Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi

Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi
غازي بن عبدالرحمن القصيبي
Minister of Labor
In office
13 April 2004 – 15 August 2010
Prime Minister King Fahd
King Abdullah
Preceded by Office established
Succeeded by Adel Fakeih
Minister of Water and Electricity
In office
September 2002 – April 2004
Prime Minister King Fahd
Preceded by Office established
Succeeded by Abdullah Al Hussain
Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland
In office
1992–2002
Prime Minister King Fahd
Preceded by Nasser Almanquor
Ambassador to Bahrain
In office
1984–1992
Prime Minister King Fahd
Minister of Health
In office
1983–1984
Prime Minister King Fahd
Preceded by Husain Aljazaeri
Succeeded by Faisal Alhujailan
Minister of Industry and Electricity
In office
1976–1983
Prime Minister King Khalid
Personal details
Born 3 March 1940
Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
Died 15 August 2010 (aged 70)
Riyadh
Resting place Al Oud cemetery
Nationality Saudi Arabian
Alma mater University of Cairo
University of Southern California
University College London
Religion Islam

Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi (Arabic: غازي بن عبدالرحمن القصيبي‎; 3 March 1940 – 15 August 2010) was a Saudi Arabian liberal politician, diplomat, technocrat, poet, and novelist. He was an intellectual and a member of the Al Gosaibi family that is one of the oldest and richest trading families of the Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Al Gosaibi was considered among Saudi Arabia's topmost technocrats since the mid-1970s. The Majalla called him the "Godfather of Renovation"[1] while Saudi journalist Othman Al Omeir argued that he was "the only great man in Saudi Arabia."[2]

Early life and education

Al Gosaibi was born on 3 March 1940 to one of the richest families of the Kingdom in Huffa located in Al Ahsa province.[3] The family was of Najdi origin.[4] His mother was from the "Kateb" family of Mecca. She died when he was aged nine months and he was raised by his grandmother.[5]

He received primary and secondary education in Bahrain which was a British protectorate during that time.[5][6] He attended the University of Cairo and received a degree in law in 1961. Later, he moved to the United States and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in international relations in 1964. He later finished his PhD in law at University College London in 1970; his PhD thesis was about the Yemen crisis which took place from 1962 to 1967.[5][7]

Career

Al Gosaibi began his career working as a lecturer at King Saud University in 1965.[5] He held various positions, including associate professor, dean of the faculty of commerce and head of the department of political science.[8] In 1965, he served as a legal consultant to the Saudi reconciliation committee; the job was related to negotiating with the Egyptian forces in Yemen.[5] He also served as the director general of Saudi Railways Organization in 1970,[3] chairman of Jubail Petrochemical Company (Sadaf) and Yanbu Petrochemical Company (Yanpet),[8] member on Public Investment Fund, Supreme Manpower Council,[8] and Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.[7]

Al Gosaibi was one of the technocrats in the 1970s who were chosen by the Saudi government for assigning public positions and posts.[9] In 1976, King Khalid appointed him the minister of industry and electricity,[10] and he held the position until 1983.[11] During his tenure, he established a state-controlled petrochemical firm, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) which he also headed in 1976.[4][12] He also served as the minister of health from 1983 to 1984.[11] He was removed from office without any explanation in 1984.[13] Then he served as the ambassador to Bahrain (1984-1992), and was subsequently appointed the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1992.[14] Al Gosaibi replaced Nasser Almanquor as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland following the latter's removal due to his support for the fatwa (religious decree) asking for the death of British writer Salman Rushdie.[15] In 1999, he nominated himself to serve for the post of director general of UNESCO.[16] However, he was not elected, and Japanese diplomat Koichiro Matsuura became the director general.[3] In the election, Matsuura won 34 votes, Al Gosaibi 13.[17] Al Gosaibi's term as Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland ended in September 2002.[7]

