When King Faisal was assassinated in the winter of 1975, I had just moved to the Lebanese magazine Al-Isboua Al-Arabia (Arab Week). The news of the king's death shocked us as it did the rest of the world. The magazine was about to go to press on its usual weekly date but we decided to send a photographer to Riyadh for a picture we could use on the painful occasion. The next day the photographer came back with a collection of general photos from the funeral. Because of the overcrowding, the photographer had been unable to take closeups.
We quickly examined the photos. I found among them a shot showing ordinary Saudis hurrying in large numbers to bid farewell to their leader. The photo looked more like an oil painting. Our caption for the photo was "Continuity". That caption and the photo would come to my mind every time a Saudi leader died. Absence caused by death is saddening, despite our strong belief in destiny. But the normal continuity of the country’s affairs is reassuring, no matter how difficult the time. The absence of Prince Naif is not just an ordinary one. He was a man of safety, not security. He used to describe himself as a man of development, not change. Development is a duty. The Ministry of Interior has a single duty, which is to protect this stability. During the time of Prince Naif as the head of the Interior Ministry, Saudi Arabia and the Arab nation faced the most difficult of crises. Prince Naif was very stern and at the same time very tolerant and flexible. He punished when it was inevitable to do so and rewarded generously when reward was the most useful thing do. He was thoroughly implementing the Qur'anic verse: "Every soul draws the need of its acts and none but itself."
People thought the late Prince was a tough man. Those who were close to him saw in him a man of vision who had much respect for the law. He often proudly said: "No single criminal will escape justice, no injustice will ever be done to an innocent and any repentant will be rewarded and embraced."
Prince Naif was a statesman in every sense of the word before he was anything else. He was characterized by his wide vision, broadmindedness and tolerance. For him, the Kingdom's internal situation was linked to what was happening outside. When it came to the Kingdom's relationships with other countries, he was guided by realism regardless of his personal feelings or views.
He was not concerned much with his image of firmness but was rather concerned with concept of commitment to principles and linking security to justice. Behind all this, he was humbly concealing his character as an avid reader, an intellectual and a close follower of the world‘s current affairs.
Prince Naif felt pained by injustice, he often repeated a favorite phrase: "By what God's right" do they do this or that. When the Arab crises worsened, he would advise Arab leaders to use wisdom instead of harshness. In the conferences of Arab interior ministers, he was always the voice of "scrutiny not investigation." He would always say: "Security would be achieved not by tightness but by wideness."
Saudi Arabia has lost an important pillar and a big man. Arabs will remember what it meant to leave security in the hands of the princes, especially at this difficult and dramatic stage.
- Courtesy of Ashraq Al-Awsat