Though he had been unwell for some years, the passing away yesterday of Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, remembered by all as a visionary leader, has produced both shock and sadness among Kuwaitis, to whom all people of good will extend their sympathy at this difficult hour.
Sheikh Jaber ruled Kuwait for almost 30 years, having served ably, first as a minister and then prime minister. When he became emir in 1977, his most pressing task was overseeing the investment of considerably increased petrodollar flows with the arrival of realistic oil prices. He saw that Kuwait was too small a state to absorb such immense flows of wealth. He took the view that even though the emirate possessed some ten percent of known global oil reserves, it was essential that it take a truly long-term view. Thus the Fund for Future Generations was created, into which a fixed proportion of oil revenues has been invested each year. In addition, Sheikh Jaber ensured that Kuwait shared the blessing of oil wealth with less-fortunate countries, particularly in the Muslim world, principally via the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. Sheikh Jaber also shared the vision of ever-closer economic regional ties embodied in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
In 1990, long-standing threats from Iraq dating back to 1961 became an awful reality when Saddam Hussein sent his army into Kuwait. This betrayal by a neighboring Arab state, which Kuwait had supported loyally during its long and bitter war with Iran, seemed unbelievable. Despite preliminary saber rattling from Baghdad, no one really imagined Saddam would behave so treacherously. Even as they advanced in their hopeless mission to stem the massive invasion, officers in the Kuwaiti Army could still not believe that the attack was happening.
Sheikh Jaber and his government fled here to the Kingdom where they found refuge. When Saddam was driven out of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber returned to a country all too literally in flames, with government offices plundered, thousands of Kuwaitis brutalized, tortured, murdered or simply disappeared. With considerable efficiency and lack of fuss, he oversaw the daunting task of rebuilding a traumatized society.
The US-led invasion that destroyed Saddam’s ruthless regime was launched from Kuwait. However, it was a reflection of Sheikh Jaber’s generosity that once the hated dictator had fallen, Kuwait was among the first states to send aid to the ordinary people of Iraq, who had themselves been innocent victims of Saddam’s brutality. In time, Sheikh Jaber also offered to cut nearly $13 billion of the $18 billion debt Iraq owed Kuwait in compensation for the depredations perpetrated during the occupation. Interestingly this generous gesture still awaits ratification by the Parliament which Sheikh Jaber created as he moved Kuwait toward consultative democracy. He bequeaths his successor Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and his people a Kuwait that is strongly placed to face the challenges ahead of it and the region.