Next Al Gosaibi was appointed minister of water and electricity in mid-September 2002 when the ministry of agriculture and water was divided into two independent ministerial bodies;[18] his tenure lasted until April 2004.[19] During this period, Al Gosaibi was also appointed a board member of Saudi Aramco[20] and served in the post until October 2004.[21] King Fahd appointed him as the minister of labor on 13 April 2004 following the split of the labor and social affairs ministry into two.[19][22] He helped promote the national strategy of Saudization into practice and motivated private firms to employ a greater proportion of Saudi nationals.[23] He served in the post until his death in 2010,[7] and was succeeded by Adel Fakeih in the post.[24]

Al Gosaibi was a member of the honorary committee of Painting & Patronage from 2000 to 2010.[25] He also actively participated in the organization of its first and second programmes held in London in 2000 and Riyadh in 2001, respectively.[25]

Dismissals

Al Gosaibi, while serving as minister of health, was dismissed in 1984.[13] He had openly asked for and supported the transparent tendering for regional hospitals.[9] This criticism of Al Gosaibi targeted Saudi Oger, owned by late Rafik Hariri, who had been closely associated with King Fahd.[9] Since Al Gosaibi was not able to meet with King Fahd, he wrote a poem for the King, entitled "A Pen Bought and Sold".[9] The poem, which was published on the front page of Al Jazirah, indirectly accused the ruling elites, including Prince Sultan, then minister of defence, of corruption.[9][26] King Fahd fired him after reading the poem.[9]

Al Gosaibi was also removed from his post as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2002 due to his poem, a short verse entitled "You Are the Martyrs", in Al Hayat in mid-April, supposedly praising a Palestinian female suicide bomber.[3][27][28][29] The poem was allegedly dedicated to a Palestinian teenager, Ayat Akhras who blew herself up on 29 March 2002 in the Kiryat HaYovel supermarket in Jerusalem, resulting in death of two Israelis.[8] Al Gosaibi described her as the "bride of the heavens" who "stands up to the criminal" and "kisses death with a smile."[8] The poem also included critical views about the United States[29] and the Arab political and intellectual elite, who, for Al Gosaibi, did not assume any responsibility with regard to the Palestinian conflict.[6] Before his removal from his post by the Saudi government, Al Gosaibi had faced censure from the British government because of the aforementioned poem.[29]

Views

Al Gosaibi, as the minister of industry and electricity, stated in 1980 that American foreign policy was "self-doubt, isolative, and had a tendency to abdicate."[30] He also criticised the approach by US media to Saudi Arabia.[30] During his tenure as Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland, he described Osama bin Laden as "a human monster" in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the BBC's HARDtalk interview.[31] In 2002, he argued that the suicide bombers "died to honor God's word."[32] In response to the criticisms from Jewish groups over his poem, "You Are the Martyrs", he defended his position and accused Israel of "committing war crimes."[32] He also expressed his support for a two-state solution for the Palestinian conflict and the Saudi government-backed Arab peace initiative.[12] During the same period, he said "the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is worse than anything Europe experienced under Nazi Germany."[33]

He was an apparent critic of the Saudi conservative society.[3] He was an ally of King Abdullah in regard to his reform initiatives[34] and is known for his liberal religious views.[35] He was against terrorism and extremism and called for democratic reform in the Kingdom, although he argued that it needed to be a very gradual process.[32] He was labeled by radicals as “a Westerner, infidel, secular and a hypocrite”, and experienced a systematic and intense ideological campaign against him.[16] More specifically, Osama bin Laden called him in a taped message in 2006 a liberal fifth columnist.[36]

During his tenure as minister of labor, Al Gosaibi supported the idea that Saudi women should be offered more job opportunities.[27] He stated that Saudis were only interested in high-paying, easy jobs. He served hamburgers in 2008 for three hours at a Jeddah fast food restaurant, a job usually performed by non-Saudi workers. Later in a press conference, he told Saudi youth that this type of work was not dishonorable.[8] He warned against increasing racism among Saudis towards the millions of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia in 2008.[37] However, when a significant financial crisis affected all countries, in January 2009 he warned Saudi firms against exploiting the crisis as a reason for terminating Saudi nationals and suggested them to terminate foreign workers in the country.[38]

