DAVOS, 2 February — The Swiss ski resort of Davos, where the World Economic Forum has been holding its annual sessions for the past 31 years, could be described as a journalist’s paradise. At any given moment you have a dozen world leaders roaming the labyrinthine hallways of the Congress Center, looking for someone to talk to.
The other day I saw a Central Asian potentate sitting in a corner wearing the forlorn look of an abandoned child. “Would you like to talk to me?” he said as I saluted him on my way upstairs.
That reminded me of the efforts I had had to make many years ago to obtain an interview with him in his far-away capital where he is treated as a medieval khan, haughty and inaccessible.
In Davos, however, he is just a face in the crowd. And this is, perhaps, why some of the more egocentric leaders shun the forum like plague. Some political leaders who come here don’t get a chance to make an impression.
They are often presented at private luncheon functions that in the end are attended only by members of their own entourage. An African head of state canceled his “tea-and-sympathy” session when he was told that no one had registered to attend.
George Papandereou, the Greek foreign minister, was unhappy because he had come all the way to make a five-minute speech. Algerian Finance Minister Abdel-Latif Benachenhou was even worse off. Having come all the way he was allowed time just to ask a question from the floor.
Political leaders alone do not haunt Davos’ corridors. This year the chief executives of more than 500 of the world’s top firms were present. I have bumped into Bill Gates so many times, always by accident, that he may think I was doing it deliberately.
Tackling Davos is no easy task for any political and business leader. The annual occasion attracts most of the world’s top columnists plus scores of star-reporters. Try to distill the diplomatic double-talk and you end up with dozens of negative articles in the world’s most influential newspapers.
The kind of grilling that the leaders get at private sessions with columnists, usually held late at night, could turn into a funeral pyre for disingenuous politicians. A faux pas could make you lose much of the good will that your government may have won over the year.
While many stars are chasing stargazers at Davos, there are some who shun unwanted attention and take care to weigh every word , turning taciturnity into political art.
This year the chief practitioner of that art was Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali ibn Ibrahim Al-Naimi, who was called by one journalist as a ‘natural charmer’. Even until the last minute conference organizers were not sure that he would turn up.
“We have been inviting him since the 1980s before he became minister,” says one organizer. “Each year, however, we have been disappointed by his decision not to attend.”
This year, however, Al-Naimi did turn up, apparently because of his government’s decision to promote its new economic reform policies at the forum. But even then Al-Naimi observed a carefully choreographed presence, said exactly what he had planned to say, and made sure that no one could get an extra words out of him.
He was featured in two key sessions. At one session over dinner he briefed the world’s leading columnists on the current state of the global energy market. All that, however, was off-the-record, depriving those present of the precious quotes that add authority to any article.
One Canadian lady columnist was close to tears. “Please let me quote one sentence,” she pleaded with Al-Naimi. “I came all the way from Toronto to get your view on the Canadian project to extract oil from tar-sands. Give me a quote and I will get a headline.”
The Saudi minister was polite and soothing but still unwilling to give the beseeching lady what she wanted. “He broke her heart,” commented William Safire, the New York Times columnist who witnessed the scene.
Al-Naimi denies that he is uncomfortable with the media. “There are two kinds of people in the media,” he says. “There are those who want to grab a quote, which they usually twist, so that they can telephone editors and get a headline. Then there are those genuinely interested in your point of view. I only try to avoid the first type.”
Al-Naimi’s second appearance was in a panel dealing with the prospects of the global energy market. While other panelists, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez and British Petroleum Chairman John Browne, spoke ex-tempore, Al-Naimi read from carefully prepared notes. When it came to the question-and-answer part of the session, he kept coming back to the points he had already developed. It was clear that he had come to Davos to pass a number of carefully crafted messages and would not let himself be dragged into issues that he did not wish to tackle.
When a British columnist asked a question loaded with speculative energy, Al-Naimi responded with his dry sense of humor. “There are too many ifs in your question for one man to handle,” he said.
During the Najdi dinner party organized by the Saudis at the Congress Hall, Al-Naimi was ready to talk about the various kinds of dates served and the special qualities of Arabian coffee. When it came to oil, however, he would simply repeat the notes he had on his own hymn sheet.
Al-Naimi also attended the Saudi lunch designed to attract foreign investors. But he did not feature in the panel, preferring to sit among the guests.
Al-Naimi’s taciturnity hides an inner toughness that is revealed when the more complex issues are discussed. The low profile he keeps seems to be part of a broader strategy to counter the perception, especially in the West, that OPEC is an arrogant power bloc.
Unlike his famous predecessor Ahmad Zaki Al-Yamani who pretended to have all the answers, Al-Naimi does not hesitate to say “I simply don’t have the answer to that one,” whenever he deems fit.
He avoids lecturing others on what they should do to help stabilize the old market but does not hesitate to draw attention to the fact that consumers have as important a role to play, if not more, as the producers.
“The guy is a natural charmer,” says David Gergen, editor of the US News and World Report. The way he talks he makes us feel that OPEC is doing us a favor by raising oil prices.
