King Fahd bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, fifth King of Saudi Arabia, died yesterday. He was born in 1922, occupied ministerial positions for a decade, became crown prince in 1972 and acceded to the throne in 1982.

Prior to becoming king, he was considered a modernizer. Observers believed that he would transform the kingdom from an absolute feudal monarchy to a modern state. This did not come to pass and his rule was marked by serious challenges to his family within Saudi Arabia, regionally and internationally. Undoubtedly, the appearance of some of these challenges was part of an inevitable historical process but others resulted from Fahd’s behaviour.

Although he managed to maintain his family’s primacy there has been  considerable erosion in their popularity and their ability to  control the oil rich country for a long time is now in doubt. The internal problems were accompanied by a decline in the influence of Saudi Arabia in Arab, Muslim and international circles.

Within the country, among the major problems has been an increase in the already unacceptable level of corruption. Fahd expanded the monopoly on power by the male members of his family by permitting them an unchecked participation in trade. Before him, they were the governors of all the country’s provinces, generals in the army and they occupied over half of the ministerial posts and  ambassadorships  to most major countries including the US and the UK. Under him they became agents for most of the major corporations in the world, wielding influence unavailable to others.

Fahd’s youngest son, Prince Abdel Aziz, became an advisor to the government with the rank of cabinet minister at the age of 23. Another son, Prince Mohammed, is governor of the oil rich Eastern Province. Both have been accused of realizing huge commissions on arms and other commercial deals. The commissions are in the billions of dollars. A third son once wrote his father asking for a $300 million supplement to his salary.

Beyond expanding family controls of the country and paying little attention to corruption, Fahd had an uneasy relationship with his half brother Crown Prince Abdullah. Fahd himself belonged to a family within the larger House of Saud family, the seven full brothers of Hasa Al Sudeiry , the ones dubbed the Sudeiri seven. In addition to Fahd’s position as Protector of Islam’s holy shrines in Mecca and Medina and decider of all things (waley al amr) his full brothers occupied the ministries of Interior and Defence and many less important posts.

Because Fahd favoured his full brothers over Abdallah and wanted one of them to be King, his relations with Abdallah were always cool. The resulting struggle within the family weakened their grip on the country without producing results towards wealth sharing and taking steps towards democratization. The rest of the family resented the Sudeiri monopoly on power and backed Abdallah.

For most of Fahd’s twenty ----- on the throne, the desert kingdom finances were in shambles and the treasury reported a deficit for 17 of the last twenty years. This meant the House of Saud  could not buy the silence of  its critics at home. In the 1970s and 80s money was used as an instrument of governance.

The country’s financial problems lead to a precipitous decline in per capita income, from $16,000 to $4,800. Unemployment among recent college graduates rose to over 20 per cent. Health, education and social security services were affected adversely. Even the once-prosperous merchant class turned against the royal household because members of family infringed on their ability to win government contracts. All attempts at fixing the situation which started with the decline of oil prices in 1982 have been shallow and insufficient, including a municipal election which disenfranchised women and saw the royal family field its own candidates.

Much the same thing happened regionally. Saudi Arabia’s influence depended on its ability to buy the silence and support of other Arab countries. This was especially true of the PLO and small countries such as Lebanon and Somalia. The failure to buy the silence of others produced drastic results. For example Saudi Arabia had to forsake the Fahd plan to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict because the PLO no longer listened to the House of Saud.

On the international arena, Fahd followed a solidly pro-American policy. Until the fall of the Soviet Union the cornerstone of this policy was opposition to what the Saudi government called ‘godless Communism.’ In Afghanistan, The Horn of Africa, the Gulf and even in Central America Saudi Arabia sponsored American policies aimed at halting the spread of Communism, much to the annoyance of Saudis and fellow Arabs and Muslims who wanted  more attention paid to their problems.

In addition to opposition to Communism, Saudi Arabia opposed the growing radical Islamic movements after it supported them in Afghanistan and after they turned against the House of Saud and America. However, it still followed the tenets of conservative Islam. When the Khomeini revolution in Iran overthrew of the Shah and began to pose a threat to Saudi Arabia, Fahd backed Saddam Hussein of Iraq when the latter invaded Iran (first as crown prince and strongman of Saudi Arabia then as King). The exact extent of Saudi Arabia financial support for Saddam is not known but it is estimated at $40 billion. In addition to that, Saudi Arabia fronted for Saddam  and bought him arms from the West.

