(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)
Published: Sun 6 Feb 2022, 11:23 AM
One could hardly miss the grief in the eyes of Emirati diplomat Omar Saif Ghobash 44 years after his father was assassinated in a terrorist attack in Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Omar was only six when his father Saif Ghobash, the UAE's first Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was killed by a bullet that was targeting his guest, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, in 1977.
The trauma, he reveals, has haunted him ever since.
“I was an aggressive, violent and angry child. I did not know why,” says Omar, the UAE's Assistant Minister for Culture and Public Diplomacy, while speaking of his upcoming novel at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
The novel, tentatively named 25/10 - the date of his father's death - imagines the late diplomat's final hours in first person, leading up to the moment he was shot, and picturing his take on today's events from the afterlife in a mix of satire and fiction.
Omar's second book, after Letters to a Young Muslim, captures his ability to deal with grief, trauma and pain of loss, and depicts the profound impact his father's loss had in shaping his character today as a diplomat, author and businessman.
The father of four knew the choices he had early on, and building a better future for himself, his family and his nation was one of them.
Leading a long successful career in diplomacy as a former UAE ambassador to France and Russia, Omar stands out for the depth of his character, intellect and advocacy of arts, culture and literature.
His subtle humour, humility and effortless ability to connect with different cultures stand out in his public appearances. Raised in a mixed-race family, tolerance and acceptance of differences form the core of his character.
Calm and laid back, he brings a charismatic presence and wisdom in his words, often marked with a subtle emotion that rises in the form of tears in his eyes once the topic of his father's demise comes up, even though he is 50.
Writing, Omar says, has served as the medium through which he channels his anger and delves into his trauma.
“The desire to forget the past is rooted in Arab culture. We always want to move forward, but I worry that if we aren't looking at the past, rethinking and retrieving, then we are not building the future.”
“For me to be able to piece together a narrative of what he did, provided me with tremendous satisfaction.”
In a way, it has made him more compassionate, he says.
“People always speak of compassion and empathy. But if you are not delving into your own trauma and other people's trauma, how real is that?”
Turning points
Growing up to a Russian mother and four siblings - three brothers and a sister - Omar says a fierce fight at school and ranking last in class were the first incidents that transformed his path.
“In weekly rankings at the International School of Choueifat, where I studied, I came last. I scored 3/20 in an exam, and my colleague who scored 18/20 was deeply upset. That was when I started studying hard to rank among the top five in my class.”
He was 25 when he started the journey of penning down his father's final day - an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of his father's life and the choices he made.
The demise of Saif Ghobash came at a critical stage in his son's life and the nation's journey. The country had announced the union six years earlier and Ras Al Khaimah, his hometown, had joined the federation in 1972. Saif had big plans and ambitions for his nation when he died at the age of 43.
“Back then, I used to think that 43 is old, but when I turned 43, I realised life was just starting for me,” Omar reflects.
Birthdays have been the markers of Omar's life. At the age of 43, he released his first book, Letters to a Young Muslim, which was hailed for its thought-provoking stance against the rising threat of Islamic extremism. It was dedicated to his son, whom he named Saif, after his own father.
Now at the age of 50, which he celebrated a few months before the UAE's Golden Jubilee, Omar is reflecting on the power of choice in his new novel through his father's imagined life, taking it as a drive to carry on the mission.
“[The novel] is about how short life is, narrated through the choices my father could have made. He wanted to be a man of justice, not a man of politics, and he stood by these values and choices.”
“I suspect he would say I wish I had focused on myself rather than society that is already going a certain way.”
Joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in his mid-thirties as an ambassador to Russia in 2008 was a default for Omar.
His father's journey as a diplomat inspired his own career, a process he reflects upon in his new novel as he discovers fragments of his father's life he had previously not known.
“It has always been intriguing for me how quickly he [father] moved up the ladder to become part of the ministry after he returned penniless to the UAE from abroad in 1969. The novel traces his own take on his childhood up until he reached that stage.”
Omar's role as father
Recognising how the loss has driven him to work towards being a better father, Omar says:“Growing up without a father, I had no concept of boundaries. I gave boundary-less love to my sons. Quite often, children engage with you [as a parent] to get something out of you. They are expecting some pushback instinctively, and as a father, I never gave that pushback.”
Letters to a Young Muslim captures his effort of raising his children with the ability to think for themselves and demand respect for the identity they choose to have.
As he watches his children grow older, he is adamant on securing a better future for them.“I have two daughters now aged four. When they are 20, I'll be around 70,” he says.
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Omar has taken several steps to honour his father's legacy. He has established the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation and is on the advisory body of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London.
He views the new novel as“what I owe to my father” and as“a piece of art that immortalises him before moving on to other things.”
The last image of his father will always stay with Omar.“We had a two-storey stairway, and my mother was standing downstairs and looking up at him. He was glowing with a halo around him. It stuck with me that this was the last image of him before he went to work.”
Ghobash's upcoming novel is expected to be published in the next few months.
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