From controversy traps to assassination attempts - these are the "penalties" of success; Rafik Hariri knew it all. He was gradually emerging as the Middle East's leading media baron, and had set up television networks and bought into Lebanese and Arab newspapers. To offset assassination plots he had elaborate security arrangements.
Hariri is dead. The man who led Lebanon's reconstruction after the 15-year-long civil war was aware of his vulnerability. If he had the popular vote to lead Lebanon's reconstruction, he also enjoyed Washington's support and perhaps Israel's confidence in seeking greater autonomy from Syria. Hariri also had powerful detractors within Lebanon's military- dominated establishment, within the old guard in Damascus, the anti-US and anti-Israeli armed groups in the region and even among the old thinkers within the Israeli establishment. One of them finally "got him."
Hariri was Lebanon's poster-boy for a rag-to-riches story. The son of a small farmer in Lebanon, he went to Saudi Arabia to work when he was 21 years old. From accounting jobs to working in a construction company, from a foreigner to a citizenship in 1978, and from scarcity to amazing abundance, by the early 1980s, Hariri had become one of the 100 richest men in the world and his business empire expanded to include a network of banks in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, as well as companies in insurance, publishing, light industry, and other sectors. He headed Solidaire - the multibillion-dollar construction company and died as one of the world's richest men.
In 1979, Hariri founded the Islamic Institute of Higher Education in his native town of Sidon. That same year, he established the Hariri Foundation for Culture and Higher Education, which has paid the tuition fees for thousands of Lebanese students at universities in Lebanon, Europe and the United States. At Harvard University he invested millions and instituted the Rafik Hariri chair of Professor of International Political Economy.
Hariri's immense political clout matched his economic power. Powerful connections with the Lebanese and Syrian elite saw him return to Lebanon as the technocrat prime minister in 1992.
His first stint as prime minister ended by 1998. The Lebanese economy was on the verge of catastrophe and the Syrians began to see Hariri as a liability. Hariri's economic mismanagement led to an increase in Lebanon's national debt from $2.5 billion to $18.3 billion, and shrinking of economic growth from 8% in 1994 to under 2% in 1998. During his tenure in office, Hariri became Lebanon's largest real estate owner. However his 1998 exit led to worsening of the economic situation.
In 2000 Hariri came back as prime minister. If Washington engaged him and the Saudis trusted him Hariri reached out to the Iranians. In 2003, for the first time in 25 years an Iranian president visited Beirut on the invitation of Hariri. "President Khamenei represents moderate Islam," he had said welcoming his guest.
Although less acknowledged, Hariri also qualifies as the poster-boy for Middle Eastern political pragmatism. A man who had vigorously cultivated his Syrian base in the eighties and nineties had begun distancing from Damascus by 2000. Last September the political controversy over the Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud led to Harriri's resignation.
The Lahoud issue heightened the polarization over the Syrian connection. Washington played its card with French and Algerian support. In September UNSC resolution 1559 called for withdrawal of Syrian troops. Hariri resigned as prime minister. He supported the withdrawal call.
Meanwhile the Hariri assassination will gravely damage the thirty-year-old Syria-Lebanon connection. Indeed his death may mark the unraveling of this three-decade old connection that had far-reaching strategic implications for the entire region. Israel is likely to benefit the most from this unraveling.