Literary works and other writings

Al Gosaibi was one of the best-selling writers in the Arab world and also, was a significant diplomat-poet.[39] He published nearly 40 books, most of which were the collections of his poems,[5] which provide "images of a simpler, desert culture."[27] His novels were mostly based on the topic of corruption, Arab alienation,[27] love, taboos and the condition of the Arab states.[6] In Freedom Apartment or An Apartment Called Freedom (1994), one of his most known novels, the theme is about the lives of four Bahrainis who left their homes for university education in Cairo in the 1960s.[3] The novel also reflects his own experience in Cairo.[1] Another novel, Sab‘ah (2003), is a "satire" and "depics the Arab reality through seven characters who have different ideas and works, and are flirting with the same woman."[1] A Love Story (2002) narrates the life of a novelist who is dying in a hospital bed, dreaming about the memories of his past love affair with a married woman.[28]

Al Gosaibi also published non-fiction books, including an autobiography, entitled Yes, (Saudi) Minister! A lifetime in Administration (1999)[5][40] and The Gulf Crisis that offers an insider’s account of the Arab reaction to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.[28] In addition, he wrote essays, focusing on the relations between the Arab and western world.[27] Some of his books, including An Apartment Called Freedom, were banned for a long time in Saudi Arabia.[36][41] The reason for the ban was that his works were often critical of ruling regimes in the region and included a satirical representation of social and political mores.[35] At the beginning of August 2010, just two weeks before his death, this ban was lifted due to his contributions to the country.[1][34]

His novels in Arabic are as follows:

Two of his novels were translated into English:[11]

In 1989, one of Al Gosaibi's poetry books was also translated into English by Anne Fairbairn in Australia, titled as Feathers and the Horizon.[42]

Personal life

Al Gosaibi married a German woman who was raised in Bahrain.[5][9] They had four children; one daughter and three sons.[5]

Death and funeral

Al Gosaibi underwent a surgery at Riyadh's King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the late July 2010.[43] He died of colon cancer at the age of 70 on 15 August 2010.[27][35] The funeral prayer for him was performed at Imam Turki Mosque, and acting Riyadh governor, Prince Sattam attended the funeral.[8] He was buried in Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh on the same day, on 15 August 2010.[44][45] His family also held another funeral service for him in Bahrain.[43]