But, unlike some of his brothers, Fahd rightly saw Saddam Hussein’s 1989 invasion of Kuwait as something that should be resisted by force. His support for the American military effort to eject Saddam from Kuwait was unqualified and he allowed his country to be used as a staging area for the anti-Saddam coalition forces. This earned him the condemnation of religious clerics who opposed the idea of Muslims fighting Muslims as well as others who opposed the stationing of American troops on holy Muslim soil. But he remained unmoved.

Fahd’s contribution to the first Gulf War went beyond siding with the US. Saudi Arabia was one of the major financial backers of the military campaign against Saddam and it did underwrite the participation of many countries. The cost to the Saudi treasury was $65 billion. Coupled with a drastic decline in oil income in the mid 1980s, the costs of supporting Iraq against Iran and the first Gulf War  left Saudi Arabia  on the edge of financial disaster.

For most of the period between the first Gulf War in 1991 and now King Fahd was  incapacitated by a stroke and confined to a wheelchair. He was grossly overweight and suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure and a number of orthopaedic problems. A former American diplomats who visited him reported that his mind was vacant and he was unable to deal with the affairs of the state.

Fahd’s incapacitation focused attention on Saudi Arabia’s unwieldy succession process. For most of the time since Fahd’s incapacitation the country was run by an ad hoc committee made up of Fahd’s full brothers, Prince Sultan The Defence Minister, Prince Nayyef the Minister of the Interior and Prince Salman the head of the Family Council. Eventually, however, Prince Abdallah, crown prince and half brother, overcame his exclusion from power and assumed most of the responsibilities of Fahd.

The big question now is whether Abdallah will be allowed to assume the full power of a King. He took exception to his brothers’ support of America in the Second Gulf War . But the control of  so much of the tribal apparatus running the country by Fahd’s full brothers and their sons and their opposition to Abdallah makes it doubtful he will have a free hand in running the desert kingdom.

Abdallah’s problems with the Sudeiri family within the Saud family have to be seen in conjunction with his relations with the US. Under Fahd, Saudi –US relations were so close they couldn’t get closer. But Abdallah harbors a lack of trust in America and is likely to pull the two countries apart.

The succession problem, consequent power struggle and the uneasy relations with America come at a time of open insurgency against the House of Saud by extremist Islamic fundamentalists. Shoot outs between the security forces and militants have become routine. There have been a number of attacks of major American installations in Riyadh, Khobar and other cities. Suspicion lurks that the country’s security apparatus has been has been infiltrated by militants. Even Saudi women, have found their voice and a year ago, 15000 of them marched in open defiance of their government to renounce the pro-Israeli policies of the Bush administration.

Abdallah, 82 and himself in poor health, does have few things going for him. He has not been tainted by corruption like Fahd and others of his family and he is popular with the religious ulemas and tribes. However, he is unlikely to be able to change the corrupt behaviour of his family or move Saudi Arabia from America’s orbit of influence- the two demands of the militants.

In fact, Abdallah is unlikely to have the impact of Fahd regardless of how hard he tries. First, time is against him – he can’t match Fahd’s term on the throne. Secondly, a cohesive part of his family, the Sudeiris,  are against him and they are unlikely to put ‘the national interest’ ahead of tribal instincts. They will oppose him regardless. Thirdly, America will not give him open-ended support because he opposed the invasion of Iraq and because of its new pro-democracy stand. Furthermore, fundamentalists are growing in popularity.

Fahd presided over the most absolute feudal monarchy in history. He personally made the decision to support America in Afghanistan and against Iraq when Saddam invaded Kuwait. He increased the family budget until it, at one point, amounted to $6 billion and claimed up to 20% of the oil income. Instead of marrying any times, he took on several mistresses and showered them with lavish gifts. He was a gambler who lost $6 million in one night in the Casino in Monte Carlo. He approved the largest arms dual in recorded history, Yamani II with a value of £140,000 billion. Knowing full well that his soldiers couldn’t use most of the sophisticated military equipment. His major innovation in nthe field of family behaviour is to have mistresses instead of marrying so many times. In fact, for over 20 years Fahd has been an embarrassment to family and friends.

One cannot but think long term and wish King Abdallah ‘Allah bless’. The alternative to Abdallah is the amazingly popular is Osama bin Laden.

© Said K Aburish