Muscat: A modern state built from scratch Oman’s Sultanate Capital

I was in London in August of 1970 when news spread that the sultan of Muscat in Oman, a state in the southeast of the Arabian peninsula, had been ousted and that his son, Qaboos, had replaced him.
The United Press International news agency, one of the top three in the world at the time along with Reuters and the Associated Press, called me to write a piece on Oman and wire it to their London office within the hour.
I was living in south Yemen at the time, who shared its eastern borders with Oman.
There was not much violence and the transition was supported by the British government, which was the then hegemonic power, as well as by what was later to become the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Sultan Qaboos, then in his twenties and a graduate of a British military academy called St. Hertz, was exiled to England, where he eventually died.
He was not widely mourned because be had been a low-profile sultan who had left Oman, one of the poorest states in the world with very little development, so much so that the very few foreigners who managed to go there later called it the “forbidden land.”
When I went there shortly after the peaceful coup, I found that there was an immense amount of work ordered by Sultan Qaboos and his foreign advisers, who included British officers. Such initiatives were being financed by money that his father had left untapped.
When I went back to Jeddah, I wrote several articles in this paper praising the good deeds of Sultan Qaboos, for which I received a cable of congratulations from the Ministry of Information.
My praise for him was genuine since the reconstruction of Oman had commenced practically from nothing. Foreigners were filing into the country to take part in the incredible activity taking place, in addition to the influx of people coming in from the UAE. Good hotels were built in the space of a few months, of which at least one was a five-star hotel perched on a hill overlooking the capital.
Sultan Qaboos was visiting the sites himself and listening to suggestions and complaints while sitting and reclining on his cane.
He was gaining popularity because the masses found that he was available and approachable, although he abstained from giving press interviews since there was not much to say at that stage.
A daily Arabic newspaper and another English-language newspaper, hitherto unheard of, were supplying news that was worth publishing, with British and Arab journalists helping to bring important events to the forefront.
Naturally, circulation was then limited to a few thousand copies, mainly subscribed to by the government, but I could see that they were on the right track and may one day become very good newspapers.
I was fortunate to have had two good friends whom I had known back in Aden in the south of Yemen.
One was the then Deputy Minister of Information, Abdul Aziz Alrawas, who later became information minister and has since retired, although we are still in touch.
The other was my cousin, Dr. Muhammad Sultan, chief of the Al-Nahtha Hospital, the leading hospital in Oman.
He was a consultant specialist who achieved great success partly because of his arrival in Oman fairly early on.
Alrawas opened a window of opportunity for me and provided me with a car and driver to take me to the outskirts up to Nizwa, while Dr. Sultan put me in touch with some of his prominent friends in various fields.
At that time, Muscat was still being built and the sultan was extremely busy, so I did not request a special interview, but preferred to travel nearby.
The rebellion in the Dhofar province adjoining south Yemen, which was under Marxist rule through Soviet and Chinese assistance, was getting serious despite help from the British.
It was then that the sultan sought additional help from Iran, then under the Shah’s rule, who willingly sent several thousand troops and enhanced weaponry and financed the construction of roads to make the fight easier.
Within a few years, he had succeeded and crushed the rebellion, pushing the rebels back to south Yemen and forcing the Russians and the Chinese to stop meddling in Oman’s affairs.
From that time forward, it was reconstruction all the way, beginning from Dhofar to the capital, which is now a lovely city of nearly one million inhabitants.
Almost every building, public and private, was practically brand new simply because the whole city was built from scratch.
The sultan had decided to use the money available in the state treasury on development instead of stashing it in government coffers uselessly.
At the same time, he adhered to a policy of moderation both inside and outside the country, which presently has no enemies and is on good terms with all its neighbors, including Iran.
He is a man of very few words and makes no statements except on a few occasions. Although he does not smile much, he is keen on meeting with his own people in their neighborhoods, usually sitting on the floor or on the sand dunes holding his famous cane.
Oman is a modern state that is well-planned and cleaner than many other countries I have visited so far.
It has good hospitals, inside one of which I was persuaded to give up smoking after years of addiction, good schools and roads and a vibrant social life like Dubai and Bahrain.
Although poor by comparison with others in the region, with an oil production capacity of just over 700,000 barrels, it has a limited population of under three million, so most of its inhabitants live fairly well and peacefully.

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