Washington Report, April 2006, pages 44-45

Special Report

Death of Kuwait’s Emir: Celebration of a Legacy and the End of an Era

By Peter C. Valenti

“AMONG the shortcomings of mankind is that they don’t commemorate their living until after their death,” remarked Dr. Muhammad al-Aboodi in his Jan. 25 column in Kuwait’s al-Taleea. What prompted him to reflect on this, Al-Aboodi explained, was that “between the two eids [Islamic holidays] and in the space of 365 days, death has taken five of the great Arab leaders who have played an important role in shaping the history of their countries and in determining the progress of their peoples, each in his own special way, Zayid, Arafat, Fahd, Maktoum and Jabir.”

With the Jan. 15 death of Emir Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah, a man born in 1926 and who had ruled Kuwait since 1977, some Arabs are witnessing what could be described as the ending of an era. The emir of Dubai, Maktoum ibn Rasid Al Maktoum, who was also the UAE’s prime minister and vice president, died on Jan. 4, 2006, while Zayid ibn Sultan Al Nahyan, president of the UAE and emir of Abu Dhabi, died in November 2004 (see March 2005 Washington Report, p. 41), as did Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. King Fahd ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia died in August 2005.

If we push the time frame back a decade, the list of longtime Arab leaders who have died expands even more. Syria’s President Hafez Al-Assad died in June 2000, while 1999 saw the deaths of King Hussein of Jordan, Emir Isa ibn Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and Morocco’s King Hassan II. If we add the category “transitions from power,” the number of countries affected grows to include Qatar, which saw long-reigning Emir Khalifa ibn Hamad al-Thani deposed in 1995 by his son Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani, and the famous overthrow in 2003 of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein—leaving only three leaders of this era alive and in power: Sultan Qaboos of Oman, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.

Obviously, al-Aboodi was writing in the aftermath of the death of Kuwait’s much beloved Emir Jabir al-Sabah. Nor is it difficult to see why Kuwaitis felt so much grief and a personal connection with their emir. “He led this nation during the blackest and most difficult circumstances that were to befall the history of Kuwait,” reminded Ali Muhammad Khajah in his Jan. 25 op-ed in al-Taleea. “Whether during the domestic disturbances of the 1980s or during the ordeal of [Iraqi] occupation in 1990 to the phase of liberation and rebuilding,” Khajah recounted, “progressing to the return of parliamentary life in 1992 and participation in liberating Iraq from its destructive regime, and as a grand finale [by his] firmly rooting Kuwaiti democracy in establishing the political rights of women” Jabir stood steady at the helm of leadership.

The personal dimension of the relationship Kuwaitis enjoyed with their emir, who many reported to be very accessible, always smiling and a humble man, is well represented by Nayif Badr al-Utaybi, who unabashedly stated in his Jan. 25 al-Taleea op-ed that “the members of the Kuwaiti family [had] at their head their father Jabir—yes, they are the children and grandchildren of Jabir, as for a long time we have said ‘Baba Jabir’ and not ‘His Highness the Emir.’”

Al-Aboodi’s op-ed also celebrated Kuwait’s achievements, which is of course homage to Jabir’s legacy as emir. “We are not surprised that Kuwait is one of the first Arab nations which established its political system on the foundation of Shura—or as the West has dubbed it, democracy.” 

As these sentiments reveal, for nearly four decades Jabir personally embodied the state of Kuwait. Indeed, many Kuwaitis have known only Jabir as their leader. This means that Jabir left big sandals to fill.

Upon Jabir’s death, his cousin, Crown Prince Sa’d al-Abdullah al-Salim al-Sabah, was elevated to emir. However, it became quite evident that Sa’d, who is 76 and quite ill, did not seem capable of taking over the reins of power. As the week progressed, and Emir Sa’d still had not even taken the oath of office, talk turned to political action. After some political wrangling inside the ruling al-Sabah family, in consultation with major political figures, a vote was held in the Kuwaiti parliament. All 50 members, as well as the country’s 15 cabinet members, voted to elevate Prime Minister Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah as emir. Even as the parliamentary proceedings were underway, word arrived from Sa’d that he officially abdicated.

Though the political scene changed “180 degrees,” as Iqbal al-Ahmad noted in his Jan. 25 op-ed in Kuwait’s al-Qabas, “we didn’t see one tank in any street as a precaution or out of fear of any emergency.”

Welcoming the smooth resolution of the crisis, Basam al-Asusi best articulated the sentiments expressed by other Kuwaitis. In his Jan. 25 column in al-Taleea, the Kuwaiti lawyer explained that “In my assessment, any stage or measure or step [taken] away from the constitution and from the law will bring down the Emirate [of Kuwait]. To be precise, firstly, it wouldn’t be in the interest of the country and secondly neither in the interest of the ruling family.”

Many writers applauded one man in particular who worked to diffuse the crisis. This was Speaker of Parliament Jasim al-Khurafi. As Ahmad Barrak al-Haifi remarked in his Jan. 31 op-ed in Kuwait’s al-Watan, al-Khurafi “steered [through] the crisis with confidence, ability, optimism and judiciousness until the ship arrived at safe shores, with the grace of God.”

Isam Abd al-Latif al-Falij had much praise for Kuwait’s new Emir Sabah. As al-Falij posited at the beginning of his Jan. 31 op-ed in al-Watan: “His Highness the Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah has been in a position to convey the country through numerous hurricanes, that would have all but destroyed it, to shores of safety throughout his years of holding office as prime minister and representing it.” Sabah’s gaining the office of emir, al-Falij concluded, was analogous to “harvesting the fruit of what he has been engaged in doing these past 50 years on behalf of [his] tireless political work.”

Added Qatar’s al-Raya approvingly in its Jan. 25 editorial, “Sheikh Sabah is well-known for his reformist positions in the political and economic planes, and he enabled—after a long struggle—the passing of the law in parliament granting women their political rights.”

The al-Raya editorial also congratulated Kuwait on its constitutional resolution to the crisis, a sentiment echoed in newspapers around the region. The lead editorial in the United Arab Emirates’ al-Bayan of Jan. 25 put the situation in perspective: “Kuwait, with its pioneering [political] experiment and rich constitutional traditions, has been able to peacefully deal with political problems.” According to al-Bayan, “the result of this experiment has been the accumulation of [political] gains and the condition of domestic stability.”

Many writers elucidated the moral of the tale of Kuwait’s smooth transition of power. In his Jan. 26 Asharq al-Awsat column, Husayn Shubukshi was quite blunt in his assessment: “the Kuwaiti scenario, especially regarding political succession, is a candidate for repetition in more than one Arab nation.”

Peter C. Valenti, a free-lance writer and translator, teaches Islam and modern Middle East history at New York’s New School University.

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