Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005
It does not do to speak evil of the dead. Nowhere is that more true than in the Arab press on Tuesday where the death of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia is the subject of prolonged obsequies that recall his pomp in the 1980s and early 1990s but where his failings are brushed over.
It helps that the two most widely syndicated Arab newspapers Al-Hayat and Asharq al-Awsat are both Saudi owned and unlikely to act as forum for criticism of senior Saudis, let alone a recently deceased king.
The absence of criticism is also a reflection of the fact that Fahd has not been in direct control of Saudi Arabia for most of the last decade and that there is little modern history in which the man figures.
Little mention is thus made of the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks in the US, which occurred under Fahd's watch. But nor is there any mention of his decision in 1990 to invite US and other allied troops to defend Saudi Arabia and eventually to recapture Kuwait. Corruption and a discredited educational system are nowhere to be seen in the coverage.
Instead columnists line up to praise the former king who succeeded to the throne in 1982 and whose death, after a long illness, was announced on Monday.
Abdul Rahman al-Rashid a columnist in Asharq al-Awsat, says that everyone has their own story about King Fahd. Mr Rashid recounts the late king's role as a minister of education who was responsible for sending many young Saudis abroad to complete their educations.
Radwan al-Said, a Lebanese writer, praises the efforts made by the old king to modernise and develop the Kingdom's infrastructure. His internal policy was aimed at building and stability. His foreign policy was aimed at preventing collapse of Arab power and limiting losses, Mr Said says.
Fahd was close to Rafiq al-Hariri, the recently assassinated Lebanese prime minister who made his fortune in Saudi Arabia.
Manah Saleh, a columnist in al-Hayat, in a piece headlined "A king who faced the greatest challenges" said that Fahd's greatest diplomatic coup came over Palestine. The piece recalls the Fez conference of 1982, held in the wake of the assassination of the Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, in which the late Saudi king took the then-historic step of admitting that peace with Israel was possible if certain conditions were met.
The website of the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite news channel, which has had frequent run-ins with the Saudi authorities, reports that Saudis are united in grief around Fahd's death. The great majority of the population of Saudi Arabia have known no other ruler other than Fahd.
The website notes in its obituary that it was only in 1986, approximately four years after his accession, that Fahd took the title of Guardian of the Two Holy Mosques in a move which most observers believe was intended to shore up the Saudi ruling family's religious credentials.
James Drummond
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