Southern Sudan were interpreted to mean that the SPLM priority is independence. Kiir was re-elected with 93% of the vote in the 2010 Sudanese election.