Legacy

Asahrqia Chamber began to offer the Ghazi Al Gosaibi Award for the promising small and medium size companies, particularly in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The award is given biannually.[46] In April 2013, Al Waleed bin Talal Foundation-Global, headed by Prince Al Waleed, bought the house of Ghazi Al Gosaibi in Manama in Bahrain to renovate it.[47]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "The Godfather of Renovation Dies". The Majalla. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  2. ↑ "The Murdoch of the Middle East". The Majalla. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "In Memoriam: Ghazi al-Gosaibi, 70". University of South California. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hertog, Steffen (2008). "Petromin: the slow death of statist oil development in Saudi Arabia" (PDF). Business history 50 (5): 645–667. doi:10.1080/00076790802246087. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Al Jifri, Mohammed Ali (16 August 2010). "Ghazi Al Gosaibi". Saudi Gazette. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Labonté, Hanna (23 August 2010). "Saudi Man of Letters and Cautious Reformer". Qantara. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Mostyn, Trevor (24 August 2010). "Ghazi Al Gosaibi obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 "Al Gosaibi's passing leaves a literary void". MENAFN. 16 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 "Saudi reformer courted the king's attention with a poem". Brisbane Times. 30 August 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  10. ↑ "قصة-السعودية-مع-الوزراء-الثلاثينيين". Al Arabiya. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Ghazi Al Gosaibi (1940-2010)". Banipal. 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Al Qassemi, S. Sooud (16 August 2011). "Gosaibi Served the Public with Far More than His Pen". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Pfaff, Richard H. (1991). "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". In Tareq Youssief Ismael and Jacqueline Sidonia Ismael. Politics and government in the Middle East and North Africa. University Press of Florida. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-8130-1043-4. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  14. ↑ Eur (22 November 2002). The Middle East and North Africa 2003. Taylor & Francis. p. 949. ISBN 978-1-85743-132-2. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  15. ↑ Sadeh, Sharon (14 July 2002). "Saying as he pleases, wishing to do more". Haaretz (London). Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Shobokshi, Hussein (17 August 2010). "Ghazi Al-Gosaibi…. Under God's Protection". Asharq Alawsat. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  17. ↑ "Matsuura is new UNESCO chief". New Straits Times. 21 October 1999. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  18. ↑ The Middle East and North Africa 2003. Taylor & Francis Group. 2003. p. 953. ISBN 978-1-85743-132-2. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "King Fahd reshuffles Saudi cabinet". Middle East Online (Riyadh). 14 April 2004. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  20. ↑ "Key members of the Saudi Aramco Executive Management". APS Review Gas Market Trends. 27 October 2003. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  21. ↑ "Aramco's new faces". Europe Intelligence Wire. 4 October 2004. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  22. ↑ "Country Profile Kingdom of Saudi Arabia". Indonasia Embassy. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  23. ↑ "Former Jeddah Mayor Appointed Labor Minister Following the Death of H.E. Dr. Ghazi Al Gosaibi". US-Saudi Arabian Business Council. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  24. ↑ "Profile: New Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakieh". Asharq Alawsat. 21 August 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "Painting and Patronage offers condolences on the passing of Dr Ghazi Algosaibi". Painting and Patronage. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  26. ↑ Abir, Mordechai (April 1987). "The Consolidation of the Ruling Class and the New Elites in Saudi Arabia". Middle Eastern Studies 23 (2): 150–171. doi:10.1080/00263208708700697. JSTOR 4283169.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 "Saudi politician and poet Ghazi Algosaibi dies". BBC. 16 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 "Saudi Arabia's Minister of Labour dies, aged 70". Arabian Business. Bloomberg. 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 "Diplomat censured over bomb poem". BBC. 18 April 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Kempter, Norman (4 May 1980). "Saudi warning to American 'bigots'". The Age (Washington DC). Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  31. ↑ "Saudi Arabia warns of West-Islam split". BBC. 25 September 2001. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 El Deeb, Sarah (16 August 2010). "Ghazi Algosaibi, 70, dies; poet, author and Saudi Arabian cabinet member". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  33. ↑ Laville, Sandra (10 July 2002). "Israelis 'are worse than Nazis'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 "Saudi Arabia's labour minister Ghazi Al Gosaibi dies". The Telegraph. 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 "Ghazi Algosaibi, controversial writer and former Saudi Arabia ambassador, dies at 70". Los Angeles Times. 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 "Saudi Arabia ends ban on minister's books". Reuters (Riyadh). 1 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  37. ↑ "Saudi minister warns of racism towards foreign workers". ABS CBN News. AFP. 29 December 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  38. ↑ Allam, Abeer (28 April 2009). "The Rise in Protectionism or the Battle for the Jobs" (PDF). The Majalla 1517: 34. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  39. ↑ K,, Abhay (30 October 2012). "How diplomacy and poetry are linked". Rediff News. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  40. ↑ Craig, James (2000). "Middle East" (BOOK REVIEW). Asian Affairs 31 (1): 70–71. doi:10.1080/714041405. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  41. ↑ Saleh Ambah, Faiza (8 April 2004). "Banned Saudi novels thrive abroad - and at home". The Christian Science Monitor (Jeddah). Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  42. ↑ "Selling multicultural writers". The Age. 1 December 1989. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 "Former Saudi ambassador to Britain and renowned Arabic poet dies of stomach cancer". Fox News (Cairo). AP. 15 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  44. ↑ Jassim Alghamdi; Naif Masrahi; Maha Sami Aboulola (16 August 2010). "Ghazi Al Gosaibi dead". Saudi Gazette (Riyadh). Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  45. ↑ P. K. Abdul Ghafour; Muhammad Humaidan (18 August 2010). "King appoints Jeddah mayor as labor minister". Arab News (Jeddah). Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  46. ↑ "Conditions and Criteria for Ghazi Al Gosaibi Award by Asahrqia Chamber". Asharqia Chamber. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  47. ↑ "Invitation from Bahrain’s Crown Prince to Prince Al Waleed to Attend Formula-1 Race in Bahrain". Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud. 20 April 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013.